Touch up... any experiences on how to do it...
The inevitable happened: a sharp piece of road gravel gets tossed up and I ran into it... I have scored two on the bottom lip of the hood / bonnet access flap. One was sharp enough to penetrate down to the plastic panel. On the solid yellow it looked like an exploded pimple because the clear top coat had been pushed up. The coating is quite thick and very smooth and glossy, so the ding was annoyingly obvious, once I'd noticed it, it haunted me for a while.
So far, my attempts to repair the topcoat have been:
* sand down the puckered top coat and discover that it is almost impossible to restore the glaze, even after hours with a Dremel cloth wheel and swirl glaze polish
* buy a bottle of general purpose automotive clear touch up paint. It is like glue and does not work at all well. It will not smooth down and will not polish to match the factory top coat.
* buy a spray can of acrylic clear coat. It was easy to gloss after rubbing with 2000 grit paper and swirl polish but did not bond to the factory coat, even where it had been sanded to remove the puckering. Attempts to feather it at the edges failed because it was not bonding well.
* M-B Australia do not appear to have smart touch up paint for sale. The local dealer has a spare parts dept that cover Holden, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, M-B and smart... after getting that "can't help you without a part number response" I located the numbers on Evilution (http://www.evilution.co.uk/index.php?page=modpage&id=511&me...) and went back. He did a search and found the clear coat, but apparently M-B have not imported it.... That may be a dead end.
I have abandoned paints for the moment and have covered the front lip of the panel with clear Contact film.
The problem with small clear coat touchups is matching the surounding area... has anyone had success? Can anyone post a detailed guide to successful touch ups that does not require expensive equipment?
The inevitable happened: a sharp piece of road gravel gets tossed up and I ran into it... I have scored two on the bottom lip of the hood / bonnet access flap. One was sharp enough to penetrate down to the plastic panel. On the solid yellow it looked like an exploded pimple because the clear top coat had been pushed up. The coating is quite thick and very smooth and glossy, so the ding was annoyingly obvious, once I'd noticed it, it haunted me for a while.
So far, my attempts to repair the topcoat have been:
* sand down the puckered top coat and discover that it is almost impossible to restore the glaze, even after hours with a Dremel cloth wheel and swirl glaze polish
* buy a bottle of general purpose automotive clear touch up paint. It is like glue and does not work at all well. It will not smooth down and will not polish to match the factory top coat.
* buy a spray can of acrylic clear coat. It was easy to gloss after rubbing with 2000 grit paper and swirl polish but did not bond to the factory coat, even where it had been sanded to remove the puckering. Attempts to feather it at the edges failed because it was not bonding well.
* M-B Australia do not appear to have smart touch up paint for sale. The local dealer has a spare parts dept that cover Holden, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, M-B and smart... after getting that "can't help you without a part number response" I located the numbers on Evilution (http://www.evilution.co.uk/index.php?page=modpage&id=511&me...) and went back. He did a search and found the clear coat, but apparently M-B have not imported it.... That may be a dead end.
I have abandoned paints for the moment and have covered the front lip of the panel with clear Contact film.
The problem with small clear coat touchups is matching the surounding area... has anyone had success? Can anyone post a detailed guide to successful touch ups that does not require expensive equipment?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by mr bad example on -
maybe "clear coat" is an option to metallic smarts. solid color smarts have molded in colors. metallic smarts are painted. the smart manual is quite generic in some areas, like the tire size of 225/55-16 shown on page 200, i'd love to have that "meat" on my car, the skinny 155-15's on the front leave much to be desired.
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mr be..if could edit all your posts in this thread, it will come down to one statement you made that is true,and it was this .."clear coat is a paint protector" beyond that you have not provided any useful information.
First you said that you were not sure if your car was clear coated because you did not pay for it, then in your opinion you thought it was silly to clear coat a 95% plastic car, after that came "is a dealer applied option in the states, then you left yourself open for me to take a crack at the "bra" remark, but I didn't.
Then it was:" usually an option for the orphans",
Next you asked why..here's why...UV inhibitors along with flex agents are clear coat additive that helps prevent the sun's ultra violet rays from fading the color coat under the clear coat.
Followed that with"clear coat is for painted metal surfaces",think about that one....
Now"some people have reported "clear coat" as an option on their orphans"...no facts..no proof..
Your proof statement was too funny to even be address..but here I go...I looked at many cars in the past and today's cars, approximately 95% of all cars, trucks, and S.U.V.'s coming out of the factory have a clear coat finish throughout..so smart is not smart to protect their cars?
.The car is made in made in the same place ,so,destination is not an issue, going to Australia or Mexico.
Continue with:""clear coat" has always been a "dealer installed option", not unless you were getting your car repainted..
Then DendoRacing brought out the technical specification manual with this beauty:"The plastic parts of the Customized Bodypanel System(CBS) are dyed through and/or painted. A two coat system of base coat and clear coat is applied..and you the balls to dispute that too..
so, like I said before,bring your information here and back it up or STFU..
there's no shame in been wrong...
flea
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Permalink Reply by mr bad example on
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go back and search this site. some orphan buyers report several thousand dollars of dealer "add-ons", lo-jack, navigation, special paint, etc... that's how the dealers make extra profit (i wouldn't be surprised to see a dealer "undercoat" a smart, which has a plastic underpanel)
solid color smarts have the color 100% through the panels.
at least you've cleaned up your messages. that's appreciated.
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I bought smart clearcoat touchup from a dealer. It's called smartcare 2 layer paint stick-set TRIDION silver. Comes in a package with a bottle of silver touchup and a bottle of clearcoat touchup. The only number I can find on the set is Q0007755 V002 C49L 00. I've patched up a couple of little nicks in my cab and it's worked great.
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..thank you so much for the tip.sheureka...appreciated...
flea
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Thanks sheureka, the pic is worth a thousand words... I'll go haunt the local spare parts guy with it.
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mr be.. I know about the overloading of orphans by the dealers...and the undercoating..too funny
I received this PM from a friend of mine that is doing a lot of custom and factory paint for the little car
"Hey bud, you are on the right track the yellow white abd black are molded colors and the red silver and blue are actually painted .They all get clear coat But you can sand down the non painted colors and paint them if you wanted too...
...and....you're welcome
flea
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Red, silver and blue are metallic paints that are a $500 option here.... canna see the value in that. Now that yellow has been discontinued and reputedly replaced by a grey; the question would become is that a through or applied colour?
So far the only source I've found for the smartcare paints is on: http://www.451s.com/forum/topics/1912846:Topic:25197
I'm trying to find a smart Australia web link that may give clues! I wrote a contact email to them on the site and it crashed with IE Javascript errors. On the site there is an environmental "Materials with a future" page (http://www.smart.com/-snm-0135035552-1225014203-0000003723-00000026...) that with patience, one can learn that certain paints used can have a water content of more than 66%. From it's behaviour, I'm wondering if the clearcoat is water based.
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automotive water paints have been out for a long while and this guys kind of won the war against California and the EPA bs..http://www.premierpaint2000.net/
..flea
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I cannot believe that any Smart owner does not know about this one but just in case this website will tell you in detail how to do just about anything to your Smart.
http://www.evilution.co.uk/
Check it out.
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