Getting paint job to blend a bit more

MarcusMaximus

I have an 09 Fiat Punto which had a few problem areas on the paintwork. I had to sand down some rust on one patch and deal with some small areas where the lacquer was damaged. I got a good aerosol colour match and spray-painted the problem areas with base coat and lacquer, several coats of each. Not being experienced with paint jobs I didn’t feather the edges, though the masking I used was not stuck down fast so there is a bit of overspray around those edges, which looks ok.

I’m not looking for perfection here, would have got it professionally done if I did. Just wanted to get rid of the rust and patch it up, sorry to the pros out there!

So my question now is if there’s a way to blend it a bit more with the old paint after the fact, as I did the job just under 2 weeks ago. A couple of people advised me to lacquer the whole of each panel containing the patches but I didn’t do that as I thought there might be a problem with it adhering to the old paint plus I might ruin the perfectly good old finish in the process. However the areas I have painted do stand out a bit, despite the good colour match. I already lightly wet-sanded and cut them with Meguiar’s which certainly improved them.

So should I go ahead and lacquer the whole of each panel at this stage, maybe just one coat to ‘unify’ everything a bit more, or is it too late for that? If so, is there anything else I can do or is it a matter of living with it as it is? Thanks!

Silent Shrill

Use grey scotchbrite to lightly "scratch" the whole panel, then you can lacquer it. The scotchbrite is light enough to not need paint, (colour), just the lacquer will do. If you want to feather any edges created by your previous work, use 3000 wet.

MarcusMaximus

Thanks for your reply and apologies for not getting back to you sooner but I've only seen it now! I've decided not to lacquer the whole of those panels but I may well feather the edges as you suggest.