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Fixing my paint booger

Spacebird

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This isn't quote a how-to, but I thought I'd share how I addressed a paint booger on my hood. The car was recently clear wrapped which made the booger extra conspicuous. It has since been unwrapped, so I decided to see if I could fix the booger (see this post if you want to cringe).

Note for those who want to try this: proceed at your own peril. Disaster is a high probability. I have some experience doing this, and even have 3 credit hours from a community college in auto body:D, so don't try this at home...

unless you're a decent DIYer and want to give it a go. If so, decide in advance what "good enough" is. If "good enough" is no evidence of a touch-up ever, have the hood sanded and professionally repainted. To me, "good enough" is anything better than what I started with. In my mind, the factory booger was a 3/10 on the scale of goodness. I think I achieved an 8/10 with my effort. Maybe 9/10.

Ewww, gross:



Wet sanding with 1500 grit SLOWLY. Shortly before this shot I was still hoping the booger was all clear coat. Nope, definitely the base coat. It was clear that there were lots air cavities in the base coat that made the bubble, so all the paint had to come off. Another interesting discovery: part of the booger was aluminum! So I filed the aluminum down with some 500 grit:



So here's what I had to work with: bare aluminum and crappy paint. This was a pucker moment, no lie:



After cleaning it up with some isopropyl alcohol and breaking off the flaking edges of paint, I started to add the touch up. Two things to consider:

1) I have done enough paint work on aluminum that I do not advocate primer on small spots. If the spot is clean and rough, paint will stick very well. Your mileage may vary.

2) Touch up paint is not perfect, and will never be. I bought some Dupli-Color Oxford White paint and applied it, but it looked a little yellow when dry. I then bought FoMoCo Oxford White and it's the exact same thing. Literally, the exact same. The FoMoCo product is made by Dupli-Color.




Small applications of thin paint is the way to go. You want to build up a new booger that's raised above the surrounding area. Bottom edges are tough, as they are bubble prone as the paint flows and hangs off the metal (which is where the factory boogers come from). If using a brush, it will look like a bad nail polish job - and that's OK. If you want to get fancy use an airbrush. I don't have a pictures of the the next, but here you want to sand it level with the surrounding paint using some 2000 wet sandpaper. Go SLOW.



Now add clear coat! The FoMoCo and Dupli-Color all-in-one applicators have a clear coat part too. The clear needs to be applied to a wider area than the touch up.



Then sand the clear down with some 2000. This is the finished product before a machine polish of the whole area.



Another view:



I'm pretty pleased with the results. Most of the pictures that you were lit with two big halogen lamps that show every last flaw. In daylight it is 95% invisible unless you are right on top of it. When wrapped I suspect that it will be almost invisible.
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Tomster

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I was wondering how your issue worked out. So they just pulled off your wrap and left you with the mess? I spent a bunch of time today on the phone talking with an xpel guy and your mess was discussed.

I hope the end result wound up being acceptable to you.
 
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Spacebird

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I hope the end result wound up being acceptable to you.
Wrap is off, and remediation is in progress. The end result will be nothing less than complete restoration.
 

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302toVoodoo

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Impressive!
 

Zitrosounds

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This isn't quote a how-to, but I thought I'd share how I addressed a paint booger on my hood. The car was recently clear wrapped which made the booger extra conspicuous. It has since been unwrapped, so I decided to see if I could fix the booger (see this post if you want to cringe).

Note for those who want to try this: proceed at your own peril. Disaster is a high probability. I have some experience doing this, and even have 3 credit hours from a community college in auto body:D, so don't try this at home...

unless you're a decent DIYer and want to give it a go. If so, decide in advance what "good enough" is. If "good enough" is no evidence of a touch-up ever, have the hood sanded and professionally repainted. To me, "good enough" is anything better than what I started with. In my mind, the factory booger was a 3/10 on the scale of goodness. I think I achieved an 8/10 with my effort. Maybe 9/10.

Ewww, gross:



Wet sanding with 1500 grit SLOWLY. Shortly before this shot I was still hoping the booger was all clear coat. Nope, definitely the base coat. It was clear that there were lots air cavities in the base coat that made the bubble, so all the paint had to come off. Another interesting discovery: part of the booger was aluminum! So I filed the aluminum down with some 500 grit:



So here's what I had to work with: bare aluminum and crappy paint. This was a pucker moment, no lie:



After cleaning it up with some isopropyl alcohol and breaking off the flaking edges of paint, I started to add the touch up. Two things to consider:

1) I have done enough paint work on aluminum that I do not advocate primer on small spots. If the spot is clean and rough, paint will stick very well. Your mileage may vary.

2) Touch up paint is not perfect, and will never be. I bought some Dupli-Color Oxford White paint and applied it, but it looked a little yellow when dry. I then bought FoMoCo Oxford White and it's the exact same thing. Literally, the exact same. The FoMoCo product is made by Dupli-Color.




Small applications of thin paint is the way to go. You want to build up a new booger that's raised above the surrounding area. Bottom edges are tough, as they are bubble prone as the paint flows and hangs off the metal (which is where the factory boogers come from). If using a brush, it will look like a bad nail polish job - and that's OK. If you want to get fancy use an airbrush. I don't have a pictures of the the next, but here you want to sand it level with the surrounding paint using some 2000 wet sandpaper. Go SLOW.



Now add clear coat! The FoMoCo and Dupli-Color all-in-one applicators have a clear coat part too. The clear needs to be applied to a wider area than the touch up.



Then sand the clear down with some 2000. This is the finished product before a machine polish of the whole area.



Another view:



I'm pretty pleased with the results. Most of the pictures that you were lit with two big halogen lamps that show every last flaw. In daylight it is 95% invisible unless you are right on top of it. When wrapped I suspect that it will be almost invisible.
I work with aviation grade aluminum and no primer spells big problems long term even for small area touch up. Good luck and hope it holds up.
 
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Spacebird

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I work with aviation grade aluminum...
Me too. NASA space stuff.

... no primer spells big problems long term even for small area touch up. Good luck and hope it holds up.
In automotive applications for <1in^2, and with thin factory paint and primer, I don't like adding primer. It takes up a lot of valuable thickness, especially for light colors where you have to have enough color coat to obscure the primer. So long as the small spot of aluminum is quickly encapsulated it'll hold up.
 

jasonstang

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Sound scary sanding on a new car.
 

Zitrosounds

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Sound scary sanding on a new car.
Its not to bad if you know what you are doing.

Spacebird,

Your user name and NASA, it all makes sense now ; )
From my experience on my late model Mustangs, Ford is vary light when it comes to base coat. Is it still the case on the 350 or was there a thicker layer applied?
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