need advice to fix clear coat defect

[Maxima SE]

I took my car for a paintless dent removal and when he was glue pulling one of the dents, he peeled some clear coat off the paint.... he tried to fix it with a clear coat pen but now we have gone from a crater to a mountain. I was planning to wet sand it with 3000 grit, fill with more clear and wet sand again until its flat with the rest of the paint and then buff it out.... I know it will never be completely gone but I think I can make it look better. fortunately there is not much orange peel on this paint which would have made things even worse after wet sanding..... I am just afraid that i will thin out the clear coat too much and eat through the clear. I'm also afraid of sanding too much into the good clear coat surrounding the defect and spread the problem and make it even worse...

looking for some advice to smooth this out.

I am very pissed yes... I don't want to talk about why or how it happened



.

[Icecream]

I am assuming you have a good reason not to make them pay for the repair?
That paint looks cracked to me. If the car has never had a paint correction, you have plenty of clear to work with. A pencil with a small circle of 2000 grit sandpaper glued to the eraser may give you the dexterity to smooth it out well.
What you can consider (I have not tried this myself) is use an airbrush to apply the paint (if needed) and clear. You need to sand (with 2000grit, maybe 1000 grit but just be careful) just outside the perimeter of the blemish (maybe 2mm all the way around), and preferably spray new clear over the blemish and sanded area (mask offf the rest of the area. If the paint is damaged, you need sand and apply paint there, then clear over it slightly overlapping the good (old) clear (where you sanded). Once it is cured completely, you can wet sand the clear coat line where the new clear over laps the old, compound and polish. You will need M105/M205 and a final compound. It is a bit of work but I believe you can make it look stellar in an afternoon doing the above. If the paint needs to be redone, the metallic may not match there but not much you can do about that. I really think an airbrush is a tool to consider here. You can brush it on but that will not look as good. If I get off my lazy butt, maybe I will snap some photos of a large repair I did with a brush just so you can see how it can come out. That area is small enough that a careful brush application will look good enough for you to forget about it. Touch up direct has the best quality I have seen. You can also use spray max 2k spot blender if you want to get fancy but that is really creating a mountain out of a mole hill.
Also, really consider taking it to a good shop, they can probably get it done for $500.

[Zero]

My PDR guy won't glue pull if he suspects a repaint. And he very specifically won't glue pull unless I give him an OK which more or less relinquishes him of any accountability.

The previous post is solid advice. I don't think you can start with 3000 grit though. I have wet-sanded factory paint and it was fine, but you definitely don't want to end up with something worse.

[Maxima SE]

Thank you for the advice. I may have to try the spray method.

I can’t make him pay because it’s my word vs his. he said it happened because the panel has either been painted before or the clear has been sanded down to nothing. Both of those are BS excuses to brush it off.

I know my car very well. No previous paint work. you can tell in the pic that the clear is still nice and thick so it hasn’t been sanded down. Also the orange peel is even throughout the entire car which again rules out previous sanding or repaint. Also the paint matches perfectly which rules out previous paint work.

this specific spot is right above the rear passenger 1/4 panel side molding. He glu pulled two dents right below the same molding 10” away from this area. How come the clear didn’t get pulled on those 2 dents if it’s been repainted or sanded down before ? Another strike against his argument.

it happened because he tried to pull it twice and failed. He cleaned the glue residue with 90% isopropyl alcohol which weakened the clear. On the last try he pulled it way more aggressively and didn’t warm the paint up and the clear came right off. Again my word vs his. He pulled a bunch of dents on this car and also on my E92 without problems. Shit happens but I think it could have been prevented if he was more delicate and rinsed the alcohol and let the clear harden again

The paint is actually still intact, minus a tiny area on the top where the paint is gone. It looked much better before he put a blob of clear coat on there with a pen. Now it looks like shit.

[Zero]

These guys have color matches and 2 part clear in a spray can:

https://www.automotivetouchup.com/

I don't know but glue pulling is a last resort if the area cannot be reached. I would want to fix it but also cautious that I would create a disaster. You can build up the clear as much as you want and use a nub tool before paint correction. Or unfortunately bring it to someone with the experience otherwise you are looking at blending a larger area. I hate little dents myself and my car is Jet Black so everything shows.

[Icecream]

These guys have color matches and 2 part clear in a spray can:

https://www.automotivetouchup.com/

I don't know but glue pulling is a last resort if the area cannot be reached. I would want to fix it but also cautious that I would create a disaster. You can build up the clear as much as you want and use a nub tool before paint correction. Or unfortunately bring it to someone with the experience otherwise you are looking at blending a larger area. I hate little dents myself and my car is Jet Black so everything shows.

Used them and didn’t like their product. Metallic was a poor match, cans sprayed poorly. You can use spray cans (they work well) but you need to mask off a larger area and will waste a lot of product. Touch up direct has them too. I only mentioned airbrush cause I thought it might be a little less messy and more precise for a small fix. Good luck!

[BoomTastic]

Best to use a mini detail hvlp gun and do light touch of base then clear, then buff to blend with the hood. You will absolutely have to sand and use filler to make sure its even and gone afterwards.

No cheap or easy way to do this. Get something to practice on.

[Tbonem3]

Automotive touch up's silvergrey was not a good match.

[Maxima SE]

I have decided to not mess with it on my own. its really not that noticeable. Ill find a pro detailer to touch it up properly. I don't want to make it worse than it is. still makes me sad because most of my panels are in excellent shape and now I have this....

[Stack]

to make this 100 percent, It will have to be resprayed

what a pro will do is "pile up" paint to create a little hill if you will.
and start to level it down with various grits.



If this is an eye sore there is a quick fix i will post the link here with a video.

https://www.colorxlabs.com/products/paint-chip-stickers-body-color-matching-chip-scratch-repair

[antknee]

i've corrected chips like this before as mentioned above. You have to pile/glob up the touch up paint past & over the edges of the chip. From there you have to carefully wetsand down to where the touchup is level with the original paint......compound, polish. You can get an almost flawless result if done properly. Trick is when wetsanding to completely sand flat (i usually use an old rectangle eraser) as my 'sanding block'.

[antknee]

Here is a video of what i described above

https://youtu.be/gmLYYxP7fsY

[Tbonem3]

I also have similar size clear coat damage from tree sap years ago. Anyone have an idea of what it'd cost to have a shop fix an issue like OP has?

[Stack]

I also have similar size clear coat damage from tree sap years ago. Anyone have an idea of what it'd cost to have a shop fix an issue like OP has?

Do you have a picture


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tbonem3]

So I found a guy in my town who's a pro and does work at his house for locals. He said most shops will overcharge because they'd prefer to paint more than necessary, i.e., a whole panel, just to avoid blending. If a guy is good at blending, he can charge less and keep the respray small.

He's actually willing to fix my clear coat issue (tree sap, jelly bean size) for free if I use him to fix my rock chips up front. But he said it'd be 200-300 dollars on it's own. He uses OE (glasurit iirc) paint.