Waterboy

I picked up some touch up paint at the dealer yesterday for some bare spots on my truck. The old bug guard rubbed the paint off in some spots on the hood and a little bit of surface rust has started to form. Common sense would tell me to at least rough up the surface with some sand paper before I put it on. But when I asked the dealership what I should do to prep the area before putting it on they said nothing. The guy told me to put the paint on over the rust and it would seal it. It just sounded wrong to me but I'm not a paint expert. How would you guys go about putting touch up on?

CTB

Bump for Butnut...he seems to be a paint guru around here.

Toyota Punk

I'm not en expert either but I wouldn't just slap it on over rust. If it was a clean area, I would not worry about prep, but since it's not get the rust off first.

Highland Runner

If you paint over the rust it will rust through in less than a year. Its best to wetsand first. If you can't easily get 600 grit or better use some of those "foam" filled nail files/buffers from Wal-Mart etc. Using water, sand or buff until the metal is shiney. Then put thin coats of paint on so it won't run. I put clear nail polish on after 2-3 coats of touch up paint. You can get the 600 grit sandpaper from many autoparts stores.

Memphis4X4

I at first thought :wtf: !!!! I then realized that you weren't revealing things about your personal life but were talking about putting the clear nail polish on the truck as a clear coat for your touch up

Whew.....:pat:

rimpainter.com

Are you referring to a "paint pen" or a rattle can when you say touch-up paint?

Waterboy

It's a small bottle with a brush...much like finger nail polish.:pat:

rimpainter.com

Oh dude, how big of an area on your hood are we talking about?

If its any bigger than a few nicks, it just wont look right after sanding, etc.

Waterboy

The wind deflector that was on the truck when I got it was an older hood only deflector so I was thinking of getting another one. I took my truck to get it detailed and when I took the deflector off there was 3 or 4 areas where it had rubbed on the hood for a couple of years and took the paint off. I went out and bought a newer wrap around bug guard that will for the most part cover up the areas but I would still like to take care of the bare areas. The biggest is around 1"x2".

Bob_98SR5

maherj,

i've had good success with Langka.com. Used w/ touch up paint, it literally smoothes down the blob of paint to make it level with the actual paint.

The best tutorial I've seen is here:

http://www.impalahq.com/HowTo/Paint_chip.html

I use it and I can vouch for it. Its good stuff.

Bob

Waterboy

Sweet, thanks for the link. Do you recall how much the langka stuff cost? And thanks everyone else for the advice.

Bob_98SR5

maherj,

i think it was 20 or 30 bucks. www.langka.com

bob

butnut

hehe thanks CTB. Paint over rust? It 'may' keep 'new' rust from forming, but as Neil Yound said..."rust never sleeps". For surface rust on bare metal 'spots', I would use a metal polish...they have a light abrasive and cleaners to remove the rust without killing your surrounding paint like sandpaper would...unless you buff the paint too. Keep changing rags until all the 'brown' comes off. Get a Qtip, dip in some lacquer thinner and clean the spot for your touch up paint. The Lanka stuff is good for chips...a 'rub out' may be too smooth as chips usually have a slight ridge to hold the paint in...you can try it. I have a touch up biz with the makers of Langka. We use a different chemical, but the Langka works well with factory nail polish paint. Good luck.

Toyota Punk

I've heard good things about that Langka stuff as well. Everyone over on the IS300 board I go to swears by it.