So im fixing some paint issues on a vehicle my friend just bought and the wheel wells arches had been repainted but left this raised line of primer, color, and clear. Whats the best way to go about blending this line back into the fender? It doesnt need to be 100% perfect.

First, I would strip it to bare metal and figure out why the line is there.
Do you know what products the previous bodyman/painter used?

Hard tape edges. haven't seen ones as good as that for a while.

Sand back until smooth then repaint. try to get the colour a bit better than the previous bloke did, blend the colour and reclear the whole panel.

'68 Coronet R/T wrote:First, I would strip it to bare metal and figure out why the line is there.
Do you know what products the previous bodyman/painter used?

Yes, so im pretty sure paint chipped a bit on the ridge of the well from the rim scraping on it being lowered and all. Underneath that line is good paint. The products used were primer, factory color, and 2k clear

I came across this technique for blending taped lines. Do you guys think if I sanded back the tape line to smooth with the OEM paint, and then used the technique in the picture to blend it would work? I'd scuff up the entire repair area before doing this as well.

pakamper wrote:Do you guys think if I sanded back the tape line to smooth with the OEM paint, and then used the technique in the picture to blend it would work?

No. How are you going to get that lifted tape edge to stay up in the air like that?

There is a professional technique called fly masking which works when used along hard body lines, but never in the middle of a panel. A variant of this is used in SMART repairs and blends across narrow panels but takes a good deal of skill and experience.

Whats the best way to go about blending this line back into the fender?

The BEST WAY is to sand the repair area down to a known good level (bare metal) and then repair it using proper body shop techniques. That would be a lot of information to write down here but if you can pick up a copy of Body Shop Basics , it covers the exact type of repair you are trying to do which is refinishing it and blending the new paint into the old. The video is $20 new and well worth it.

It doesnt need to be 100% perfect.

If that's the case, then just scuff the line up and shot some more color over it. Unless you do the repair as mentioned earlier, your going to see the color differences anyway. It looks to me like the previous owner had the same idea.

pakamper wrote:It doesnt need to be 100% perfect.

So why Mess with it then? I bet it looks fine 20 feet away!

NFT5 wrote:

pakamper wrote:Do you guys think if I sanded back the tape line to smooth with the OEM paint, and then used the technique in the picture to blend it would work?

No. How are you going to get that lifted tape edge to stay up in the air like that?

There is a professional technique called fly masking which works when used along hard body lines, but never in the middle of a panel. A variant of this is used in SMART repairs and blends across narrow panels but takes a good deal of skill and experience.

It's on a body line actually.

Doright wrote:

pakamper wrote:It doesnt need to be 100% perfect.

So why Mess with it then? I bet it looks fine 20 feet away!

Yeah from 20 ft away. We'd like it to look good from 5 ft away. But as it sits it looks like a foot long scratch on the car.