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Touching up paint

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by ClayMask, Sep 25, 2015.

  1. ClayMask

    ClayMask New Member

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    Yesterday I primed and applied base coat to some scratches and chips in the paint on my husband's Prius, using a pen/small brush. I have a couple of questions about my experience so far.

    1. The base coat, which is one I got from the dealer, said to let it dry 24 hours before applying the clear coat. Today I wet sanded some of it down with 1000 grit sandpaper, and polished with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound. I was going to also apply the clear coat today, but it's been rainy on and off, and it seems too risky. Would it still be a good time to apply it tomorrow, or would too much time have passed?

    2. After using the compound, I noticed what looked like small bubbles in the base coat of a couple of the scratches. I tried resanding these a bit and using the compound again, but it didn't help. Does anyone have any ideas about what I should do for these scratches?

    Edit: I'm doing my painting outside, on the driveway.
     
    #1 ClayMask, Sep 25, 2015
  2. cyberpriusII

    cyberpriusII Prodigyplace says I'm Super Kris

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    I did this last spring. As I remember it was a bit of pain, but not too bad. But seriously, I don't remember a lot about it....must have been the paint fumes...:confused:

    But all seriousness aside, I found a couple of YouTube videos that were pretty helpful. If none of usual gang of experts here come to your rescue, try searching YouTube and some of the body restore forums. Whatever I found, and I don't remember now, it was extremely helpful and my work is nearly invisible (I swear I can still see the touch-up points, but no one else seems to be able to pick them out). And you made the right decision getting the Toyota paint.

    Waiting until the fall to paint in Oregon...well...:ROFLMAO:
    kris
     
    #2 cyberpriusII, Sep 25, 2015
  3. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I found the clearcoat just lifted the base coat. I had the pen, with base coat one end, and clear coat the other. From there on I just use the base coat, don't look too close.
     
    #3 Mendel Leisk, Sep 25, 2015
  4. ClayMask

    ClayMask New Member

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    Before starting this process, I had read about how to do it from a few different sources, but not watched any videos. Watching the videos, I'm wishing I used a smaller brush than the one it came with. I'm not sure if `i should use a smaller brush for the parts I used the basecoat brush on or just use the same size since I already did the basecoat that size. I did use the pen part instead of the brush on some smaller chips on the front, but it felt like I had to keep lightly jabbing at it with the tiny point in order to fill up the hole, similar to what I imagine getting a tattoo would look like if you looked closely. Since very light pressure is recommended for the clear coat, this might not be a good idea here. Maybe a small brush for this part, or a toothpick?
     
    #4 ClayMask, Sep 25, 2015
  5. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I'm not enamoured with the pen style touch up stick they offer up here. It does not lend itself to tiny touch up; has a broad, nylon tip chisel point that you press down to get the paint flowing. It's good for some things, like touching up road rash on our (silver, same as body colour) 17" rim edges. But for tiny paint dings on the body, I've resorted to doing the nylon tip pressing of the pen on something else, a tin can for example, and then just transferring a bit of paint on a toothpick. Plus they tend to clog up quicker, in a couple of years, and are around $20 a pop up here. :(
     
    #5 Mendel Leisk, Sep 26, 2015
  6. cyberpriusII

    cyberpriusII Prodigyplace says I'm Super Kris

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    Mendel is offering good advice. IIRC, I could not get the pen thing to work at all. A tiny brush....I bought a kid's watercolor paint kit at the local dollar store, which included a tiny brush. It worked fine.

    I toyed with the idea of doing some watercolor work on the Prius also, but resisted the temptation --
     
    #6 cyberpriusII, Sep 26, 2015
  7. ClayMask

    ClayMask New Member

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    I ended up using a small brush I already had for the clear coat in places where I had done the pen base coat, and the included brush for places I had already used the included brush for the base coat. It seemed like everything went well, except I still wish I had used a smaller brush for the base coat. Hopefully it will look better after sanding, using rubbing compound by hand, and polishing, all done by hand.
     
    #7 ClayMask, Sep 26, 2015
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