Aston177 wrote:Hi guys. First time here, looking forward to being part of the community.

I'm about to do my first paint job and I have a couple of questions, but first, some background on the car.

While polishing my perfect car paint, I accidentally sanded through the paint. I know. Stupid. After that, me being stupid, decided to touch up just those areas. I sanded the area, painted and then clear coated over it. It wasn't covered. My idea was to blend it in. Paint was matched to the car's color code. I thought after wet sanding, the color would match. IT DIDN'T. The new paint was clearly lighter than the original paint.

So what I'm planning to do now, is to paint over the messed up areas again, blending them in with the existing paint, and then clear coating the whole panel.

I have a few questions with this blending in procedure.


1. Can I clear coat over the factory clear coat?
a - YES IN MOST CASES.
2. If I paint just the areas that needs to be painted, and then clear coat the whole panel, over the existing clear coat, will the difference show?
IT DEPENDS ON HOW GOOD YOU BLEND THE COLOR AND LAY THE CLEAR IT SHOULD BE UNDETECTABLE
3. When sanding, do I only sand the area that needs new paint, or the whole panel that I'll be clear coating?
SAND THE COMPLETE PANEL THAT YOUR GOING TO CLEAR
4. How much do I sand? Do I have to completely remove (strip) the factory clear coat? Or is just roughing it up with 1000 grit sandpaper enough?
PAINT OVER THE OLD CLEAR IF ITS IN GOOD CONDITION. SAND IT UNTILL THERE IS NO GLOSS TO THE OLD FINISH, USE 600 OR 800 AT THE FINEST.
if your color is off take it back to your jobber and see if they can get it closer. take something from the car in so the can see what the color is . it also a good idea to prime the sand through areas were you've went through the clear.
Jay D.


Thank you so much guys!