DIY touch-up fail
Hey everyone,
My mother asked me if I could make some heavy duty scratches a DIY job to save money going to a shop (she was quoted $3,500) plus the increase in insurance. Some of the scratches went down to the metal and some were just clear coat so I followed a few YouTube tutorials, specifically one by a guy “Chris Fix”.
He made it look easy enough but he did the tutorial on a white car and I learned a little too late that that was his secret to such success.
Now I’m here with the clear coat surrounding the scratches very much diminished and when wet-sanding the touchup paint it is loses its lustre. I’m afraid to keep sanding because I don’t want to cause permanent damage to the clear coat and especially don’t want to if it’s just going to make the whole area look hazy. I don’t want to risk adding clear coat at this stage because apparently it makes going back and doing touchups very difficult.
My method so far:
-Evened out the scratches carefully with the abrasive tip of duplicolor paint-pen.
-Sanded with 1000 grit to make them smoother.
-Paint to fill it scratches, several coats applied. Had to go to a car quest to buy more paint because Duplicolor seems to have stopped making my colour.
-Did some wet sanding with 2000 and 3000 grit to even out paint, not sure if it’s a different formula than Duplicolor but it seems to not tolerate sanding quite as well???
So do I keep sanding to even everything out and then go back to car quest and buy more paint but in a spray? Should I just continue to sand to the bare minimum amount and apply clear coat? Or will that “lock in” the haziness?
Thanks in advance - I’ve been working on this for the last couple days and all my mother wants is a “good enough” result but I’d like that to look as nice as possible.