Most paint repair is done with sanding and priming and then applying the topcoat and learning how to blend or paint from panel to panel.
This is a skill......and if this is your baby....take your time,and mask it professionally.
Prep is 99% of a paint job....touch ups are tricky. I suggest having the color mixed into a spray can at your paint-jobber,and sanding and prepping the area and spraying the primer....on any bare areas.
Blend the color by spraying stronger at the center and fanning the can or gun to the side,and if the color is a straight color...no metallic.....it may go well for you.
Painting is a skill.....and if it does not look right,then do it over.....and over.....and over....and after the umpteenth time......you will graduate into a painter...of sorts....LOL
Good luck

 

I bought the paint and all of the prep materials. I will be trying to do this on my next two days off (Mon./Tues.) and will post the results. I will take my time and will try to get it to look great, if needed I will do it over but once again this is just to make sure I dont have rust growing and have it look decent until I can get the whole thing painted. Thank you all for your help and I will keep you posted.

Cbass

 

you never know, you may enjoy doing this and want to paint it yourself! i've painted many'o'trucks in a dirt floor garage back in the day. used to wet down the floor so dust wouldnt get stirred up lol. i wouldnt DARE do that now, but you gotta learn some how

 

Isn't funny how we did things when we were younger and now when we see some young guy doing the same thing we think "What a nut". It's too bad, I know I enjoyed doing things way back more than I do today. I painted cars in a two car garage in the middle of winter using a torpedo heater. Warmed up the garage, turned off the heater, sprayed a coat of paint, opened the over head door to let the fumes out and then shut it and fired up the heater. Did it over and over until the job was done. Now, if my kid would do it I'd smack him on the side on the side of the head and scream that he's going to blow the garage sky high. Man, that was fun. BTW, the paint jobs didn't turn out too bad either.

PS, sorry about skipping the primer stage in my description in my first post.

 

hey now bob i'm still young!! i'm only hitting on 30's door! lol. i have had the same torpedo for the past 10 or 11 years though lol, hasnt been used in about 2, not sure if it even works anymore. but i used to do the exact same thing lol. hell if times got bad, i'd do it again!

 

you guys shut the heater off whimps

 

Don't forget to feather the edges of the scrapes and scratches by sanding first. What makes a touchup job the most noticable is too little sanding leaving edges of the scratch and/or a small hollow that telegraphs thru the paint. I know this is a temp fix, but use it as a practice opportunity, sooner or later you'll need to touch up a good paintjob.
Feather a distance of 12-16" around the scrape using a rubber sanding block and 400 wet or dry sandpaper used wet. Don't try to sand with your fingers! If you can't afford a sanding block (<6.00) use a wood paint stir stick available for free at any paint store/dept. Dip the block into a large bucket of water with a small squirt of dishwashing detergent in it every minute or two. Don't press heavily on the block, let the sandpaper do the work, it will go surprising quickly! If feathered properly each layer of paint should be visible as ~ a 2" ring of color, the top finish paint layer should be dulled for ~ 6-8" around the last underlayer ring. Yes, you will have sanded the scratched area down to bare metal quite a bit larger than the original scratch. The area should resemble a soft blurry puddle with no hard sharp edges visible.
Wash the area with clean water, dry and wipe down the whole area twice with prep-sol used generously on 2 seperate clean lintfree cloths (old well washed cotton T-shirt is ideal. Leave it whole, cutting it up will free new loose fibers). Now spray the area with a couple coats of a self etching primer. Match the color of the primer to the same color as the primer you exposed by sanding just under the top color. If the top color was over another color coat, I'd use dark grey primer. Never use light color primer under a dark color unless that was what was done previously. Spray the primer so it extends ~ 1/2way over the scuffed area of the top coat. put on additional primer coats as necessary until there is no sign of the edges of the underlying layers visible after 1 hr drying time. This may require a number of coats depending on the concentration of primer pigment in the can. Don't be afraid to use as many coats as it takes.
Allow to dry overnight then LIGHTLY wet sand with 600 W or D paper on a long stick, concentrating on the edges of the primered area. Be very careful, the paper will cut thru the fresh primer VERY quickly! Should you cut thru the primer (called burning the paint) STOP, clean the area and reprime the thin area with at least as many coats of primer as you originally used. Next day once again LIGHTLY sand the newly added primer.
At this point you should have a slightly dulled primed area with no sign of the original work underneath and the top coat of color should be scuffed ~ 8" around it.
Now you are ready to add the color coat. Wash the entire area with prep-sol on a clean rag and allow to air dry. Spray the first LIGHT coat of color working from the center of the primed area outwards covering 1/2 the scuffed portion of the original top coat. Add additional color coats as necessary to get complete coverage following the recoat time instructions for the paint you are using religiously! The final color coat should extend out to just beyond the scuffed area.
Leave the fresh paint untouched for at least a week.
Let us know when you reach that point and we'll give instructions on blending and rubbing out the area.

 

Thanks for the guidance, will try my best. As I stated I am going to try to use a high quality (or atleast a good) airbrush, hoping this will make it turn out a little nicer with the added control of flow. Axracer, is that best for the big scratches, little scratches and the large chips or just for the larger baseball size chips? Also how much will the primer effect the color, I bought a dark primer but am not sure what is under the paint itself. It kind of looks like it is a very lite primer in the pictures and I am at work till 9 tomorrow morning so I dont know and that is all I will be able to think about from now till then (dont you just hate that, or is it just me).

 

I know what you mean! My instructions are for even a stone chip, any time the color layer has been damaged/removed down to the primer or deeper. Because of the area that will need repainting (to remove a stone chip you will end up sanding and painting a 12-15" circle) I think you will need something a bit bigger than a air brush. A decent HVLP gravity feed touchup gun is less expensive (40. -100.00) than a high quality double action air brush, and can be powered by a contractor's compressor that will plug into a standard outlet. You should be able to rent a compressor for ~ 30.00 a day. Try your local Home Depot tool rental center, they usually have better rental prices and well maintained equipment.

 

Axracer, a few more questions if you dont mind. I already have the airbrush, thus the what to use that instead of having to buy/rent anything else. I do have a small compressor that I use to do finish work around the house and power the airbrush but I didnt think this would be enough to power a hvlp, is it? I also am still wondering about the primer color difference, will it make a huge difference if the current primer is light and the stuff I bought is dark. I know it will not match exactly but seeing that the paint is 40+ years old anyway and there is one panel that doesnt match exactly already it isnt the end of the world but will it be a big difference?

 

Blue especially tends to be transparent, so yes it can make a noticable difference. Go to your local auto parts store and pick up a spray can of duplicolor primer in whatever color you find under the finish coat and spay a top coat of it over whatever color primer you already have. Just be sure you get a solid coverage. Good luck. What kind of finish work do you do with your compressor? What is it's output rating?

 

Mostly wood trim, as far as output if you are looking CFM I will have to look when I get home but it is just a little craftsman I cant imagine that it is very high, the pressure output is 125 top end. I looked at the website and I believe it is 2.4 SCFM at 90psi.

 

If it will run a framing nailer it would be enough. It isn't like you are spaying continuously doing touch up.

 

Primer color will change the topcoat color.....Ford used alot of red-oxide primer....I have noticed.
When you feather the topcoat...spray like you mean to cover the lightest spot and let it sit for a while......then go over it again......feather is the term.......to the rest of the truck so it blends in.......I am near Cleveland....not tooooo far away....if you need me...LOL.......Bill

 

Ok Axracer and all others, I have the color laid down and I am fairly happy with how it turned out. I am a bit of a perfectionist so it will never be good enough for me but it does look a 1000 times better then it did. You told me to let you know when I got to this point and you would let me know the next steps, blending and rubbing out the areas? I am getting excited to have this done and just drive the old girl the rest of the summer, with a few "fun" projects as money comes up.