I messed up. Touch up paint tips needed!

**crg001** · 06-23-2021, 10:57 AM

So I messed up. The other day I was closing a window in the garage, and the vibration of it somehow knocked over my Hi-Lift Jack (an off-road recovery jack, about 4-5 ft tall) I had stored in the corner. In slow motion, I watched in absolute horror as the tall heavy chunk of iron came crashing down on the front of my GLI. It made two deep gouges in the paint and left a small ding on the front passenger fender. Each scratch is about an inch or two long.

So, before I resign to sending it off to the body shop I want to attempt a repair myself. It appears it went down to the primer, but doesn't look like it went all the way to the metal. It is deep, though, so I could be mistaken. Right now I'm looking at getting a touch up paint kit that has the base color and a clear coat topper. However, I've never used these before.

I'm prepared to do whatever I can to make it look as level as possible. I was thinking about the process below:

1. Wash car
2. Clay/Spot polish area (to remove CQuartz coating around the scratches)
3. Wipe with IPA or panel wipe
4. Apply base coat (VW Pure Grey LH7J touch up) using a toothpick or small paint brush
5. Level wet paint with plastic scraper blade
6. Wipe excess with acetone
7. Let dry, then repeat process with clear

At which point, I'll probably polish the whole car and put on a new coating. I'm assuming I'll have to let this touched up area cure for a week or two beforehand though. And am prepared to wet sand and compound the area after said time. Hoping that is not necessary as I don't want to introduce excess heat and damage the touched up area.

How does this process sound? I've seen the Dr. Color Chip writeups here, but it seems those kits are more biased for chip repair and not so much for deep scratches. Or, would that kit work for this type of damage? I've never done touch ups like this and as a detailer, I want to do the process as perfectly as I can myself. The ding in the fender I'm just going to report as damage done and don't really have any plans for it.

Any tips, suggestions, critiques, or beers poured out for my poor busted fender are welcomed.

BTW, the high lift jack is a little more secured now. I had let my brother borrow it and he put it away in a high position which left it top heavy. Me, being dumb, never checked or secured it. Painful lesson learned.

**MisterSnoop** · 06-23-2021, 11:55 AM

I think the challenge with Dr Colorchip would be not removing the paint when you're using the SealAct. If you just put the SealAct on a blending cloth and rubbed over it, you might pull paint out of the scratch. In the Autogeek livestream with Dr Colorchip, I think one tip given was to wrap the blending cloth around something flat and use that over the scratch so you're applying pressure to the paint on the sides of the scratch. That could work.

Mike Phillips · 06-23-2021, 03:37 PM

Originally Posted by crg001

I was thinking about the process below:

1. Wash car
2. Clay/Spot polish area (to remove CQuartz coating around the scratches)
3. Wipe with IPA or panel wipe
4. Apply base coat (VW Pure Grey LH7J touch up) using a toothpick or small paint brush
5. Level wet paint with plastic scraper blade
6. Wipe excess with acetone
7. Let dry, then repeat process with clear

At which point, I'll probably polish the whole car and put on a new coating. I'm assuming I'll have to let this touched up area cure for a week or two beforehand though. And am prepared to wet sand and compound the area after said time. Hoping that is not necessary as I don't want to introduce excess heat and damage the touched up area.

How does this process sound? I've seen the Dr. Color Chip writeups here, but it seems those kits are more biased for chip repair and not so much for deep scratches. Or, would that kit work for this type of damage? I've never done touch ups like this and as a detailer, I want to do the process as perfectly as I can myself. The ding in the fender I'm just going to report as damage done and don't really have any plans for it.

Any tips, suggestions, critiques, or beers poured out for my poor busted fender are welcomed.

I feel your pain -Bill Clinton

I feel your paint -Mike Phillips

Seriously... I feel your pain. I think your process "could" work, you won't know until you try.

If you go the route you outlined above, the wetsanding and compounding is where most of these projects go south. You'll tend to buff off the touch paint when buffing to remove your sanding marks. Then your back to where you started only now the surrounding paint will be thinner because you've sanded it.

This leads to,

Keep us posted and wishing you luck.

**crg001** · 06-23-2021, 04:43 PM

Thank you, Mike. I agree with the wet sanding portion making things harder than they need to be. I think I'll try the process I outlined above and skip past the sanding bit. It's not something I really want to do on my car with 20k miles if I can avoid to. I at least have a good relationship with a local body shop if I royally mess things up

**Prange** · 06-23-2021, 07:21 PM

I would touch it up as best as I could, let it cure, then coat over it. I would then have a beer and consider it finished. I would leave the wet sanding and compounding to an expert.

My 2 cents.

**2black1s** · 06-23-2021, 10:41 PM

My suggestion... Have a PDR guy repair the dent... But be clear that you will do the paint touch-up yourself. My experience is that many of even the good PDR guys are not very good at paint touch-up. I'm sure there are exceptions but that is my experience.

Once the dent is repaired here's how I do the paint touch-up part...

Discerning Paint Chip Touch-Up; Not for Everyone or Every Chip

Even if you don't follow my process exactly, it might give you some ideas.

Good Luck.

**crg001** · 06-24-2021, 10:29 AM

Originally Posted by 2black1s

My suggestion... Have a PDR guy repair the dent... But be clear that you will do the paint touch-up yourself. My experience is that many of even the good PDR guys are not very good at paint touch-up. I'm sure there are exceptions but that is my experience.

Once the dent is repaired here's how I do the paint touch-up part...

Discerning Paint Chip Touch-Up; Not for Everyone or Every Chip

Even if you don't follow my process exactly, it might give you some ideas.

Good Luck.

I read through the link you shared. Very helpful information in there. Your tips have definitely helped me in the past so I'm grateful for you chiming in on this!