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Touch up spray paint

Aussie Ford

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Sep 3, 2006
Messages
2,033
Location
Portland, Orygun
I have some touch up to do and am looking for the best way to achieve reasonable results at a minimum cost. One item I am painting is mirror covers. Now one just might say go to the jy and get the correct color, end of story. Normally that would be the way to do it, but you see I miss the heated mirrors like on my 95 Tour, when I driving my 99. The 99 color is not available in the old style mirrors (95-97 heated). The new style mirror covers will not fit on the old style frames. Ford did this to keep you from making the change easily. Solution paint the old style with the correct color. If I took them to a shop it's about $200 (I talked to several around here +/- a couple of bucks) to paint a couple of mirror covers. To me that is just a rip off. Using spray cans about $50. That is the basis for my questions below.

1) have you used any of these color matched paints in 11-12oz spray cans?

2) if so what results did you get from them?

3) how many steps was the process ie: primer, base, & clear coat?

4) which if any brand / supplier is best and why?

Thanks,
AF
 
ill have to look at the brand i usually get but i could rattle can em and you would never know the difference
if there is no chips just scuff surface and paint no primer needed
 
The Duplicolor ones work fine. With primer, clear coat, and base coat, it'd be more like $12, not $50. The only downside is the color won't match 100%, because you're paint has been exposed to the elements for awhile and has slightly faded. Ordering from paintscratch.com, it'd be about $50 for all 3.

Your best bet: sand down the mirrors, and ruff up the surface a bit. Clean it down really good. Then apply 2 coats of primer, 2 of base, and 2 of clear. Make sure you follow the drying and curing times listed on the cans.
 
why prime over an already painted surface:shrug:
 
Dupli-Color, etc

Dupli-Color, etc

Dupli-color works as well as can be expected...follow the primer, base, clear coat as mentioned AND make sure you give surface a good sanding with a very fine grade [working your way in stages to 600-800 grit...I did some work on my running board trim and plastic trim looks really really bad unless its mirror smooth]...as for a color match, try a little experimentation...Dupli comes in a lot of shades. For example, silver CSVT [silver frost or some such s**t] is shade 341 but shade 340 matches my coat with the weathering...also some very fine steel wool [0000] after the clear coat has cured will dull the color a bit too
 
why prime over an already painted surface:shrug:

Painting over a painted surface will work, but not for long. Trust me, I've done that before. The paint can't stick very well. You need to start from the bare surface and build up upon it.

I've painted over paint on my centercaps, and they peel within a few months. I painted the front steps on my house over the old paint, and it peeled pretty quickly. Do it right, strip the old paint, and start with primer.
 
not if its prepped properly
priming the surface just thickens the paint trust me i paint things all the time as well as many cegrs parts on vehicles never had a complaint and doesnt chip easily
 
not if its prepped properly
priming the surface just thickens the paint trust me i paint things all the time as well as many cegrs parts on vehicles never had a complaint and doesnt chip easily

:cool: Im one of them, he does great work! i cant complain about any of the stuff he has painted for me, and their is alot and more to come. :cool:
 
Thanks for all the replies. That is some good info. The color I am working with is Amazon Green. I have always thought the biggest reason to prime a painted surface, if you are changing colors, is to have an even base coat to build on. Colors especially metallics seem to show up differently over different base coats. If you are repainting the same color then no primer is needed, unless a filler was used. That is my understanding on the issue, but I am willing to be proved wrong on this point. I have done very little painting.

Regards,
AF
 
ill have to look at the brand i usually get but i could rattle can em and you would never know the difference
if there is no chips just scuff surface and paint no primer needed

Did you come up with a name on that paint?

FYI:
For all you Duplicolor fans out there. They do make a lot of colors, but according to their web site Amazon Green is not available....... of course!:rolleyes:


AF
 
Did you come up with a name on that paint?

FYI:
For all you Duplicolor fans out there. They do make a lot of colors, but according to their web site Amazon Green is not available....... of course!:rolleyes:
AF

I think that's my car's color... code SU? If so, I looked around for awhile, but I found a spray can of Duplicolor at Autozone.
 
I think that's my car's color... code SU? If so, I looked around for awhile, but I found a spray can of Duplicolor at Autozone.

so they dont make it (according to there website) but you found it???
 
nothing is impossible..... well almost.... they do have the touch up in the little bottles, maybe they did offer it so that was a left over can. I have checked many places around here and none have it.

I just ordered a couple of 12oz cans ($20 ea) from Microfinish, I guess we'll see how that works.

AF
 
Yeah... I've looked for a long time and found it. This was last year though, maybe they don't make it anymore.

Hey Matt,
I just noticed that yours is Tropic Green, mine is Amazon Green so ours are not the same color and I believe yours is still offered.

Quick if you truly have a can of Amazon Green / SU send it to me before you mess up your car....... lol

AF
 
well I have started the process on my mirror covers. They are two different colors, one white one red. To overcome this difference of a base color under the finish I wet sanded them with 220 then 500 grit. Now I am priming them with Rustoleum automotive sandable primer, dark gray. Since the plastic is normally black I figure this will give close to a factory base to apply the color. I plan on two coats then wet sanding w/ 500 grit, and they should be ready for the base coat. That is on the way. I havent decided which brand of clear coat to use I'd like to find a tough one for that 95+ mph bee smack. Any suggestions?

AF
 
yeah duplicolor is interesting, on their website I can get the medium steel blue mettalic that my car is but only as a touch (2 oz) bottle, nothing larger ... and the black just references back to a generic black
 
I've been searching for a while and there are several sites on the web that offer matched paint, but until you actually apply it, it is just a crap shoot. Even if the color is correct or close enough in my case then there is still the issue of how it holds up.

There are relatively few green cars so not a lot of people have done painting on them. The mirror covers are, at least, separated from the rest of the paint by the mounting so a man on a galloping horse may not notice if the color ends up being off just a bit. I have an old mirror cover that I am using for comparison.

With exterior colors being hard to match interior colors with few exceptions are darn near impossible. Even just finding a list of the color codes is hard. I found one once and now I have lost it.

PS:
Matt needs to change his signature now that he knows SU is Amazon Green.....lol

 
I think that I got a pretty good paint match, but then again the car was painted not to long ago with PPG paint and I got both PPG touch up paint in a 2oz size with a brush and a 12oz spray can. If anything they are alittle dark because I put alot of coats on the eyelids

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