Need advice - Touch up paint looking weird and uneven on long scratch

[sternhunting123]

On my X3 (G01), Did a touch-up paint. I have done small rockchips fix before which came out to be fine. Someone scratched my car - pretty long from back door to driver side of door.. The scratch did not look deep, but I felt it on my finger nail... Wet sanded with 2000 grit.. put the touch up paint.. let it sit for an hour.. came back and looks like this.. Not sure why.. It shows the line plus color that is not white.. When looking close, it is like ugly peels.. The paint is correct. Have used in repairing rock chips and stuff, they look all fine... any thoughts on what needs to be done from here?

[afadeev]

Originally Posted by sternhunting123

On my X3 (G01), Did a touch-up paint. I have done small rockchips fix before which came out to be fine. Someone scratched my car - pretty long from back door to driver side of door..

Long deep scratches are the WORST to touch-up.
You can make them look much better and less noticeable, but you will almost never make them totally disappear.

Originally Posted by sternhunting123

The scratch did not look deep, but I felt it on my finger nail...

You did not share pre-repair pics, but I assume the cut went through the clear and into the base coat?

Originally Posted by sternhunting123

Wet sanded with 2000 grit.. put the touch up paint.. let it sit for an hour.. came back and looks like this.. Not sure why.. It shows the line plus color that is not white.. When looking close, it is like ugly peels.. The paint is correct.

Does the repaired area still catch your nail when you run it over the paint?
Visually, it looks like some areas of the touch-up repair did not get completely filled, and your sanding did not reach some segments.

The most likely cause would be if the depth of the cut was uneven (frequent when getting keyed), and deeper areas will need as second coat of touch-up paint application.

You may also need to spray some clear on top, and polish it out to restore consistent gloss over the entire panel. BTDT.

Originally Posted by sternhunting123

Have used in repairing rock chips and stuff, they look all fine... any thoughts on what needs to be done from here?

See above, hope it helps.
Good luck,
a

[sternhunting123]

Originally Posted by afadeev

Long deep scratches are the WORST to touch-up.



You can make them look much better and less noticeable, but you will almost never make them totally disappear.



You did not share pre-repair pics, but I assume the cut went through the clear and into the base coat?



Does the repaired area still catch your nail when you run it over the paint?
Visually, it looks like some areas of the touch-up repair did not get completely filled, and your sanding did not reach some segments.


The most likely cause would be if the depth of the cut was uneven (frequent when getting keyed), and deeper areas will need as second coat of touch-up paint application.


You may also need to spray some clear on top, and polish it out to restore consistent gloss over the entire panel. BTDT.


See above, hope it helps.
Good luck,
a

Thanks for your response. I put my response below.

You did not share pre-repair pics, but I assume the cut went through the clear and into the base coat? -> It did not look deep. Definitely went through clear coat... also base coat.. but it wasn't too deep that it was exposing the metal part. The scratch was rather thin (not wide) and long.

Does the repaired area still catch your nail when you run it over the paint?
Visually, it looks like some areas of the touch-up repair did not get completely filled, and your sanding did not reach some segments. -> Still catch my nail, but I can't tell whether it is a bump or hole.. When I look at it, it looks more like raised...

The most likely cause would be if the depth of the cut was uneven (frequent when getting keyed), and deeper areas will need as second coat of touch-up paint application. -> Probably right. Maybe I should have used smaller and thiner brush when touching-up.

You may also need to spray some clear on top, and polish it out to restore consistent gloss over the entire panel. BTDT. -> After this picture, I did clear coat and wet sanded with polishing.. So that for now, I can leave it as is and revisit another time when I know what to do. I assume that I can go through the wetsanding and re-touching up? I don't know if it is too often that it is going to mess up the paint/base coat etc.. I feel like I need to use 1000 or 1500 grit now.. (only used 2000, 2500 and 3000 for the entire process)

[jaffles]

I'm no sprayer, but in my experience, you either need to fill it and sand, or feather it out. Then probably paint the whole panel finishing at natural breaks.

Both have issues.
Filler, probably need 2 flush fills before sanding with 1200+ and then priming. Even then don't be surprised if the scratch line is still visible.

Feathering needs to go probably 2 or 3" either side of the scratch to compensate for the high and low of painted surfaces.

It's hard to tell but looks as if your touch up paint has reacted with polish of some cotenant. Did you clean the work with wax and grease remover, metho or similar?

On the other hand it looks like sharp edges of potential loose/lifting paint may be present.

Either way its a tough repair.

Colour matched (for fade) aerosol cans of 2 pack can easily be done these days. Clear coat as well.

Good luck.

[afadeev]

Originally Posted by sternhunting123

You did not share pre-repair pics, but I assume the cut went through the clear and into the base coat? -> It did not look deep. Definitely went through clear coat... also base coat.. but it wasn't too deep that it was exposing the metal part. The scratch was rather thin (not wide) and long.

If it went through base coat and onto the primer, it WAS pretty deep. It probably required multiple layers of touch-up to fill, or did you try to fill it by applying one super-thick layer?

Originally Posted by sternhunting123

Does the repaired area still catch your nail when you run it over the paint?
Visually, it looks like some areas of the touch-up repair did not get completely filled, and your sanding did not reach some segments. -> Still catch my nail, but I can't tell whether it is a bump or hole.. When I look at it, it looks more like raised...

OK, Step #1: confirm if the uneven areas are too high (sand them more) or too low.
Step #2: Sand the effected areas again, then fill them again, and again, and again. Paint usually shrinks when drying, so leave the painted areas a bit high, let it dry, then sand even with the surrounding areas after they shrunk.

This may take a few passes and take more time than you wanted, but is the only way to fill deep scratches.

Originally Posted by sternhunting123

The most likely cause would be if the depth of the cut was uneven (frequent when getting keyed), and deeper areas will need as second coat of touch-up paint application. -> Probably right. Maybe I should have used smaller and thiner brush when touching-up.

The other possibility is if you applied too thick of a touch-up paint layer, it shrunk unevenly, or left a few voids when drying. Thus as you sand, you uncover those voids. Either way, they will need to be filled with additional layers of touch-up paint.

Originally Posted by sternhunting123

You may also need to spray some clear on top, and polish it out to restore consistent gloss over the entire panel. BTDT. -> After this picture, I did clear coat and wet sanded with polishing.. So that for now, I can leave it as is and revisit another time when I know what to do.

True 'dat.
Though it does look a little weird, including brighter areas in surrounding paint showing signs of sanding. Perhaps you will also want to compound/polish the entire door panel?

Originally Posted by sternhunting123

I assume that I can go through the wetsanding and re-touching up? I don't know if it is too often that it is going to mess up the paint/base coat etc.. I feel like I need to use 1000 or 1500 grit now.. (only used 2000, 2500 and 3000 for the entire process)

You can't "mess it up" any more than it already is. In the worst case, you will just take the entire door panel off and have it professionally repainted. So no matter what you do between now and then, is just bonus/practice rounds!

Good luck,
a

[clutchdj]

You need to machine buff the car after wet sanding. 1000 will pull the most of the clear off if you haven't already done so. Re apply touch up paint and buff 2-3x.You might get it to 65%. It looks like you just might need to respray the panels for 99%

[Tejas1836]

Take it to a professional