It's been a while since I've been here, but I need some advice again and you guys have been great in the past. We painted my 1968 Mustang fastback in Sapphire Blue metallic in bc/cc in 2003. A couple years ago, I damaged two spots on the right rear where I banged a jack stand against it. At the time, I put some paint on it with a brush and lightly sanded it down, knowing a real repair would have to be done later.

I'm now getting the car ready for its first national show in July, and I need to fix this damage and some other smaller, less visible areas. Can someone please give me a step by step procedure to repair this? I've done repairs before, but never anything that stands out like this on the car. Help, please?

What is that? Looks like rust coming through from the backside.

That is where I dinged the paint in two dime-sized spots. it is not all the way through the basecoat and there is no rust. The car was on a lift when I photographed it and there are light reflections on the car in the photo.

Hopefully the paint hasn't faded much and you should be able to fix this fairly easily.

Here's what I would do but if any of the pros jump in with a better way or suggestions you can most certainly do it their way.

Mask off everything but the panel you are working on.

Dull the clear on the entire panel with Ultra Fine light gray Scotchbrite or 800 grit.

Feather out the dings with 80 grit on a DA, repair, primer and wet sand the area until happy with it.

With a metallic paint I find it easier to shoot a coat of intercoat clear over the panel. You can also use a highly reduced clear coat for this step (3:1:9). This will enable you to see the color better while blending.

Follow the same steps you did for painting the car. (Undercoat, spray gun settings, number of passes, etc.)

Put your first color pass just over the repair area. The second coat will extend a couple inches farther and the next coat a couple of inches more. (feathering into the surrounding good paint.) You should see the color matching real nice but with no gloss.

Let flash and then repeat the process with the clear coat. Just the repaired area, a little father with the second coat, etc. but this time your final coat (or two) will cover the whole panel.

Since this is the rear quarter, what would be the "whole panel?" Would it be from the top edge of the quarter to the bottom? And, what about going forward? Do I go all the way to the door edge? This is a fastback. No problem with fading, the car has been inside 99 percent of the time waiting to be done.

How far and How Much to repaint? That's a Loaded Question! It Depends! on Paint color match, the same person Mixing the same color on the same Paint mixing Bank can fail to get a perfect color match two different days in a row i have seen it happen.
What your Gun settings were what the air pressure was when spraying and the Temperature of the shop when sprayed, All are variables! you could end up respraying whole side of car or more!

This is why it is important to make careful notes when your spraying any car so you can duplicate it when needed you need to record which Gun you used if you have more than one, What the Gun settings were? what size fluid tip was used? how many coats did you use? where they heavy? Light? wet? did you use a drop coat? what pressure was the Gun set at? and what was the Temperature of the paint booth while you were spraying and when the paint was drying. Flash Times? All are variables all can cause the Paint color to shift. The better the Match the less you have to repaint.

Its possible to keep it all on the same Quarter your working IF you got a got a perfect match to everything, Then again you may end up half way up through the door or even the whole side of the car or more! Blends can be easy and they can be a Bear. Also depends on How picky you are or how perfect you want it to be.

Spray out cards can Help

'68 Coronet R/T wrote:Hopefully the paint hasn't faded much and you should be able to fix this fairly easily.

Here's what I would do but if any of the pros jump in with a better way or suggestions you can most certainly do it their way.

Mask off everything but the panel you are working on.

Dull the clear on the entire panel with Ultra Fine light gray Scotchbrite or 800 grit.

I would use the 800 this will smooth and nib the old finish some

Feather out the dings with 80 grit on a DA, repair, primer and wet sand the area until happy with it.
this is ok but you might try 180 here, your damage is light. it will be a little slower but less aggressive sand scratches to deal with.

With a metallic paint I find it easier to shoot a coat of intercoat clear over the panel. You can also use a highly reduced clear coat for this step (3:1:9). This will enable you to see the color better while blending.
[color=#FF0000]either way works, I don't use the wet bed and have excilent results but don't be afraid to use it. I preach quality paint products and they do help in a situation like this.

Follow the same steps you did for painting the car. (Undercoat, spray gun settings, number of passes, etc.)

Put your first color pass just over the repair area. The second coat will extend a couple inches farther and the next coat a couple of inches more. (feathering into the surrounding good paint.) You should see te color matching real nice but with no gloss.
you understand what he means feathering into the surrounding good paint. it should be just a mist at the tail of your last coat, it can go for several inches.
Let flash and then repeat the process with the clear coat. Just the repaired area, a little father with the second coat, etc. but this time your final coat (or two) will cover the whole panel.

Jay D.
I BUGGERED THIS ALL UP I WANTED TO DELEAT IT BUT CAN'T FIND THE DELEAT BUTTON.

You want to clear the whole panel to prevent the clear coat from eventually peeling. Blending clear into existing clear and having it last is an art form IMHO. Often the blended edges are the first to begin deteriorating.

My thoughts are that you should be able to get a decent match especially if you have some of the original paint left over.

Here's a sand through repair on my '68 Coronet R/T that I did in the above described manner:


Here you can see the base blended (panel shot with reduced clear prior to blending):


Cleared:

Hi guys,

I'm still waiting for my fastback, almost a year later, but it is supposed to be done in about a month. So, I've been watching videos on how to do this repair and believe I understand what to do, but have one more question. Can I do the break for repair and clearcoat blending along the top horizontal edge of the quarter panel? Or, do I have to take it to the trunk edge and up the sail panel and blend it up there somewhere? I will take it all the way to the back edge and the front of the panel, but I'm going to tape off the scoop rather than removing it since that's a major pain to do. Thanks for the advice!

You can shoot the clear to a hard edge and be fine, just take care with LIGHT color sand and polish. If you know how to "soft line" tape that will save you from a hard edge on the clear and the it will cause the clear to fade which will make it much much easier to color sand and polish. I don't recommend clear coating to the trunk, because then you will have to blend the clear at the "C" pillar and more then likely to see a blend line.