Deep Scratches

Key area?

 

Oh. I've never even looked at that LOL

 

I'd show it to a body shop, at least get a quote. More expensive, but they'll do it seamless.

Or just wax it and live with it for a while.

 

If you work very slowly you might be able to fill in the scratches with the spot putty. I would apply it very lightly and then use a credit card to wipe off the excess. No matter what you do you will not get a perfect repair doing it by hand. The proper way to paint it would be to use a sprayer, but I doubt you will have access to that. So you will have to resort to a brush, which will surely leave brush marks.

Bottom line. If you want it to look right, have a body shop fix it. Otherwise, you will still see flaws and blemishes no matter how well you try to do it by hand.

Check around town and see if maybe you can get a hand from a shop to do the work for you on the side. Sometimes you can get work done cheap if someone is hungry enough. It won't hurt to ask.

The basic steps are to fill and blend flaws with bondo/putty then sand smooth. Afterwards you apply primer, then paint, then clear coat. All paint work is usually done with sprayers, not brushes. That is how the shops achieve the nice factory looks.

 

It's important to feather out the paint too. They do 100% colour at the damage, then thin the paint with clear and extend the coverage, repeat maybe two more times, till they're spraying near-clear. This would likely involve spraying onto the rear door panel, the front door handle being so close to the seam.

 

I use isopropyl alchohol (99%) when using the touch up pen, it seems to work ok.

 

No, used it for decades.