Could my Makita DA help perfect my home brew chip repair process?

[Submariner]

My chip repair process is simply buy a Mercedes touch up box ( 2 tubes of one basecoat with an integral brush and one clear coat with an integral brush.
Wash and Clay around the chip, wipe with IPA. let dry.
Then transfer basecoat from the integral brush to an uber fine natural hiar artists brush, and build up the sunken chip.
if any gets over the edges onto the clear coat, then wait 30 mins and wipe off with a very fine glasses cleaner lint free cloth dampeded in IPA.
if you get it right the last wipe off, brings the base coat to the level of the clearcoat.

note experiment in the wipe off which direction lays the paint flakes ( Metallic Silver ) the right way.
Then its almost impossible to see.
This is fine for my car as apart from the rear wings and roof all the panels are Aluminium so no rust implications.

The down side is, this repair doesnt last more than 4 months, possibly claying, polishing or just washing gradually erodes the basecoat until its sunken and then becomes visible again.

I did once try dabbing a blob of clearcoat on the repair, this was noticeable but did last. I then tried stopping the basecoat fill up a tad short of level with the clearcoat, and then dabbing on a blob of clear coat. Looked better but not great.
its also very difficult to lay down enough clearcoat to just cover the repaired basecoat and say 1mm of the surrounding clearcoat.
- you either get too much or too little!

note I did try the wipe routine with the IPA cloth on the clearcoat ofter 30 mins, and boy that was a bad idea! Got a Nasty, smear of clearcoat, luckily I wiped it all off with a pretty wet IPA damped cloth!


So having just bought my Makita PO600C I wondered.
if I did my basecoat repair just a little sunken, and then dabbed on some clear coat. Would this polisher be able to “smooth” or better still bring this blob of clearcoat level?

and most importantly how long would one have to wait for the. Mercedes clearcoat to dry off, say 48Hours?

What I am scared of is, if the clearcoat is not set enough; that the polisher pad could drag out all the repair, or smear the surrounding area with almost cured clearcoat.

Perhaps one could summarize my question to, will the DA Polisher be able to burnish the clearcoat touched up area flat withthe rest of the panels clearcoat. Or at least improve the smoothnes and the transition from new to old clearcoat?
any ideas?

Note I have 3M Perfect it III Extra Fine Plus polish Yellow and the Ultrafina SE final glossing polish Blue (mainly for black cars) and Blue Superfine 3M pads.

[vobro]

Why not use sandpaper? Why use a 6" pad to try and "burnish" a 1/16" chip? You can apply your base/clear and most important let it dry, cut down a piece of 3000 grit to work the repair then buff with the Makita. Sounds to me you are working with wet paint/clear and that method I've never had it look good, better to let it dry

[Farmallluvr]

no matter how close you get it you will have an edge for wax adhere to,,best to do your polishing and waxing/sealant and than address the chips.

use a small bit of wax and grease remover INSIDE the chipped area carfuly and then use a small abrasive to rough up the inside area of the chip,you can get touchup primer so this would be my next step

Then do your paint and clear and see if it last longer. let it dry for at least a couple hours between steps and a week or so before putting a light coating of wax over it....by hand.
The machine may lift it out because the touch up clear is different than the factory clear.

[Submariner]

Why not use sandpaper? Why use a 6" pad to try and "burnish" a 1/16" chip? You can apply your base/clear and most important let it dry, cut down a piece of 3000 grit to work the repair then buff with the Makita. Sounds to me you are working with wet paint/clear and that method I've never had it look good, better to let it dry

Good point, obviously as this is my first polisher previous tactics precluded the sanding option ...
I may have a big rethink on this repair routine.

[Submariner]

no matter how close you get it you will have an edge for wax adhere to,,best to do your polishing and waxing/sealant and than address the chips.

use a small bit of wax and grease remover INSIDE the chipped area carfuly and then use a small abrasive to rough up the inside area of the chip,you can get touchup primer so this would be my next step

Then do your paint and clear and see if it last longer. let it dry for at least a couple hours between steps and a week or so before putting a light coating of wax over it....by hand.
The machine may lift it out because the touch up clear is different than the factory clear.

Thanks for your advice, some sound logic there.