Hello! Been looking for an answer to what I thought was a fairly simple issue but have turned up absolutely no results anywhere.
Recently I noticed that the black edge guides of my soft top have some paint chips. I suspect they're from a recent car wash and not from regular use, as I haven't seen these before. I actually thought the parts were plastic, not painted metal.
In any case, I want to touch up the paint before they flake more or the metal gets oxidized. Does anyone know what colour this paint would be, and how the texturized finish is applied? I would love to assume just 4PK Satin Black but I'm hoping someone with experience can let me know for sure.
Some pictures to illustrate what I'm talking about:
The part in question:
Driver's Side:
Passenger's Side:
Drive Link since those photos aren't showing up for some reason:
Drive
This is one of those things where it might be very difficult to do and have it be invisible. I imagine to do it right, it would require painting the entire piece, not just where the chips are.. and I'd guess you'd want to sand the texture finish flat before painting, then use a paint that will give a textured finish. If you paint over the existing textured finish I think the chip would still stand out since the base there would basically be smooth. And painting that piece means the other 3 will have to be painted in order to get a match (or at least the other one on that side..)
Not an easy answer for this..
I've copied one of the images so people know what we're talking about:
If you're willing to accept less than concours quality - semigloss paint applied by dabbing with a tiny brush or tiny sponge might make an
almost
invisible repair..
And welcome to the forum!
Thanks for the response and the welcome Don!
I agree, it'll probably look evident without a full respray, but I'm happy to get it to just a level of "invisible unless you're looking for it". The rest of my car is definitely not concours level either.
I guess my question more is, does anyone know which
Porsche
black is closest to the soft top black? I'd hate to apply a touchup paint and have the two colours be slightly off. I do like your suggestion of dabbing with a small brush to get the texture though, I will try that.
If you are able to procure the same paint or get close in color and you brush touch that carefully I believe you will be happy with the results. The fact it's on the edge even helps a little in making this a good candidate for brush touch as the blemish is not center on the flat panel where your eye would go right to it. IMO, a more comprehensive respray would not return much better perfection in this case and the labor will certainly be more formidable. If you do brush it, keep some extra paint or the code as it may end up being a spot that requires occasional retouch. My Ford has one on the hatch hinge like that and I have brushed it several times over ten years.
L041 is the standard jet black
Porsche
color code. I'd think using a micro brush and this paint would suffice for your "near invisible..." expectations. We make a paint that is forgiving, in that you can manipulate it once it's dry, which takes a minute or two. It's still malleable after it's dry, so you can form it, sculpt it, texture it, etc, if needed. Once it's totally cured after a week or so, it's no longer malleable and becomes a permanent repair. The paint is really made for fixing road rash and rock chips, but this is an atypical type of repair in which it would work better than regular touchup paint.
Bill
Bill, thanks for the response. I actually fixed the top with regular touchup paint, L041 Jet Black as you mentioned. You're also right that a microbrush gave it just enough texture to blend to the point where it isn't really visible from a foot away.
I'll definitely look at TouchUp RX in the future for other applications! Looks like a cool product.
Can we see a picture of your touch-up? You can take it from 10 feet away!
I'll do you even better and take them from 10mm away!
They're not perfect, as I said (nor should they be, considering I'm basically a monkey with a paintbrush and I did the repair) but they cover the bare metal and remove how eye-catching the silver is.
With a few more coats I could probably get it to 'fill' out the cavity it's in. Maybe one of these weekends when I have some more time.
Side:
Joint:
