Blending paint

[EMCD]

how hard is it to blend paint within a panel? i have a dent and some scratches that need work and i'm wondering how hard it is to match the existing paint. The whole car was painted a few months back and has been kept inside the whole time.

[67vertman]

It depends on the paint; does it have any metal flake in it? How old is the paint and what condition is it in?
If it is a single stage or base-clear coat paint, try blending it with body lines and or gaps, that way the eyes has a break between the repairs.  If you have to do it on a panel with no gaps or body lines it is more difficult.  You will need to feather out the paint, (spray color that is reduced more) to blend into the existing paint.

Check you tube; there are some good videos out there on the process.

[EMCD]

Sorry, it's Tor-red. the paint is almost brand new, in very good shape, and has never sat outside in the Colorado sun. it's base/clear modern paint job.

[DocMel]

General rule is that you need about 16" outside of the area to be repaired to blended properly.  The 16" gives you a large area that will not reveal its been blended

If you dont have that much space around the area you want blended, its prop better to just paint the whole general area  (like a whole door, quarter panel, etc)

[jimynick]

General rule is that you need about 16" outside of the area to be repaired to blended properly.  The 16" gives you a large area that will not reveal its been blended

If you dont have that much space around the area you want blended, its prop better to just paint the whole general area  (like a whole door, quarter panel, etc)

With the caveat that the painter knows what he's doing, because there's blends and then there's blends and the prep and application are critical to your long term happiness. Can you speak to the original painter? Can you PDR (paintless dent repair) the damages instead of conventional repair? Find out the product name and ask who their rep is and call him; he'll give you the skinny on what you're asking. Good luck

[EMCD]

great stuff. i'm pretty sure i have 16" to work with. The guy is pretty good at painting. i was wondering how expensive it going to be...

[jimynick]

Without trying to be a smart a$$, that's kinda like saying how high is up. It depends on the size and location of the damage and it's accessibility and the amount of disassembly req'd. Post some decent pics and we'll have a boo. 

[EMCD]

The dent is the size of a baseball in the middle of the rear quarter panel.

[jimynick]

I'd look for the nearest PDR guy. You can google them and the good ones have to be in league with Satan to do the things they can do. Youtube probably has lots of stuff on it and if the paint's not damaged they may just get it out and you'll never know it was there. I've seen them fix black hail cars that look like a golf ball and when they're done, there's not a mark- not one. Even if the paint is damaged, by minimizing the repair area it makes the paint repair easier-read cheaper. Good luck 

[torredcuda]

Usually painless dent removal is only on factory original paint so that may not be an option. With base/ clear you can blend the color out and then clear the panel and it is usually pretty easy to make the repaired area match so you can`t even tell. The problem with the dent on the quarter panel is that both quarters and the roof are basically one panel with no breaks so the that whole area will need to be re-cleared.

[EMCD]

thanks guys. my body guy said no problem to blending the paint.

[jimynick]

Good and you can blend the clear as well, but there's some extra work and product to get a good result. Good luck with it.