Overspray

[southerly95]

When spraying small areas of paintwork after a bodywork repair what is the best way of either:

1) avoiding or reducing overspray
2) cleaning it off

I guess this why the pro's do complete body panels - but how do you deal with it?

[bmcecosse]

Mask off adjacent panels - and T-cut out any overspray beyond the area you are working on. But generally - you will want to 'blend-in' adjacent paintwork with your repair anyway.

[kennatt]

one trick that works is to place another strip of masking tape over the tape that encloses the area you are spraying let it overlap and roll up or just lift the inner edge this leaves a small gap under the masking tape so that the paint just mists under it ,this leaves a very thin edge which is easy to blend into the existing paint ,Obviously you need to do it once for the primer and then remask a couple of inches further out for the top coat saves a ridge in the paint which sometimes is difficult to blend in. There is a product called blend and clear which you spray over the spot repair but iv'e not used it so can't comment good luck

[Leo]

For small areas you can cut a hole in a piece of cardboard about twice the size of the area to be touched up, then spray through the hole, holding the card a few inches from the surface. Ajoining areas can be masked with paper.This produces a feathered edge which when left to harden for at least a week will blend in after a gentle rub with T Cut or even polish.
That is of course if the colour is right. I have found Bull Motifs aerosols to be an almost perfect match.

[southerly95]

Made a terrible mess - I should have used a touch in. After masking I sprayed under coat and flatted then sprayed top coat - I must have put tape too close because when I removed I found a ridge of paint had gathered under the tape in a rectangle

Started again but found I was spraying a third of the boot (having had to lever off broken Morris Minor badges cos they were Araldited in). As the area got bigger I realised what a poor match the Trafalgar Blue aerosol was. The car has been resprayed before but must be a shade lighter. So will have to respray whole boot with some properly matched paint - learning the hard way here!

[MarkyB]

Well paint fades over time, ask someone with a red or Maroon car.
Blue isn't too bad, so if you spray the whole boot lid then T cut the area around it the result should look fine.

[LouiseM]

The problem with trafalgar blue is that there are two different 'shades' available (one is slightly lighter than the other) but both have the same paint code - BU37- so it can be a difficult colour to match if you don't know which trafalgar blue you have on your car. Your best bet for an accurate match is to get some paint mixed up using a sample taken from the car.

[chickenjohn]

I just did a localised paint repair to the roof/ gutter area on my Traveller and used a air brush gun. You can get these for under £20 and they can be adapted to run off a compressor or an air can. The advantage over an aerosol is use of better quality and cheaper cellulose paint and the fact that the blow in can be over a much smaller area. means less masking is needed as well.

This time, i had a bit of a brainwave and managed bloom free quick drying spraying in my garage with outside temp of freezing- and got a really nice glossy finish as well. PM me if you want to know how. but this is effectively how companies like Chips away do localised blow ins.

[bmcecosse]

You really can't mask the panel you are spraying - just adjacent panels/glass/trim etc. You can to an extent 'adjust' the final colour by using either a white undercoat (Poundland do it in rattle cans) -to lighten it - or a dark undercoat (maybe even a first-coat of black) to darken the final colour.

[swithland]

I just did a localised paint repair to the roof/ gutter area on my Traveller and used a air brush gun. You can get these for under £20 and they can be adapted to run off a compressor or an air can. The advantage over an aerosol is use of better quality and cheaper cellulose paint and the fact that the blow in can be over a much smaller area. means less masking is needed as well.

This time, i had a bit of a brainwave and managed bloom free quick drying spraying in my garage with outside temp of freezing- and got a really nice glossy finish as well. PM me if you want to know how. but this is effectively how companies like Chips away do localised blow ins.

I would agree with Chickenjohn. Use a fairly fine touch up gun or an air brush gun. You only need to mask back to the adjacent panels. Dont try and cover up too close to the area you are touching in unless you are working tight up against the edge of a panel. Rub the area back with P800 and apply a thin coat of primer, if you have any runs, then rub them out with P800 and apply another light coat of primer. You should not get runs with the primer becasue it should go off very quickly if you are using single pack air dry primer. Then do the colour coat as a single pack air dry base coat and put on three thinnish layers of paint. Extend that a little further out than the pimer layer. After an hour to dry, if necessary, rub back with P1500, but usually, that should not be necessary. Then you can put the clear coat on. If you have a breathing mask fed rom your compressor then use 2K clear coat. Mix the clear up usually around 100% clear with 50% hardener and then top up with around 15% fast thinner. Put a very thin coat over the base coat and extend it back by about 3 inches. After 10 minutesm blow on a second heavier layer ( not too heavy or it will run.....and clear coat can run like hell ). Give it 10 - 15 minutes and blow on a thid coat which should be enough. Then wait a couple of hours for the clear coat to tack dry and remove the masking tape and masking paper. Wait three days and then rub the area lightly with P1500 wet and dry ( do it wet ). Then use a polishing machine if you have one with a foam pad and use some Halfords rubbing compound ( its way better than farecla or T cut ). Make sure the foam pad is dipped in water first and wrung out. Keep the pad a little wet and polish gently. The finish will come up like glass and will blend into the surrounding area seamlessly. Then wash off any remaining rubbing compound, and polish up with some polish. You will be well happy with the results !!