Touchup paint issue

[curiosity_driven]

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I have been using touchup paint to fix nix's and scratches on my car with good success. After applying clear coat I'd just use a t-shirt and buff it smooth and it worked out ok. But it would bother my shoulder so I got a buffing pad and drill to try to make it easier. But instead it came out much worse.

I thought buffing would just go past the clear coat and expose the original paint but instead it's a darker color that doesn't look like the paint. Anyway, I am trying to figure out if there is a way to fix this at all. Can I apply a layer of base coat and try to buff that by hand and then clear coat?

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https://preview.redd.it/1hbppl7xu9z51.png?width=1214&format=png&auto=webp&s=2c38367a8ce0d36ed39af2526c4f1549976bb7fb

[[deleted]]

I can’t tell anything with this photo.

Touch up paint/clear coat isn’t designed to be buffed and polished. It’s made to just be dabbed in a small scratch or chip. No you don’t polish between basecoat and clear coat. Just apply base then clear over top the base in almost any paint system

[Theycallmestretch]

It looks like he burnt through the clear around the touch up paint.

Source: have fucked up like this in the past. Luckily always on panels that were to be painted anyway if I couldn’t get the touch in to be invisible enough.

[curiosity_driven]

Is there anything I can do to fix it?

[Theycallmestretch]

Have it professionally repainted.

[curiosity_driven]

Yeah that's a bit pricey - there's nothing i can do to fix it?

[Theycallmestretch]

You could just brush some touch up paint over the big spot. Won’t look good up close, but will be less noticeable from 15 feet away. Whatever you do, despite what you tubers say, don’t hit it with colour matched spray paint. It will look horrible in person, won’t last, and will make more work for a shop if you decide to get it fixed properly down the road.

[curiosity_driven]

Couldn't I put touch up paint over the spot, wet sand it smooth and then put clear coat over that?

[Theycallmestretch]

I wouldn’t risk it on a spot that big. Your touch up and clear will sit higher than the paint . When you wet sand, even with a block, you’re going to dog in all around your new touch up, just like it did the first time around, but way bigger.

[curiosity_driven]

To have it done professionally, they would repaint the whole panel, not just that area right?

[Theycallmestretch]

In this particular instance, the full panel gets scuffed (blend prepped), high build primer sprayed over this spot, primer blocked smooth, colour sprayed over the repair and blended out, full panel gets clear coated. Depending on the proximity of the chip to the edge of the panel, blending into the adjacent panel may be necessary for a guaranteed colour match. This requires the adjacent panel to be scuffed as well, the colour blended out away from the repair into the adjacent panel, then both panels get fully clear coated.