Anyone used an airbrush for small areas of paint?

[sharpyboy]

As in the title just wondered if anyone has used an airbrush with touch up paint to improve any areas of bad paint like bumper scrapes etc. There is not much info online or you tube about it. Just wondering what to use to thin the touch up paint as it's obviously too thick to go through the airbrush. I think the touch up paint is now water based acrylic and wouldn't work in an airbrush without some sort of white spirit or thinners. I thought an airbrush would give better control of the paint rather than Halfords spray cans or touch up brushes. My car is BMW jet black 668 and apparently doesn't have clear coat so that should be easier shouldn't it?

 

[Ducklakeview]

The "smart repairers" tend to use them for smaller areas, but I believe their paint is a different formulation to "std" Often considered this myself.. Might be worth a Google on "Smart paint repairs?"

Your car will have a clear lacquer coat, otherwise it would be matt black!

Mike

 

[Nash3vans]

668 may be a 2k solid paint which doesn't need a clear coat.

 

[PaulG]

Yes, I have used an airbrush to touch up stone chips on a bonnet. Never again though - it looked awful. From some angles it looked like a dalmation.

 

[RickRob]

I would double/treble check that this paint doesn't have a clear coat lacquer. I thought that all paint nowadays had clear coat.

 

[sharpyboy]

Yes, I have used an airbrush to touch up stone chips on a bonnet. Never again though - it looked awful. From some angles it looked like a dalmation.

I was thinking more of lower front or rear bumpers, areas not in direct light where it would be obvious. What paint did you use and did you reduce it or use thinners? Is it better to use a low psi? Questions like that.

 

[Chris_D]

Yeah i used one. about 40 years ago, to respray the right side of my raleigh chopper when i fell off it due to overcooking a wheelie this one time.
But it looked absolutely sh!te. Partly because at 8 years old i was a tad inexperienced :roll:
Leave spraying to the experts.

 

[sharpyboy]

Yeah i used one. about 40 years ago, to respray the right side of my raleigh chopper when i fell off it due to overcooking a wheelie this one time.
But it looked absolutely sh!te. Partly because at 8 years old i was a tad inexperienced :roll:
Leave spraying to the experts.

Yeah good idea lets not do anything to our cars ourselves and leave them to the expert detailers, mechanics, service engineers, body shops and main dealers.

 

[Chris_D]

Yeah i used one. about 40 years ago, to respray the right side of my raleigh chopper when i fell off it due to overcooking a wheelie this one time.
But it looked absolutely sh!te. Partly because at 8 years old i was a tad inexperienced :roll:
Leave spraying to the experts.

Yeah good idea lets not do anything to our cars ourselves and leave them to the expert detailers, mechanics, service engineers, body shops and main dealers.

No, just spraying - it's an artform.
Everything else - go for it!

 

[PaulG]

I was thinking more of lower front or rear bumpers, areas not in direct light where it would be obvious. What paint did you use and did you reduce it or use thinners? Is it better to use a low psi? Questions like that.

It was on my wife's old car - a metallic blue Punto. It was thinned down to go through the airbrush and paint was the correct colour if looked at head-on. Something about the way the airbrush put the paint on really messed things up from the side though. Never tried with a solid colour, so it may have been the metallic that was the problem.

I agree with Chris - leave anything bigger than a stone chip or small clear coat scratch to the pro's. And I don't regard any of the smart-repair guys as pros. I want paint doing in a controlled clean and dry environment, not outside on my drive.

Its easy to see if your car has clear coat. Open the boot or bonnet and check if the paint is glossy or dull in the shut lines outside the rubbers. When I had my Zed, the paint was dull and discoloured and I could never get it clean. Also a slightly abrasive polish (e.g. T-Cut) would take off some paint and colour the cloth if its not clear coated.

 

[boreas7]

I've never used an airbrush on car touch in but have used one extensively on model cars and model trains. The finish was superb and to my complete suprise, I was able to thin model enamels with either cellulose thinners, very quick dry, or turps which gave a slower dry time.

I diluted approx. 50% paint for thinners.

Try thinning the touch in paint with turps initially and brush on a tin lid or some scrap steel, to see if the mix is acceptable. Cellulose thinners may well be ok also. Whilst I think that cars these days are painted in two pack, probably water based paints, all car touch in paints that I have ever used appear to be enamel based and need turps or cellulose thinners to dilute or clean the brush.

I think that if you are experienced at using an airbrush or practise and gain confidence, then you could achieve some very good results, the finish, if you practise enough with paint thickness and air pressure, is going to be vastly better than a rattle can and much more controllable.

 

[Lynchy]

Get a Smart Repairer to sort it, a good one will do it easily

 

[Nova2k7]

I work in the body shop of a large used car dealers. I airbrush stone chips on bonnets and bumpers every single day. However you need more than just an airbrush to get the right results. Simply airbrushing sections of a bonnet would look terrible and leave an uneven finish.

Firstly make sure the area is clean. Then airbrush the area. Wait for it to try completely. Once dry I use a machine polisher with a soft pad and polishing compound to remove the top level and excess paint. This then leave the paint in the chip only.

Hope this helps