We love to see people trying their hand at DIY touch-up paint jobs, but sometimes things don’t go to plan and/or people make mistakes. In the vast majority of cases, touch-up painting mistakes can be fixed by cleaning, sanding and removing the applied paint to start over again. It just costs you a bit more time and paint.
The way we see it, though, it would be better if you could avoid those mistakes altogether. To that end, we’ve prepared this list of the three most common mistakes people make when applying car touch-up paint, and how to avoid them.
1. Picking the Wrong Colour
When you buy alloy wheel paint or car touch-up paint, you have to be absolutely 100 percent sure that you have chosen the right colour to match your vehicle. Car makers by definition use colours that are either identical or very close to one another, but confuse us all by using baffling names. A single or very-close shade of blue might be called Mighty Azure from one provider, Sizzling Sapphire from another, and Electric Midnight by third.
Therefore, it’s necessary to take your time when choosing paints, and to be sure that the one you are choosing is based on your car make and specific model, and that the name matches exactly. Even a small difference in name can see you receiving the wrong colour of alloy wheel paint when you’re trying to fix up your scuffed rims. Check and double check.
2. Failing to Clean the Surface
Some people are in such a hurry to get an abrasion or scratch fixed that they give the area a mere cursory rinse or a wipe before starting work with the paint. This won’t do at all. How successful you are when doing a touch-up paint job depends almost entirely on your ability to ensure proper binding between the primer, paint and surface. To do that, you need a pristine, contaminant-free surface.
You should thoroughly wash the affected area of the car before even thinking about putting on primer, basecoat or clearcoat. If the surface you’re repairing also has surrounding wax, paint flecks or other contaminants, they will all get in the way of the binding process. Wash, dry and wash again to ensure a fully clean and usable surface.
3. Rushing the Drying Process
Some people are in too much of a hurry to do the work patiently. Others think that they are able to outsmart the recommended timings on the touch-up paint. In either case, the result is that some try to speed up the drying process through artificial means like applying heat. The fact is that when facing extreme temperatures, paint is likely to blister and create a very nasty result that you’ll only have to sand right down to the surface metal and start all over again.
Coatings of primer, basecoat and clear coat will take at least 20 minutes to dry between coatings. Follow the instructions as given on your specific product, and don’t try to hurry the process along with any kind of heating. Let the substances dry naturally for a proper and clean binding effect.
Hopefully you’ll take our advice and avoid these errors in future. Check out the paint selection at Elite Paints and save big on repair bills by fixing scratches and other paint defects yourself.
