I have a few dings in the hood that I'd like to take care of. I bought the $26 vial of Pure Silver paint, but when I applied it, it looked so awful I immediately wiped it off because it looked nothing like the sparkling factory paint. I've heard things about sanding and polishing and whatnot, so I'm asking for some specific directions on how to properly apply this stuff so it doesn't stand out more than the chips in the paint.

 

silver is almost impossible to match the rest of the car due to the
metallic particle orientation.

from my experience, go to a model shop (hobby store) and buy
several silver enamel paint and do a mix and match until you get a
slightly lighter silver than your factory touchup paint.

typically factory silver touchups will turn out darker.

 

Clean out the rock chip (No rust or dirt) dab on the touch up paint. Just enough to fill the chip. Let it dry, sand with 2000 grit add more paint if its not flat. Sand again then with 2500. Then compound with DA or rotary buffer finishing with a polish.

 

To fight the 'blobs' of touch-up paint, I like a product called Langka. It selectively 'melts' uncured paint, so you can apply a 'blob' of touch-up paint and then come back an hour later after it has dried (but not cured) and level it down to match the rest of the paint without wetsanding (takes some skill and experienced judgement).

The response, above, about metalic touch-up is correct... it's almost impossible to get a perfect match as the orientation of the flakes in the paint from the brush and a spray will be different. It's still better than no touch-up paint at all, though, and it's important to get some sealed protection on that chip.

 

yah, and some flakes are BIGGER and others.

it's quite a mess working with silver metallics...

 

If you've ever seen a body shop repaint a small dent in a metallic door, they don't just spray the affected area. They spray the entire panel and "blend" it towards the edges so that you don't see an ending line.

The point is--when touching up metallic paint--you will never be satisfied with just a small touchup.

I've done many successful touchups on metallics, but it's not easy, and it takes a lot of time--to apply the paint, wait for it to dry, wetsand it, apply more paint, wetsand, apply more paint if needed, apply the clear, wetsand.

You should NOT be wetsanding your paint if you have no idea about polishing paint or compounding--you will do serious damage to your paint, best to leave it to a pro.

Richard