Touch up a number of rusty stone chips?

[LegacyCamper]

Starting to get paint bubbles around 8 or so stone chips on the bonnet and front of roof, they are only little but I want to get to them before they spread. But dont wanna respray as the cars not worth it. Could I dremel, undercoat and touch up pen for a semi rough job? Any better ideas appreciated.

[spec.B452]

Shamelessly copied from another forum:

 

Take a sharp object and scratch any flaking paint off the area.*

Use a sharp poker to test for any other thin areas.

Wire brush or sand the affected area.

Apply some Ospho or other rust converter on it.*

Brush on a little primer and let it dry thoroughly.

Sand primer with 400 grit sandpaper to maybe 1/2" beyond the primer.

Get a touch up pen with the appropriate color paint.

Apply several very light coats of paint out into the sanded area and let it dry thoroughly between coats and apply no more than three coats at a time.

A total of six coats of paint will give you enough material to sand and polish the area to hopefully make the repair disappear.

Sand the paint with 1500 grit sandpaper, use a spray bottle or garden hose to flood the area you're sanding.

Let that sit for a week or so and the polish with some polishing compound and then wax it with whatever wax you prefer.

You might have a good enough finish with the brushed on paint to stop right there, it just depends on your ability and pickiness

[LegacyCamper]

cheers for that, we arent too fussed if its only noticeable up close. :-)

 

ill try it on one chip first and see what we think. the chips are only about 4mm wide max, so its going to be hard to sand such small areas, would a dremel type tool be a better bet?

[spec.B452]

I would be hesitant to use a Dremel for fear of removing to much material, but if you take it slow it could be fine. I like "sanding sticks" like these for fine work: http://www.artcotools.com/sanding-sticks.html

 

You can also make your own sanding sticks with hard rubber or plastic cut to shape and cut strips of sandpaper to wrap around them.

 

The real key is to get all the rust under the bubble exposed and converted to stop it in its tracks. Rust never sleeps.

[LegacyCamper]

thanks, yeah i think i can make some of those.

 

so iff the chips are say 3mm now, how much paint should i look to remove, widen them to say 6mm before undercoating?

[spec.B452]

You have to keep going until there is no more rust visible under the paint. That is the scary part because once you start picking away at it the damaged area may be larger than you anticipated.

[LegacyCamper]

hopefully they are just contained to the chips :-)

 

so will the touch up pen once slightly sanded back to even surface and a cut n polish run over it, be noticeable against the cleat coat of the original paint? a wax on these spots might help disguise it a bit?

 

its a light grey metallic paint.

[spec.B452]

Wax would definitely help. If it is still too noticeable you can always clear coat the touched up spots. I have heard good things about this companies products(blob eliminator) but have yet to use them myself. They sell paint and clear coat repair supplies.

http://www.langka.com/

[LegacyCamper]

thanks, that does indeed look ideal :-)