Odd airbrush question

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NYSW F45

NYSW F45

Active Member
I was wondering if it is possible to use an airbrush to do touch up paint on a vehicle? Only reason I had thought of this is while I was adding clear coat to a few models i kept starring at the dull section on the bed of my f150. I had wetsanded it years ago and thought it was stained. Well I went down to the fiberglass and now it shows black.

What I had in mind was buying the ford paint touch up pen from ford and taking out the contents and putting it into an airbrush jar. Now I would not know if it would have to be thinned more or not. But if it did, could I use the airbrush to paint the small section on my truck?
 
i've done it, but with the bottled liquid touchup paint. realize that if there is a clearcoat finish it will look a bit different. If you can get the right clearcoat you might be able to blend it even more (Krylon or Testor's ain't it...)

Lacquer thinner is what you will need.
 


it would be with liquid touch up paint. Its to large of an area to just use the brush.

diburning, i would take it to a shop but the amount of money it would cost would be to much. Thats why i want to maybe tackle this myself.
 
Are we talking a 1:1 scale truck here? If so, I think I'd get some of that spray on bed liner for the bed and sides. It's going to be tough to make it look good without going through the clear coat process. If you actually use the pickup for hauling anything, the bed is going to get scratched anyway so having a bed liner seems to make sense. It the truck is used just of show and you want the bed to look good, I think you should bite the bullet and have it done by a pro. I tried fixing a bad spot on my daughter's car trunk. After fooling with it for about four hours over a few days, I finally got the idea I was never going to get it to match the rest of the paint. The body shop only charged me $100 to take off the trunk lid and do the job right. Looks better than new now.
 
Jim, its not the inside of the bed. Its the drivers side rear fender near the tailgate on the outside. I dont have a picture of the area to show.
 
In that case, my advice for a pro is even stonger. Have you ever tried to repaint even a tiny part of model and get the paint to match? Most of the time, it never matches very well. On a real pickup, the chances are much worse. It will cost you more to have a bad area of the paint you put on stripped and repainted than just getting the job done right to begin with.
 
UP2CSX said:
In that case, my advice for a pro is even stonger. Have you ever tried to repaint even a tiny part of model and get the paint to match? Most of the time, it never matches very well. On a real pickup, the chances are much worse. It will cost you more to have a bad area of the paint you put on stripped and repainted than just getting the job done right to begin with.
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Actually, he may stand a better chance matching the paint on the truck he drives then the model paint he may match for a model. Many high tech paint shops and auto body supply houses have this special camera thing they set down right on your paint and they load it into a computer and it comes up with the right paint you need. Thats not always necessary as his truck and all cars have a chart of codes somewhere inside the vehicle. Maybe inside the lid for the glove box. Letters and numbers that corrispond to a perticular area of the vehicle. One of which would indicate a paint code to match.
 


ChevelleSSguy said:
Actually, he may stand a better chance matching the paint on the truck he drives then the model paint he may match for a model. Many high tech paint shops and auto body supply houses have this special camera thing they set down right on your paint and they load it into a computer and it comes up with the right paint you need. Thats not always necessary as his truck and all cars have a chart of codes somewhere inside the vehicle. Maybe inside the lid for the glove box. Letters and numbers that corrispond to a perticular area of the vehicle. One of which would indicate a paint code to match.
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them cameras can be way off to. At the auto/body shop I worked at we used that method one day when we couldnt come up with the correct paint code.

the paint on the car was grey, what we got was damn near green:confused:

If its a small spot that needs to be repaied at a shop I dont see ya spending more then $200.00
 
Are there any other spots whee the clear coat is turning whitish or starting to flake off. My 94 Chevy pickup is a very dark blue and the clear is starting to blush/fade/turn whitish and it is from sitting out in the sun the last 4 years. Before that it was always garaged but in the last 4 years I have only driven it about 2,500 miles as the cost of gas pushed me go to a more fuel efficient vehicle. An air brush would work but the pressure you spray at will change the color, the temp and humidity can change the color. Then you also on some of the new colors have side tones that can make it look different. When I worked at Anderson Auto Color we had a gal that was one of the best paint matchers I have ever seen. She has done it now for over 20 yrs and she has even got the side tones down to where she is rarely if ever stumped. I the color has any pearls in it then a pro is your best bet unless you do not care how it looks. There are to many variables anymore for me to try painting my self. I have painted cars all over for both daughters here in my garage and they came out pretty well but I used an acrylic enamel so I did not have to worry about a color match. When I bought my 2007 HHR the seller asked me if I wanted to paint it or have him do it. I told him to go right ahead and when he had it ready to call me and I will come and drive it away. I just do not like fooling with the new base/clear coats paint jobs.
 
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surprisingly no the paint or clear is not peeling. Its very strange. One side on the flareside part looks stained and dulled out. Detailing it did nothing to help it. The other spot is definitely down to the fiberglass panel.
 
I'd still take it to a good body shop and at least have them look at it. It could be a bad paint job from the factory or something in the environment where you live. Regardless of the cause, you can get a pro to look at, give you the likely cause, and a cost estimate. It won't cost anything to find out.
 
stang_crazy said:
them cameras can be way off to. At the auto/body shop I worked at we used that method one day when we couldnt come up with the correct paint code.

the paint on the car was grey, what we got was damn near green:confused:

If its a small spot that needs to be repaied at a shop I dont see ya spending more then $200.00
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That actually doesnt supprise me to hear that.
 
i would take it to a shop, but finding a reputable shop around here in North NJ is hard. Most are all crap shops, hole in the walls or dont have that good of a reputation. Hell the one that did my truck after sheet of plywood flew at my truck and damaged the whole front end left fisheyes in the paint. They told me to wet sand it. I looked at the insurance rep and he agreed with them. I was like WTF? I paid you to fix it and I gotta do the finishing touches. There was 1 shop not far from my mothers that did have a very good reputation, huge shop wtih all state of the art equipment and it was very clean. It was part of a large towing company. Unfortunately when diesel was going up the company couldn't afford to stay afloat and sadle went bankrupt. So now the shop sits empty.
 
Steve, that area doesn't have the best rep for good anything. :( We have a couple of really good shops around here and the hourly rate, I'm sure, is dirt cheap compared to New Jersey. There must be one good one around somewhere though. If there's a classic car club in your area, you might try contacting them, since I'm sure they know the good shops from the bad ones.
 


Steve, can you get a picture of the damage and post it somewhere like Photobucket? I would be curious on just how bad it is, or isnt. Im in a classic car club and could gladly point you to several good shops. But im no where close to you.

The classic car club suggestion is your best bet. You mentioned this is a fiberglass part, I have never heard of any pickup boxes that were fiberglass. Is this a topper or one of those flat "bed caps" that protect the bed of the truck?
 
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