Use Filler or Sand?
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I am new at automotive repairs and painting. I have a question in regards to using body filler or just light sanding for a couple of paint defects on my car. The defect is a paint chip the size of a quarter on the top of my car. I do not see rust at all. It appears to be an adhesion issue. When I purchased the paint, the technician suggested to sand the spot and feather it versus using a filler product. He felt that a filler or glaze product would crack. I bought this car for my son and I to work on together. How would you repair the chips?
Little stone chips you could apply a bit of filler but the proper way is to feather it out, prime and block. If it is the size of a quarter then you don’t want to use filler, feathering is the way to go. If there is an adhesion issue with the panel then the paint may not feather in which case you would need to strip the paint off the panel completely. Assuming this is the only part of the panel suffering from poor adhesion (which is unlikely) you would use P120 to P240 grit paper to seperate the paint layers until you have about 1/2 inch between layers giving you a gradual taper. From there you would backsand that entire area with P320 then prime your feathering with a primer surfacer (using an epoxy or etch on bare metal), then blocksand your primer surfacer after.
here is a video I did on a scratch repair for a Mazda Miata. You would basically follow the same process. I didn’t use an epoxy on the metal because I used a direct to metal primer surfacer. I know it may all sound confusing…you’ll figure it out eventually.
For me it depends on a few factors, but in this case I’d definitely feather out, or at least try to. If it really is an adhesion problem then you’re better off sorting it now than doing your repair and having the same thing happen a short time down the road 🙂
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