bought a 2000 f150 previous owner went wild with touch up paint is there any way to remove and not mess up existing paint it just looks horrible thanks

 

Is a colour match problem?

 

Try a lacquer thinner or some kind of solvent, or maybe even gas. Factory paint is catalyzed or baked at very high temps. and they are made to be resistant against chemicals. Touch up paint you get in the bottles is either a lacquer or uncatalyzed enamel, so solvent should soften it up and remove it. Test in an inconspicous spot just to be sure the solvent won't harm your trucks paint at all or by chance its been repainted with a paint that isn't very resistant to chemicals. I doubt it will hurt it though, Not sure if ford is using waterbase or catalyzed paint these days, but it should be durable either way. The factory uses a different type of paint then refinishers can use since the vehicles are painted without having any plastics or interior, so the finish can be baked at very high temps. If someone spilled a little gas on their truck nowadays and it removed the paint, they'd be screaming. If using lacquer thinner or other solvents it may leave a little film on the surface, but a wash should take care of it, or just apply some glaze by hand and wipe off. I am taking it he just went wild and glob a bunch of touch up paint on all the chips and blemishes. If you have small chips and you just dab a little touch up paint in them, and then dab some mixed catalyzed clear in them building just above the surface. Then next day come back and lightly wetsand with around 1500 to knock the clear down even and polish, you may get decent results, but still see on close inspection. But the problem with metallic is when you dab it into chips its usually darker then if it were sprayed because the metallic settles deep and lay flat when brush applied giving a darker look then sprayed where the metallic is more toward the surface and may be standing up some.
Ha ha, guess I am bored, is that detailed enough, and enough information? lol.

 

its the right color it was just spread all outside the chip

 

Guess you could try on a few spots, wetsanding with around 1500 wrapped around a paint stick to remove the touch up paint around the actual chip and then carefully buffing to get the gloss back. A machine buffer could possibly take the touchup paint out of the chip. Or maybe if you stopped at a detailing place and talked to them. Maybe they would be able to take care of it at a somewhat reasonable cost and make it look decent. Best option of course would be sanding and repainting the panels that are chipped.

 

I guess my concern is if you havn't done this before you may make it worse than it already is. Wet sanding with 1500 or 2000 as the other posts have mentioned should be ok on the clear and level the repair to the existing paint. Then it can be buffed out .Means you need some equipment and buffing compounds. You have to be careful. Once you go through the clear it gets more involved.What colour is the truck?

 

go to an autobody supply store and ask for a nib-it block. Works like a wood hand-plane. It should knock the high spots down with minimal effect to the surrounding "good" paint.

 

I have seen them in the Eastwood catalouge and wondered how effective they were.

 

they're effective on runs, and other high spots, but they aren't the 8th wonder of the world. Ya may still have to sand w/1500 grit, but they will knock the time down alot by scraping off the high spot.

 

Thanks for the info.