Touch up paint (bottles, rather than Aerosols)

"Doki" mumbled:

I don't think you can touch up pearlescent like that. The way the flakes flop over is controlled by the operator and as I understand it, damage involves having the whole panel sprayed and even then it may not match.

Silly idea, pearlescent.

I wouldn't really care if I had to touch it up with black, as long as it's the right colour black - they're only small patches and nobody would really notice the lack of pearlescentness once the paint was blended in against the old paintwork. IME a half decent bodyshop can match pearlescent very well, and I'm very picky about paint.

You'll probably find pearlescent is not available in any formulae other than two pack.

Ford "Panther black" has dozens of colour variations so trying to match a touch up stick, bottle or an aerosol will be almost impossible.

You cannot simply get paint to match the car in pearlescent, You have to spray by matching air pressure, paint volume, metallic flow etc.

Steve.

Actual variations in the colour of the paint, or the shiney pearl / metal bits?

Jesus H Christ. I might just sell the bloody thing and buy plain black car. Where it's been sprayed with 2 pack it's chipped like an absolute swine (bottom of a door, gets all the stones flicked at it by the front wheel). Would I be able to get a vaguely correct looking colour of black made up? I'm only talking about 1 or 2mm round chips I'd like to get covered.

Looks like the other chips are going to involve having half the car resprayed...

One of our cars IS plain old solid black. When touched up you just cannot see the repair when you stand back from the car. Re Pearlescent (and metallic) I think the "comic" car mags and "reverse gear" TV car programmes are responsible. Constantly telling the public cars are worthless unless in metallic.... pearlescent is just an extreme in the same theme. What total crap to sell these paint jobs as "desirable" when even at the legal limit in the outside lane of a motorway the closing speed of passing (other carriageway) traffic is 140mph. With all the grit, small (and large) stones hitting at over 70mph. Great for the companies and Reps.These heavily chipped cars are sold at a higher price due to the perceived desirability of metallic paint, to private owners who pay the price in resprays.Or just suffer a car scabby with either chips or blatantly obvious touch up that cannot blend in. As for pearlescent.....For regular use..it should not be let out of the showroom :) Looks like you were taken into the desirability myth Doki. Try a solid paint job next time. I once had a metallic silver paint job. First trip onto a motorway a wheel nut hit the side of the car. You could see the (tiny) touch up mark 50 yards away.... Bought solid paint jobs ever since..

"Doki" mumbled:

Yup. Avoid pearl, avoid black.

TBH I didn't notice the paint was metallic when I bought it. You don't really pearlescent black until you're pretty close up to it.

Nice. Pearlescent paint (and hence difficulties in touching up) with Ford's brilliant rustproofing isn't much fun. I wouldn't buy another Ford now simply because the things seem to be intent on rusting themselves to bits. Don't even get me started on how difficult it is to compound. Or the fact that the door handle broke a bit back, and one of the things that holds the seat together died and dropped out a while ago. Wouldn't be so irritating if my mechanic hadn't said "oh yeah, they're a bugger, they're the same as they put on the escort, they're always doing it". That must be well over 10 years or so for Ford to sort out the design of a door handle and make a seat that doesn't drop to bits. Admittedly the seat clips are at least cheap, but door handles are £20...

Yes, been there and not going back. And as for Rover/AustinRover/Blmc/BMC...........( and BMW by association:) Good luck with it Doki... Hope you find a solution... Everyone knocks solid black... It shows up dust and scratches, sure. But its great for touch up. Its fine on one of our cars. Mike

Both actually, It's a real nightmare to match up :(

The problem with two pack paint is that it's too hard, It doesn't absorb stone impacts very well as you've found out.

Using a small touch up brush would take your eye off the chips even in standard black.

These areas could however still be over painted with a clear flexible stone chip coating available IIRC in aerosol form or Shultz gun.

This could perhaps be the best option for you now.

Steve.

Blimey. What's the idea of that then?

Indeed.

Would going to a paint place and getting touch up made in flat black (preferably without clearcoat if possible) of the "right" shade be practical?

Is it possible to put it on a part of a panel without the join being terribly obvious?

Got a couple of spots of rust coming up - the stones flicked up by the wheels generally hit where the B pillar meets the sill, and it's rusting on both sides, and that's Ford paint, not 2 pack. I'd obviously like to get this sorted before winter, but don't really fancy paying for a body shop to do it. I assume I can't bugger anything up just covering it over myself for now?

You often get different size metallic, flake or mica particles making it quite difficult to match unless you know exactly what paint formulae and shade the vehicle is painted in.

You may find a few tiny dabs of black will suffice, After a while you'll forget where they are and you wont even see them :)

Yes, You can blend it across panels if required.

It is expensive to have pearlecent paintwork done through a body shop, but there's nothing stopping you from just touching up the areas with anything rather than leave unprotected over winter.

Steve.

Excellenté as the Ferrero Rocher bloke said.

Blue hammerite it is then :P.

Don't be daft - they do a black Hammerite you know!

There's already blue under the sink though!