Help, how can I smooth out touch up paint?

[jlh99]

My new car has a small area (a little smaller than size of pencil eraser) where the paint came off due to a door ding. I've already fixed the door ding, but still have a paint chip there that went down to the metal. I've applied several layers of touch up paint to it, but it is not smooth and doesn't blend in with the surrounding paint. I used the touch up paint from the Honda dealer, but am not sure how to smooth it out. The instructions on the touch up paint say to apply clear coat after applying touch up paint. Do I need to do this? Or can I just use something like Meguairs Ultimate Compound after touch up paint to try to smooth and blend in the paint? I've never used Meguairs Ultimate Compound, would it ruin the surrounding paint on the car or be too harsh if I use it? Thanks!!

[swanicyouth]

Try this:





AG has it.

[SR99]

A photo would be good, but if I understand correctly, you want to selectively abrade a high spot due to the small blob of touch up paint but a pad and compound would abrade everything.

Get a piece of posterboard or thin cardboard and cut out a template that is the size of the paint blob (use an exacto knife). Then take that template and set it on a 2" wide piece of painters tape and draw the outline in the middle of the tape. Then cut that outline out of the painters tape and place it over the blob. Then make a small sanding block out of a scrap of wood and level it until it's flush with the painters tape. When you're done you'll essentially be sanding just the painters tape. From there you can compound it flat with the surrounding paint since it will only be elevated over the paint by the small thickness of the painters tape.