Deep scratch repair

[A4 1.8tqm]

To start I must admit that throughout this process I have felt that my technique is "wrong" in several ways,... but boy is it workin'!

Materials: Factory touch-up paint and clear coat pens (felt tip type), 2000 wet sand paper, Menz Power Gloss, Flex 3401, LC orange pad and a playing card.

The process:
I started by applying the touch up paint in 1-2 inch increments and using the playing card to remove the excess immediately. This left paint in the scratch and a very fine layer surrounding. Once I got the area done I let it dry just until it was no longer tacky.

The scratch before any attempt to wet sand etc. (old pic)


The paint is already dry, I couldn't take pics during.



This is where my process may be considered "wrong". I used the felt tip of the paint pen with out releasing any paint, it was almost dry. I proceeded to go along the scratch in tiny circular motions, again, not applying any more paint. this process just softened the half dried paint and pushed it into the scratch. After repeating a few times the scratch was filled almost level.

Dried. This is how it looks in between each re-softening pass.



This is a couple passes in after wet sanding and compounding. Then reapplying.


This process totally rely's on not applying more paint and pushing re-softened paint into the scratch. I'm quite sure that this will have negative effects on bonding and I will catch some heat for this.

After a few layers I let it dry over night. Before wet sanding I re-re-softened the excess paint and wiped it off with a misc. use MF taking great care to not soften the paint in the scratch. This really reduced the amount of sanding necessary. Power Gloss takes care of 2000 wet sand marks with ease.

The spot where the scratch is almost gone was for sure the worst part in that area, the was knife apparently pivoted and removed a nice chunk.



These pics are the absolute best I could do to show remainder of the scratch.





The darker parts in the middle of the scratch and to the right are where I sanded all the way through the Clear in previous attempts to reduce the visibility by wet sanding.




With the scratch nearly level I tried to apply the clear coat with the same "almost dry applicator" method. Unfortunately the clear coat pens tip fully saturates with out even "pumping". I ended up removing the paint from the scratch in a small area and had to start over in that spot. So I redid that spot and then tried again but let the tip dry out a little. The clear is drying right now and i can't wait to see/post the final results.

[LuxuryMobile]

Looks pretty darn good to me. And great write up on your process.

[killrflake]

Unusual method but seems pretty effective in your case. I've never had really great success with chips and such so I'm always interested in seeing what's working with other people. Thanks for the write up.

[alowe]

Yeah, looked good to me!

[karburn]

Thanks for the idea and description. This bears looking into!

[A4 1.8tqm]

Thanks for the reply's guy's.

I haven't had much luck with the clear coat pen. Every time I've tried it messed up my results. I assume that I need to let the paint fully cure before applying the clear. It would be nice to get some feedback from a pro painter regarding this process. I think with some experimentation, a technique able to get near 100% correction can be achieved. Anyone have another method for repairing deep scratch's?

Suggest/criticize as necessary... Please.

[A4 1.8tqm]

[Rsurfer]

My question is, do you use the clear coat pen after everything is sanded and polished? Would you not have a ridge? Or do you polish the cc after it's dried? I've repaired a scratch before, but shot 3 coats of clear out of a rattle can and then wetsanded with 3000 and then polished it out.

[A4 1.8tqm]

I planned on dong the same with the CC as with the color, no ridge, but I've got the color in the scratch nearly level along the whole thing. So now if i put clear on with the pen, yes, there will be a ridge. You do a write up on that scratch repair? Rattle can sounds like the right idea, how to advice? Is there a specific CC brand/type you can recommend for me? I've got a great vehicle to practice on first .

[Rsurfer]

I use Dupli-Color Clear. There are 2 types of clear, one for earlier models and one for later models. I don't remember the years. I applied 2 tack coats 10 mins. apart and one final med coat. Be sure to tape and cover the surrounding area. I only taped the immediate area and got overspray on my glass, pillars and rear quarter panel which I had to clay and re-seal.