After sitting around for a week trying to let my back heal I could not stand it anymore and headed out into the garage to see if I could move the ball forward just a little. I had recently painted the outside of the cab and jam areas. The paint turned out great with virtually no orange peel. However I did have a few run areas that needed to be addressed. So I decided today was the day and that would be something I could do without putting stress on lower back.
I spent some time while healing to see what others do when there are runs in the paint. What I found is that are several ways to fix runs. One that I thought I would try was using a straight razor blade that you put a slight bend into it and round off the both ends to prevent a gouge. I figured the worst thing that would happen is that I would have to sand the area down a bit and feather out and respray.
First I want to say that I am not a professional, I do this as a hobby and enjoy the challenges and learning something new on every build. I try to push myself to do something different or try to do something on the build I have never done before. This is one of those situation, fixing runs in a fresh paint job.
So here is what I did in this order.
- Opened a new box of blades and bent one slightly so it has a slight curve shape
- Then I grabbed a piece of 220 grit wet dry paper and rounded off both of the ends so it would not grab and cause a gouge
- I proceeded to drag the razor across the top of each run holding the blade horizontal, you actually hear a scrapping sound
- After the run was flush to the existing paint I stopped
- Then I grabbed the 3M 3000grit Trizact and cut a little square off and glued to the end of a large popsicle stick, tongue depressor size
- Soaked it in water for a while and began sand the area with the 3000 grit to smooth everything out to prepare for 3" buffer
- Once I was satisfied with the area smoothness I moved onto the 3" buffer with a yellow pad and used the Groit's fast correction cream
- Then just buffed with a microfiber towel
I was very happy with how it turned out and I feel like I learned something new today so it was a great day in the shop. The rest of the afternoon I addressed a few area on top off the roof that had some dust nibs. I knocked those down with some 3M Trizact then buffed with buffer.