Blending New Paint In With Original Paint

[rossi 0]

Hi.

 

 

This was my passenger about a week ago...

Since then, i've removed that cock-up of an attempted de-lock by the previous owner. I stuck a plate on the inside of the door skin so i could fill the gap. When it came to the spraying over the sanded filler, i did it in my thin layers/coats. Obviously masking up half of the door. The result wasn't brilliant.

In the daylight, you can really tell it's not ment to look like it does. The texture of the paint looks so different to the original. The paint was acquired from Halfords (graphite grey) aerosol can.

 

Can anyone give any tips on how i can improve the look of this apart from respraying the whole door?

 

Will try and get a pic of the door as it is, but if not, jus imagine a mess

 

cheers

[dirtdog 4]

I think with aerosol paint your supposed to lightly sand the paint coat after it's dried and then lacquer it to bring back the shine I could be wrong

[kilauea 7]

Did you use primer and lacquer?

[rossi 0]

I did gently sand each layer of primer/paint... and i used lacquer also.

[kilauea 7]

Could be a more matt looking lacquer?

 

Have you t-cut the whole door? Usually helps to even them up a bit, but you never get it perfect.

[rossi 0]

I'm gonna have another do at it. I did use t-cut yeah, didn't do much to be fair

[platty 1]

T-Cut has a mild cutting action. Get some rubbing compound from Halfruads and have a go with that. You'll need to give it plenty of wrist action though

 

If I were doing it out of a can, Id do the whole door (Above trim, to window seal) so you have a panel gap between the old paint, and new.

 

Around 6 coats of colour, then flatted back, followed by 5 coats of lacquer, flatted back, cutting compound, T-cut, polish.

You won't get it perfect out of a can (especially with Halfords paint) but you should get a decent finish.

[rossi 0]

cheers Platty, that's what i was looking for.

[steve@cornwall 100]

Don't sand back metallic colour coats !!!!! You get very obvious patches of different metallic concentration. You also get a different shade spraying all left to right than you will spraying right to left, due to the way the metallic particles are laid down. So as not to get too many particles at the end of the sprayed panel, mask off either end and continue 6-9 inches past the end of the panel.

 

The paint is only for the colouring, so if 1 or 2 coats cover it with a pleasing overall finish, leave it there. If you have masked off part of a panel (1/2 way down the door etc.) remove your masking tape and reapply 1/2 inch or so away from the repair,exposing more original paint so that you can sand back the "step" caused by applying more lacquer. Build up around 6 coats of lacquer - this is the surface you apply compound / t-cut to to get a good finish.

Edited February 18, 2009 by steve@cornwall