fixing scratches/ touch up painting on a new car

[timesquare]

First time poster here.

I asked a family acquaintance who does some car repairs for us while not working in the garage to help me/teach me how to repair a variety of nicks, scratches, and gouges on a less than 1 year old Mazda 3. (My girlfriend is not very good at parking ). He was, in fact, painting my mother's 4 year old van when we were speaking. Looking at the car, he said he could not do it, even though I had already bought touch up paint and spray paint, primer and clearcoat, as well as 320, 600, and 1000 grit sandpaper in preperation for the lesson. He says that because the car is new, the results of any paint job not done with a paint gun would not be satisfactory, for a variety of reasons. He said he would help me sand it, but then I should take it to a garage and get a quote.

My question is whether this is necessary, or if he is just being cautious since he does not want to disappoint the owner of a shiny new car. I looked over the paint job he did on my mother's van, and to be honest, except when examined with the utmost scrutiny, the job looks pretty nice compared to the original paint.

Another question is, say I were to sand and paint a scratch, what's the best way to ensure the newly painted area blends with the surrounding area?

Lastly, one area of the bumper is particularly bad, and the paint is so gouged that you can see down to black plastic (the paint color is metallic grey). IIRC, it looks to be about 0.5mm deep. Do I need to fill this with something, and how can I get it looking brand spanking new?

Wow, thanks to anyone who is generous enough to give me some sound advice.

Cheers,

Times

[ec437]

OK a few things here.

1. Welcome to AF!

2. Your girlfriend is no longer allowed to drive your car.

3. If the scratches are as bad as you say you should take his advice if you are really that concerned about it. I work at a car dealership and we hardly ever do on-site touch up work on almost new cars because of just that. It is too difficult to do it well enough.

Ask around, take it to a reputable body shop, and it shouldn't be too outrageously expensive.

Good luck!

[timesquare]

thanks for the reply, the welcome and the advice. i guess that is what i will do then - sand it, and take it to a bodyshop for painting. i will do as much work as i can on my own.

and... my gf has to drive this car sometimes

[ec437]

Buy her a moped

[Markgase2000]

I dont see any problem with using touch paint man. Put it on in small amounts till it fills evenly. If you over do it rub it off with a cloth right away. You wont need sand paper but you should polish over the touch up paint (after 24hours of curing) its not a great fix but it will keep your chips from possably corroding.

Polishing should easily hide the scratches if they are pretty severe have a professional look at it. I use industrial quality polish compounds , conditioners and sealants but for you I would suggest mothers or Meguires 3 step systems. The 3 step kits come with great instructions pretty simple for begginers IMO.
Another thing you can do if find a decent sealant for after you polish the scratches out.
Zaino is a nice temp cosmetic sealant using pigmentation to super gloss the finish after but it is costly for a full kit to do the job properly. Most paint sealants last a year at most but if your buddy does this stuff for a living he may have access to better sealants and what not.

ec437 had good advice good common sense there.
Just mentioning to you these extra options help you get more ideas with acess to a professional polisher you should have alot of options.

Welcome to AF we need respectable members here and you seem very respectable so any more advice I can give Ill do my best :bthumbsup:

Mark

[timesquare]

thanks mark for the advice.

i think what i will do is choose the most inconspicuous area possible to do a little touch up, and see if i'm satisfied. your suggestion to do it in small amounts makes sense. i have these gouges that i think i will sand first, though, cuz they're pretty rough at the edges. also, i have this 10 inch long scratch on the door that is only visible at certain angles, as it is very thin. when you do see it, however, it's not pretty. i'm at a loss over what to do here - it doesn't look bad enough to sand down, but it's long and deep enough to make it an eyesore and demand reparation. any ideas on how to do a long thin scratch?

another thing i was thinking about it the weather and environmental conditions. I will definitely be in the shade as much as possible. we have a small garage that may fit the car and myself inside. i'm just supposing that it can't be too humid while i'm doing all this stuff, and as non-dusty as possible.

wish me luck as i lose my car painting virginity, and thanks for all the help!