www.thexarea.com for reasonably priced clearbra products.

 

As mentioned earlier, Scratch-X is made by Meguiars... I've found it at auto parts stores and Target/Walmart auto sections. Touch-up paint is at the dealer's parts desk. Langka is a specialty product... I've always ordered on-line at http://www.langka.com/complete-paint...96f5760b864580

 

+1 for Langka. Good stuff. I bought the kit for $40-50 (includes shipping) and am very happy with the results.

 

just ordered chili red from autovisuals.

Lets see how it goes.. I m not going to use it on outside though.. i m going to use it under the hood or inside of the doors where the factory missed some paint.. (thats just terrible btw) .. hopefully its a good match .. so when i have to use it on the outside.. it wouldn't be a problem.

 

www.detroittuned.com also sells touch-up paint. $16/ea.

http://www.detroittuned.com/products...20061107214735

 

I tried to fill a scratch on bumper where it seemed like the paint peeled off.. now i have multiple blobs :(

Usually for smaller blobs I use scratch X over the small area to smoothen it off and it gels with the car. But this one is tough as the blob is bigger. I tried scratch X but it didn't do much.


I have ordered the langka kit. Do you guys think that blob is easier to remove with the kit?

 

Searched and not found answer to this question...

Bought the MINI touch-up kit with the paint and clearcoat. I also have some 1500 grit sandpaper for wet sanding when I'm done. Here's the question. How much paint to I apply before the clearcoat? I'm concerned that if I put on too much, then the clearcoat will just get sanded off. Too little and, well, 'nuff said.

Also, I have a spot where a rock dug all the way down to the bare metal...do I need to apply primer first? I have some spray stuff I can dip a toothpick into but not sure if I need to or not.

 

I do NOT recommend you wet sand your car for small touchups... what many of us do:
1) Get some Langka
2) mix a little touchup paint and clearcoat (just a few drops of each) in a cup or some other container, or on wax paper.
3) fill the chip with a toothpick or micro-brush.
4) follow the instructions on the langka for dry time... then use the langka to smooth the blog to the level of the other paint.
5) let it cure thoroughly, then polish.

I personally have attempted the wet sand method - with a few good results, but also with some HORRIBLE results requiring a repaint... Langka is safe and truly effective.

As for primer... personally I wouldn't worry with it unless it was larger than a chip... if it's a truly large area (large enough to need wetsanding) then you wouldn't be talking about toothpicks... you'd be talking about airbrushes.

 

+1 for Langka

 

the other day while touching up some rock chips my paint pen dripped onto the car and dried before i could wipe it off. is there anything i can use to whipe off the drips?

 

Langka is ok--but not a miracle product that you wipe on--it requires technique and probably buffing in the surrounding area as it tends to scratch up the paint as you remove the excess. To me, it's like wetsanding with molasses. You're just using a t-shirt or fine weave fabric as a sanding medium instead of sandpaper and a nasty smelling chemical that removes the touchup. Why Langka doesn't supply a swatch of fabric with their kits is beyond me.

I generally don't use the clear because like you said, you tend to sand it away and after the area has been polished and waxed, you can't tell if there is any clear or not.

If you've got a chip down to metal, apply some Duplicolor Spot Putty Filler first, smooth that down, leaving a little concave dimple--apply the touchup. Wetsanding the touchup is fine--generally people use the tip of a pencil eraser with a tiny circle of sand paper on it so that you only sand the touchup and not the surrounding paint. That's where most people mess up, they try to sand the whole area and blend it in. If you do that and find you didn't do the touchup right, you may not have enough paint for repeat tries. Also masking off the area around the touchup with painters tape can also help isolate the area--like a doctor performing an operation and working in a little window.

Here is what a chip looks like down to the metal.


Here it is with the spot putty inside

 

Can a finger nail polish remover be used to remove the blob? I read somewhere that you can easily use it without affecting the paint?

Has someone tried it?

 

Langka provides a microfiber cloth to wrap around the squeege. May be they just started doing it

http://www.langka.com/complete-paint...2fac62396bfcd6

Is this the fabric you were referring to?

 

Yep, they used to include instructions to find your own fine weave fabric. I've tried a number of different fabrics with varying successes.

 

*bump*

I need the answer to this one too

How about lacquer thinner or nail polish remover? I just want to undo my touch up job :(

I have ordered the langka kit. Will the blob eliminator be a good thing to get rid of the touch up paint. It might be 4-5 days before i get it though. Will it work with a 4-5 day old touch up paint :(

Too many questions .. so little time!

 

Yep, that's one of the best uses for Langka--removing excess touchup paint that gets where it's not supposed to be. Langka claims you can remove touchup that's a year old, so a weeks time won't hurt anything.

 

Mini of Nashville just quoted my wife $40.

 

Jeeez I got mine from Moss for like $16! $40 is insane!

 

thanks

 

So far, so good. No paint chips or scratches yet. But, I'm trying to educate myself for when the time comes. I see touch up paint for sale, clear coat for sale, paint and clear coat sold together, and paint/clear coat pre mixed for sale. Is the paint on my car a paint clear coat mix? I always thought the paint was one layer and clear coat was a separate layer on top. I have read chip repair instructions that says use paint CC mixed, some say paint then clear coat, and many methods ignore clear coat altogether. So what is the most widely accepted method?

 

well if it helps you car is a paint then clearcoat deal. i think every car made by anyone now is that. if you buy the touch up paint from the dealer they give you a package with two bottles in it. one colour and one clear. it works ok but how good of a job are you gonna get with the large brush that comes in the bottle?? ( i bought a small artist brush and use that instead)

 

This outta be good.

A lot of opinions on this one.

Fact: The MINI has a color coat, topped with a clear coat.

Everything else regarding how to best touch this up is opinion.

You're correct - some folks swear by using a bit of color coat mixed with a bit of clear for a single-stage touch-up. Others use only the color coat. Others swear by a bit of color, then let it dry, then top with clear (like the original finish). I think it also depends on the color... some of the color coats rely more on the ability of the clear to create the complete "look" of that color (IMHO the metallics do), whereas with some colors, the color coat alone blends in fine once it's polished.

But, again, you'll get a ton of differing opinions from the "experts" on this topic, I bet.

 

The answer is...it depends. Yes you are correct, your paint has a layer of clear coat over it---somewhere around 2.5 Mil thickness. The paint that provides the color is called the base coat. This is a similar thickness of around 2.5Mil. On 1st gen MINI, there is also a primer coat over the metal, but that changed with the 2nd gens--you just have a thicker base coat from what I understand.

As far as touchup goes--I never use the clear coat because once the touch up has been sanded and polished it looks the same and applying the clear doesn't help. In some cases however, using the clear is necessary.

I don't mix the clear and base.

 

Blimey,
Which product do you use for paint chips? I made the mistake of not getting a clear bra for a daily driver.

 

Well the first 3 that responded were all on the same page, lol, and seems we all responded at the same time.

re: AndrewHolmes Reply

Btw, not all current production cars have a "clear" coat. Mitsubishi still produces single stage cars and some companies like Lexus actually tint the clear which means that when you polish, color comes off from the tinted clearcoat. Clearcoat is just the base without pigment, so there is no difference between paint types.

Richard