Car was spot painted, any way to blend better?

[ESP47]

I had my car painted last August and recently saw some bubbles forming on the bottom of my quarter panel. I know it was from the paint and not from rust because I've had this car 10 years and have never seen a speck of rust on it (its a 71 Duster) and I even prepped it myself before I took it in to get sprayed. Never saw any rust.

Anyway they ended up saying it was from rust and they painted just the rear quarter, blending it at the body line and the across abotu 2 inches where there is no body line. It looked fine at their shop but after I got it home in the sunlight, it looks terrible. To a normal person it might look ok but I detailed for a couple years so things like this bother me. It's just like a straight line where a different color white meets the white of the rest of the car.

My question is, if I went sand where the really bad blend is, do you think it'll blend it better? I can't really do anything about the bad body line blend since it'll burn through if I try sanding and buffing, but I'd like to at least fix the bad blend where it goes across the flat panel. Thanks.

[Mike Phillips]

Hi ESP47,

Since this is your first post...

Welcome to Autogeek Online! :welcome:




(its a 71 Duster)


Cool car...





It's just like a straight line where a different color white meets the white of the rest of the car.

My question is, if I went sand where the really bad blend is, do you think it'll blend it better?

I can't really do anything about the bad body line blend since it'll burn through if I try sanding and buffing, but I'd like to at least fix the bad blend where it goes across the flat panel. Thanks.




Let me see if I understand your question correctly...

You don't want to try to improve the line of different paint where there's distinctly two different colors... what you want to do is sand and buff the actual paint that was sprayed onto the repair area to make it look better? Maybe remove some orange peel or mottling? Increase the gloss and clarity?

Is that what you want to do?


:)

[Mike Phillips]

Can you get a clear picture of the affected panel?

Maybe a surface shot?


How-To capture swirls, scratches, etchings and other surface defects with your camera (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/tips-techniques-how-articles-interacting-discussion-forums/26917-how-capture-swirls-scratches-etchings-other-surface-defects-your-camera.html)


:)

[A4 1.8tqm]

If your trying to blend a tape line on a flat panel that is two (slightly) different colors, imagine, the tape line is say 1/2 a millimeter wide, when you sand to blend the tape line you might get it to a couple millimeters wide. When you stand back it probably won't make a difference as it will still be a short transition from one color to the other.

[Mike Phillips]

One thing you have to be careful of and that is more and more buffing on a blend line will "chase" it towards itself and simply uncover the pre-existing surface.

It's a case where sometimes more and more buffing won't make the paint look more and more better...


:)