Wet Sand Paint Runs?

[royalkangaroo]

Awesome, thanks for the tips. I'll give it a try soon and post the results.

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Instead of wrapping a piece of sandpaper around a "block", use an actual sanding block such as the ones offered from Meguiar's. Not only will they be much easier to handle, the will often give better results as the sanding tool will be comprised of a single piece rather than two combined together.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...-k-1000-a.html

Then you can pick up your machine and properly finish off the task at hand.

[royalkangaroo]

Are there potential problems if we don't know how the touchup was done?

Correct me if I'm wrong, however in order to level out runs, you're sanding the paint layer smooth. I'm honestly not sure if there was a clear coat put over this spot or not. Is this an issue?

[RedXray]

Are there potential problems if we don't know how the touchup was done?

Correct me if I'm wrong, however in order to level out runs, you're sanding the paint layer smooth. I'm honestly not sure if there was a clear coat put over this spot or not. Is this an issue?

Yes it very well could be an issue being it's a metallic finish. Without a clear coat it's possible to sand into the touch up and fracture the metallic flakes causing a darker area (line). The oem finish won't be affected only the repair. If this happens you'd simply brush on more of the base color then top coat with clear, then repeat the sanding/polishing process.

The paint that's on the scratch even though fractured is still doing it's job of filling the low area of the scratch. You'll know as soon as the wet paper hits the repair if it's cleared. Clear residue will look white watered down milky like whereas the silver base coat will show the color and metallic in the residue.

[royalkangaroo]

Yes it very well could be an issue being it's a metallic finish. Without a clear coat it's possible to sand into the touch up and fracture the metallic flakes causing a darker area (line). The oem finish won't be affected only the repair. If this happens you'd simply brush on more of the base color then top coat with clear, then repeat the sanding/polishing process.

The paint that's on the scratch even though fractured is still doing it's job of filling the low area of the scratch. You'll know as soon as the wet paper hits the repair if it's cleared. Clear residue will look white watered down milky like whereas the silver base coat will show the color and metallic in the residue.

I guess my question would be what's the proper protocol. By the looks of it, there's a small dent which probably entailed a decent scuff which led the previous owner to just spray touchup paint over it.

Therefore would you use sanding blocks to level/remove the touchup down to the oem clearcoat (certainly the scuffs would still be filled), then seal/wax it?

[RedXray]

After taking another look at the photos...

If you take the repair down to the oem your opening a can of worms a non painter may wish he left alone. The problem is you don't know whats under the repair. It may have plastic filler and primer underneath.

My advice is if your going to try to make it look better is to carefully block on one of the sags and see how easy it cuts and if it's clear coated. You'll probably want to continue if you're cutting clear. If not I'd say to stop and have it re-sprayed or just live with it. The re-spray will be a color blend at the repair area and the complete panel clear coated.