Paint problems

[NSX100]

I was washing the NSX with a power hose at the weekend and to my horror, managed to lift a 50p size piece of paint from the "lip" of the left hand side-light exposing a black undercoat. Aside from the concern about the overall state of the paint, what is the best way to repair this? I used the touch up paint that came with the car to cover it up so that from a distance it is no longer obvious. However, from close up (a few metres) it is blotchy and not pretty. It is not worth spending a lot of money to get it fixed professionally but if there is a procedure that someone can recommend that I could attempt myself I would be grateful. Obviously, appropriate spray paint would be a start - it is Honda Code 77 paint.

Thanks.

David

[kingsley]

Like you I would be completly mortified. I have a Karcher Power Washer and a few years ago I washed my wifes car and then my 2 month old VW Tiguan while washing the front of the VW to my horror a patch of paint went from the front plastic by the fog lights . This was about 25mm wide and 50mm long and almost straight. When I had calmed down .....I went and purchased spray can of Gold Leaf to carry out a temporary repair, when I came home in the drive were two silver objects on the ground ... these were the letter F and U off the back of my wifes Focus which I must have blown off with the power washer earlier ...I am not an expert on spraying..I masked the area with masking tape as the patch was almost straight, sprayed 3 coats and removed the tape looked good. then just sprayed over the area waited a week a polished the area ...Great job could hardly see it. Still the same......Never used it again on my car.

Kingsley

[gturner008]

You could consider 'dent master' repair? £100 ish

[lotusolly]

Is the colour from your touch up paint a good match and its just not a smooth finish?
If so you can just sand it back with a fine wet and dry paper to improve it and then polish it back up. When a panel is painted it often comes out orange peely and this is the standard practice to create a smooth finish. It's typically called colour sanding on the TV shows if you've seen them.
Its been about 15 years since I worked in a bodyshop so there may be new methods but for small repairs like yours we used to use nibbing discs. These are small discs(about 40mm dia) of fine wet and dry paper that have a sticky back. They come with a rubber block about the size of a bottle cork which the disks stick on to. You apply paint to the damaged area so that it is thicker than the existing paint, let it harden, and then sand it back as close to flush as you can get, and polish. If your sanding on the inside of a curve then you just use the disc on your fingers rather than the block.
This is reasonably simple on a flat surface but its a bit more tricky to not sand through the paint if your on a tight curve or an edge.
A paint supplier or a friendly bodyshop should supply you with the nibbing discs and block.

Hope that helps

Olly

[NSX100]

Thanks Olly.

Yes, that's exactly the problem. The touch-up paint matches very well but because it is applied with a brush, albeit very small, and it is thick, it is not a smooth finish hence appears blotchy from close-up. I'll try your suggestions and see what result I get. I'll need to access some spray paint so I'll try Honda for that unless someone can suggest a better source.

David


Is the colour from your touch up paint a good match and its just not a smooth finish?
If so you can just sand it back with a fine wet and dry paper to improve it and then polish it back up. When a panel is painted it often comes out orange peely and this is the standard practice to create a smooth finish. It's typically called colour sanding on the TV shows if you've seen them.
Its been about 15 years since I worked in a bodyshop so there may be new methods but for small repairs like yours we used to use nibbing discs. These are small discs(about 40mm dia) of fine wet and dry paper that have a sticky back. They come with a rubber block about the size of a bottle cork which the disks stick on to. You apply paint to the damaged area so that it is thicker than the existing paint, let it harden, and then sand it back as close to flush as you can get, and polish. If your sanding on the inside of a curve then you just use the disc on your fingers rather than the block.
This is reasonably simple on a flat surface but its a bit more tricky to not sand through the paint if your on a tight curve or an edge.
A paint supplier or a friendly bodyshop should supply you with the nibbing discs and block.

Hope that helps

Olly