Discussion
I've been successful in dressing car paint repairs with micro abrasives and polishes (dressing in large car vandalism marks is mostly a breeze )
but now looking to improve paintwork fixes when its somewhat larger work.
Larger marks or paint wear are a bit of a problem.
Below are the worst 2 actual damage I'd like to resolve.
The bumper rather than replace for the sake of tenner of bigboy flex filler have pulled out then filled.
(Seems most 2nd hand bumpers even at £200+ aren't even mint and have repair issues of their own needed, often scratches). Before touching:
I've never done anything but aerosol spraycans which can be mixed results and usually never that professional looking and want to get more blended results with the finer spray achieved with other stuff.
Maybe useful to do some sort of course too.
Rather than vanity marks I'm far more intimidated by the typical bumper arch sideswipes where its gone down to plastic in more than one place even though the area is relatively small its clear
Rather than rely on others which is expensive it would be nice to learn to get into spraying and prepared to put in the time and effort.
I already picked up the correct paint cheaply as a small tin instead of getting a touch up stick as they are useless, just use an artists brush and lacquer then cut down to fill in micro scratches but really now need proper spray tools for DIY
I'm thinking learning to do small amounts of compressing spraying and getting the basic kit needed ( respirator, lines, filters, and if necessary compressor)?
I'm waiting to hear of news of this to the UK as it seems more ideal for my sort of requirement:
https://inokraftshop.com/pages/dx-spray-gun
Failing that I've also heard that reasonable results with compressor can be acquired with a budget with smaller outputs needed with Hyundai 750W compact compressor?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295506309676
Or there is always sandal/tyre power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPm1kbPqAac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i7EuBpL_B0
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IzCQ0Cd-Afo
but now looking to improve paintwork fixes when its somewhat larger work.
Larger marks or paint wear are a bit of a problem.
Below are the worst 2 actual damage I'd like to resolve.
The bumper rather than replace for the sake of tenner of bigboy flex filler have pulled out then filled.
(Seems most 2nd hand bumpers even at £200+ aren't even mint and have repair issues of their own needed, often scratches). Before touching:
I've never done anything but aerosol spraycans which can be mixed results and usually never that professional looking and want to get more blended results with the finer spray achieved with other stuff.
Maybe useful to do some sort of course too.
Rather than vanity marks I'm far more intimidated by the typical bumper arch sideswipes where its gone down to plastic in more than one place even though the area is relatively small its clear
Rather than rely on others which is expensive it would be nice to learn to get into spraying and prepared to put in the time and effort.
I already picked up the correct paint cheaply as a small tin instead of getting a touch up stick as they are useless, just use an artists brush and lacquer then cut down to fill in micro scratches but really now need proper spray tools for DIY
I'm thinking learning to do small amounts of compressing spraying and getting the basic kit needed ( respirator, lines, filters, and if necessary compressor)?
I'm waiting to hear of news of this to the UK as it seems more ideal for my sort of requirement:
https://inokraftshop.com/pages/dx-spray-gun
Failing that I've also heard that reasonable results with compressor can be acquired with a budget with smaller outputs needed with Hyundai 750W compact compressor?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295506309676
Or there is always sandal/tyre power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPm1kbPqAac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i7EuBpL_B0
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IzCQ0Cd-Afo
Hi, I run my own small bodyshop, half the month I do classic resto and custom work, and the other half your usual bodyshop repairs.
There is a lot to cover, and certainly I cant teach you it in a forum reply, but what do you want to know to start?
The main point I need to get across is that yes, your repairs are local, but generally you need to respray the entire panel as you need the clear coat to go to an edge to have any sort of long term repair. Yes, you will have watched videos of smart repairs where it's blended out on small repairs, and there are options around that, but thats not really something you can do while learning how to paint.
You could tidy up the bumper with some heat and straightening out the dent with pressure behind while heat is applied, it doesn't look like the paint is broken, but there is a high chance it will probably come off while you are manipulating it as paint really doesn't like sticking to plastic.
The scratches to your wheel arch look like they are on a metallic silver car? Silver is a hard colour to work with to blend as the metallics have to lay down in the same orientation otherwise you get a different shade, despite it being the same paint. They are also very close to I assume the rear bumper and you run a risk of the shade looking different where it joins edge to edge being so close. A correct repair would probably be to also blend into the bumper making it a bigger job than it looks.
You say you want to learn and not pay for the work to be done, but with that comes a big initial outlay, more than paying a pro, and a steep learning curve when you are working on your own car.
Happy to help, but you need to break down what you want help with, 99% is your repair and prep, not the painting.
Fire away with the questions, from your initial links, really you need a decent small compressor and gun, the electric ones are more for domestic painting of waterbased emulsion rather than car repairs.
There is a lot to cover, and certainly I cant teach you it in a forum reply, but what do you want to know to start?
The main point I need to get across is that yes, your repairs are local, but generally you need to respray the entire panel as you need the clear coat to go to an edge to have any sort of long term repair. Yes, you will have watched videos of smart repairs where it's blended out on small repairs, and there are options around that, but thats not really something you can do while learning how to paint.
You could tidy up the bumper with some heat and straightening out the dent with pressure behind while heat is applied, it doesn't look like the paint is broken, but there is a high chance it will probably come off while you are manipulating it as paint really doesn't like sticking to plastic.
The scratches to your wheel arch look like they are on a metallic silver car? Silver is a hard colour to work with to blend as the metallics have to lay down in the same orientation otherwise you get a different shade, despite it being the same paint. They are also very close to I assume the rear bumper and you run a risk of the shade looking different where it joins edge to edge being so close. A correct repair would probably be to also blend into the bumper making it a bigger job than it looks.
You say you want to learn and not pay for the work to be done, but with that comes a big initial outlay, more than paying a pro, and a steep learning curve when you are working on your own car.
Happy to help, but you need to break down what you want help with, 99% is your repair and prep, not the painting.
Fire away with the questions, from your initial links, really you need a decent small compressor and gun, the electric ones are more for domestic painting of waterbased emulsion rather than car repairs.
Edited by DaveF-SkinnysAutos on Friday 31st July 07:33
Hi
Appreciate your feedback and of course you are vastly experienced on the subject and my father was in the paint industry ( but abrasive side) and we did some laymans paint repairs - the best of which was on solid yellows as simple colour, and yes his advice too was always to go to some kind of feature line so I have heard of these things.
However I also have quite a bit of time on my hands and prepared to experiment, worse case end up cleaning off although this can be just as much work I accept
The painting community in US have got their hands on the DX though and the results seem to be pretty reasonable ( at least acceptable for me if I was able to replicate)? Seems to be receiving some positive results.
Just one of many many videos - a bit mute though as its not available in UK yet - but may be so I might be interested in holding for this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xZTkPYdfgk
Shape wise I've already heated and stretched out the bumper but couldn't get the exact shape and found yes the paint would be weak in the equation so sought to just use the bigboy flex filler and have already started smoothing out the shape at least so that's a strong start.
Bumper Shape is almost there but I'm going to add another layer and further sanding to seamlessly smooth it out on multiple axis as I didn't quite get it first time.
Definitely accept that prep is important, just getting the smooth shape and no cracks or holes for instance is super important and to be able to bind paint to properly etc.
Appreciate your feedback and of course you are vastly experienced on the subject and my father was in the paint industry ( but abrasive side) and we did some laymans paint repairs - the best of which was on solid yellows as simple colour, and yes his advice too was always to go to some kind of feature line so I have heard of these things.
However I also have quite a bit of time on my hands and prepared to experiment, worse case end up cleaning off although this can be just as much work I accept
The painting community in US have got their hands on the DX though and the results seem to be pretty reasonable ( at least acceptable for me if I was able to replicate)? Seems to be receiving some positive results.
Just one of many many videos - a bit mute though as its not available in UK yet - but may be so I might be interested in holding for this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xZTkPYdfgk
Shape wise I've already heated and stretched out the bumper but couldn't get the exact shape and found yes the paint would be weak in the equation so sought to just use the bigboy flex filler and have already started smoothing out the shape at least so that's a strong start.
Bumper Shape is almost there but I'm going to add another layer and further sanding to seamlessly smooth it out on multiple axis as I didn't quite get it first time.
Definitely accept that prep is important, just getting the smooth shape and no cracks or holes for instance is super important and to be able to bind paint to properly etc.
Gassing Station | Bodywork & Detailing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff