How To Repair Deep Scratches In Car Paint, Paint Over Rust and More

Have you ever gotten a scratch on your car that’s too deep to just buff out? Or maybe you’ve got some rust spots that need to be covered up? Autobody repairs can be daunting, but they’re not impossible. In this blog post, we’ll answer some of the most common questions about repairing automotive paint. We’ll talk about how to fix deep scratches, cover up rust, and more. So if you’re curious about autobody repair, keep reading!

Get Free Auto Body Training Guides and Videos here and don’t forget to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to my YT channel. Stay tuned for new videos coming out.

QUESTION: What would you consider the best basecoat and clearcoat spray guns?

Well, it depends on what the best means to you. Do you want to spend $800 for a SATA or something similar to an Iwata? Those are great guns -German quality and Japanese spray guns are very good. I like ATOM spray guns. If you guys are looking for spray guns, check out the ATOM X27 at zoolaa.com.

The ATOM guns come with the GUNBUDD Ultra Lighting System and every gun comes with it -It’s a great medium-grade spray gun. I’ve been spraying with mine for a few years now, no issues at all. They’re durable, good medium grade, and you’re not spending up to $900 for a spray gun. The ATOM X27 can get $299 with the GUNBUDD Ultra Lightning System which is like a $60 value that comes with it. The X88 I think it’s a little bit more maybe $380 but they’re great guns.

I like the low-volume low-pressure version all around. The low-volume low-pressure version is great for base coat clear coats. They say the high volume low-pressure guns are good for base coats and the low volume low-pressure good for a clear coat but you can spray both base and clear out of a high volume low pressure or a low volume.

If you guys are working with limited air capacity like a smaller air compressor, definitely go with the low volume low-pressure version (LVLP).

There’s also an infinity version which is just a different color same gun but different color. This is kind of like a really cool-looking color version that I like. This one is a very good spray also has a high transfer efficiency, low volume low-pressure spray gun. All of these ATOM X guns are HTE. So check those out guys if you’re interested.

QUESTION: (Original paint) scratched BMW trunk lid, quite deep but I don’t see metal. Will I just need to scuff out flat with 400 and reclear?

Well, 400 would be too coarse, I wouldn’t even go with 400. You should try 1000 grit to 1200 and then try buffing it out. if it’s a deep scratch and if you really want to fix it perfect to where it’s doesn’t look like there was ever a scratch, you might want to just reglaze it and then shoot a little base and clear. It’s up to you if you want to get that picky with your paint job.

QUESTION: Not have it flash rust on panel before getting it in primer. How do work a panel from day to day without priming every day?

You have a window where after you get something down to metal you can just prime it that day, you’re good. You could sand the panel down and have an easy one-hour window to prime it. So just do panel by panel and make sure you get it into primer every day.

You could even just do an epoxy primer. So if you’re going down to the metal, I wouldn’t use a 2k unless the 2k you have is actually made to go over metal.

I have here 2k that is called EGC by European Genuine Coatings. You could go directly over metal, they actually recommend it. I’ve never used it directly over metal but you could with some 2k filler primers, if not get an epoxy primer.

Get your panels down to metal, and then put epoxy primer because you can always spray your 2k filler primer on top of that epoxy at a later time. But you’ll basically save yourself from the flash rust -the surface rust.

You won’t have to worry about it popping up because you at least got a coat of epoxy on top of it. Hopefully, that helps.