Any hopes of touching up without shooting the entire panel?

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I have been trying for many years to restore my truck and the body work has taken the most of it. I had used the SPI Universal Clear in 3 coats and waited several months to start the wetsanding and polishing. I was using a 3 inch foam pad yesterday and went through to the primer on a corner that had Im crushed over thats about 3/8 of an inch wide. Ive got 2 paint guns that used, one for primer and base and one for clear. I do also have an airbrush and wondered if there was any hope of touching up a 2 to 3 inch perimeter instead of shooting the whole back panel of the cab. I saw this thread an sent a message to the original thread starter, hoping he might still be active on this site.

post #10

Any help is appreciated.
 

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Going through on a spot like that would have me worried about film build. 3 coats of universal is not enough to get aggressive with sanding and buffing. That being said, the best repair would be to spot the color and reclear the back of the cab. It looks like you have a breaking point with the 2 tone. Spotting the clear can be done, but it is not a permanent repair and will eventually show the edge. If you do spot it, SPI has a real nice blender that works better than any I have used. Just follow the directions on the tech page or can.
 
Did you activate your base coat?
If so you should be able to scuff the surface of the entire panel and then shoot some base over the burn through area. Dust it on just over the burn through, then a second coat a bit past the first and then a third coat extending even farther into the surrounding area. (Basically blending). Then as Texas said, the best option is to clear the entire panel.
 
Thanks for the help guys, I have been anxious about wetsanding and polishing since this is my first ever paint job. Learning as I go and figured I would make mistakes. I painted this around September last year and It has set in the garage since I couldnt get it out in the sun to cure. Its being built and not running so far and 2 feet from the edge of my garage door is a steep drop down the drive so rolling it out cant happen.

The base was PPG Omni with the reducer that I added prior to spraying, I assume that is activating? I had a good bit of orange peel on the clear build up so I had to unfortunately wetsand from 1500 to to 2000 to 3000 and then polish. I wish now I had sprayed 6 coats. I was following the "perfect paint job" write up on this site and it only mentioned three. But Im sure thats assuming you dont have as much if any orange peel like I had.

On the blender option, I am tempted to try that since I could feather it back I guess just enough to get a foot or 2 past the edge since the truck bed covers up the back a good bit. There is the top area that is visible above the top of the bed. Never even heard of blender til now so can it be wetsanded as well? I hope to not have to but my luck has not been so good.
 
No you didn't activate the basecoat, you simply reduced it. Like Texas said in all honesty film build (lack of) is probably an issue if you burned through in an area like that. Not enough film build = greatly reduced longevity for a paint job. You should consider biting the bullet and spraying 3 or 4 more coats of clear. Now would be the easiest time to do that.
As for using the blender, I am always hesitant to recommend it as an option to relatively novice painters. Open blends are tricky and don't last very long before showing (3-5 years max). It is real easy to make a mess with blending solvent.
I would spot in the basecoat, being that there is a chance of it lifting, taking extreme care to spray it dry. Meaning not getting the panel wet with base. Just dusting light coats. Using a high quality reducer when doing that will help avoid excessive dry overspray, then clear the entire panel. But in all honesty with Omni and it not activated there is a chance of lifting with any solvent that touches it. Dust it in. Don't get it wet and you should be ok though. Give each coat a lot of flash time. Don't hurry the base on.
Best coarse of action would be to spot the base in and reclear the body. Depending on how slick you shoot it 3 or even 4 coats (better). Then start the color sanding process again. Now would be the time, whole lot easier than if you assemble everything and have to redo it in the not too distant future,
 
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Thanks Chris, is the prep before dusting the base on wetsanding with 600 then degrease and then dusting light coats?
 
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