How To Correctly "Paint Touch-Up" Stone Chips On Your Car To Get The Best Results!

Hi guys, I'm Sandro, here today with a video on how to properly

touch

up

stone

chips

in

your

car's

paint

. The car I'm going to tinker with is a fairly expensive and rare manual version of the Ferrari F430, so I guess you'd better get it right now. I will post a full video soon. There will be preservation details from start to finish on this very car and I will show and explain all the steps that were taken to restore and preserve this car as well as additional pictures and information about the

touch

up process itself, so any questions you may having in this video will be explained in the full follow up video, but for those of you who are not interested in my long format videos, this will be an abbreviated version that will specifically look at a portion of the touch up

paint

ing process on the hood of this ferrari and will explain those steps, so in this case my first step was to give the paint a machine polish to remove most of those defects which would then much more clearly reveal the

chips

that needed to be addressed now, if you just want to touch up a chip or two or if the paint is already in good shape, you really don't need to do this. step and you can move on to the next, but in this particular case, with over a dozen chips to address, it's quite easy to miss one without identifying them properly and clearly, so I also use the wax pen to mark them all, so with all that done the next step is to sand around the splinter, although you can't see it, they are actually microscopic jagged bits sticking out that were created by the impact of the

stone

on the paint, so the sanding in It actually levels out those peaks and creates a uniform area around the splinter. chip with controlled consistent scratches that also allow the touch up paint to have something to stick to and adhere generally 1500 to 2500 grit sandpaper should work fine and since this particular paint is softer I went with a finer 2500 grit in the hardest. paint, I probably would have used 1500 grit, since the harder the paint, the slower the material or paint removal will be and since I only want to sand around the actual stone chips and avoid removing more paint than I need, I'm using very small strips of sandpaper wrapped around a small sanding block.

I'm also wet sanding with just a little bit of water as that tones down the aggression of the sandpaper and allows me to sand a little more than dry sanding without removing as much clarity, it still allows me to achieve a nice smooth finish and that is really what you are looking for to get the sanded area to look flat with a matte finish and you shouldn't be able to see individual scratches from the sanding but rather a nice consistent even patch and when you fill it in with

your

finger you shouldn't feel any peaks. or sharp edges, but rather a smooth edge around the chip.

As far as technique goes, don't use any pressure, just make short, gentle back and forth motions, sliding the paper over the chipped area and as mentioned above. you're just looking for a clean, uniform finish. How long it takes will depend on the hardness of the paint, the grit of the sandpaper, and your actual technique, but just make half a dozen strokes to start, clean the area, and continue until To achieve the

results

, I explained that the following The next step is to use thinners to clean and prepare the sanded area. It's equally vital to dip a cotton swab into some thinner and basically give the chipped area a good cleaning.

Thinners are not only great for cleaning and removing particles that can prevent your touch up paint from sticking, but they are also a fantastic bonding agent for your paint that will promote great adhesion with your touch up paint, so now is the time to the touch up paint itself, in this case I'm using a primer. red color and then I will use a clear coat in a second application step, but it is also possible to mix the clear and the base to make life easier. However, in my experience, I tend to get a slightly better finish if I apply them separately, as is the case. how your existing paint applies and tends to blend a little better in that regard as far as technique goes, just add a little touch up paint to a fine tip brush.

Some people also like to use toothpicks or skewers and other small tools, but I personally have the most success with a thin paintbrush and simply apply it to the chipped area, slowly covering the splinter, touch by touch now if you are using the same process. two steps with a base color and then a clear coat, you just want to add enough. paint in this first step to cover the chip so that the base color is not on the surface, but underneath, inside the crack of the chip; However, if you use the base and clear together, you will want to build up that paint so that it sits on top of the surface, but it is

best

to do this in stages, since the second and third coats now a lot of the paint will be thinner, so You will find that the paint will sink back in after the thinner has evaporated, usually within about 10 minutes or so after application. the base coat is dry to the touch its time to apply the clear coat or as i mentioned a second of the base and color clear coat together in this step i really want to make sure the paint is clearly higher than the surface and how the painting will do it. sink again after it dries.

I can be a little more generous with the amount, but just a little more and after it's right to the touch, I'll most likely need to apply one more coat of clear to make sure it sits higher than the rest. Once the paint is dry to the touch I will take a final look at it and make sure you are happy with each touched up area and then there is nothing left to do except let it dry for the next 48 hours if the paint is not dry . Given this time to fully dry and harden, it will come off when you try to refine the finish, so you need to be patient, so after a couple of days you will move on to the refining stage.

Step one is basically the same as the first sanding stage using the same paper and technique, however what you are looking to achieve now is to even out that overhanging layer of clear coat so that it lies perfectly flat with the rest of the paint surrounding area again, just do this in small stages of sanding little by little until you get there. If you go too far, you'll have to start over or worse, go over your existing paints. Once the top of the touch-up paint looks and feels nice and flat, then it's time to refine those coarser sanding marks. with finer ones.

Using the finest grade of sandpaper, I'm using 4000 grit, but generally a 3000 to 4000 grit is fine for the last stage of sanding. The biggest mistake most people make when sanding with finer grits or in the last stage of sanding is that they don't sand enough. In general, if your first sanding stage took you about a minute, your second or last sanding stage should take at least two or three more minutes to refine those Corsa sanding marks and what you should also do, which you will see At one point, it's working a slightly larger area with your final sanding stage, the last stage is compounding or polishing the area to restore shine and clarity and you're almost done.

In this particular case, the Ferrari has soft paint, so a medium compound on a foam polishing pad works. It is okay, however, in many cases you may need to start with a more aggressive compound and pad and then finish with a finer polishing pad to achieve the

best

result. If you are in the position of having a micro polisher or sander, you definitely will. Make your life much easier as machine sanding marks are much more consistent and easier to refine and although you can also compound and polish by hand once again, machine polishing tends to produce far superior

results

and much more rapid.

One last point I want to highlight. is that there is no such thing as a flawless or perfect touch-up paint. I know there are videos that show perfect or undetectable touch-up work, as well as those magic touch-up pens, but believe me when I say it's not. It's true, under certain lighting and at certain angles, it may look perfect, but put those touch-up jobs under the lighting I have in my paint correction area and I'll show you how imperfect the touch-up paint I did in this video really are. It's by no means perfect, but it is by far the best possible result that can be achieved without having to repaint an entire panel, and while it's not perfect, it really is a massive improvement that, in more normal lighting, It will be difficult to detect, no matter what it is.

It's time consuming and honestly not something I do every time I touch up a stone, but if you're looking for the best results possible, I hope this video helps you. I'll leave you with the rest of the footage finishing and refining. the rest of this hood and as I mentioned at the beginning of the video, I'll be posting a pretty long video soon that will show this f430 detail from start to finish and also go a little deeper into the touch up painting method. and overall final results as always. I really hope you enjoyed and found this video useful.

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