[homesimpsonr]

I was hit by a rather large object on the highway that poked three dime size holes in my left door.

My body work came out fine, new paint matched perfectly but the clear coat has been a pain in the a___.

I cannot get the clear coat to bleand in with the old paint. (I am not shooting the entire door, just the repaired spot)

After shooting the clear I waited a week, used 1000 and then 2000 grit and finally a polishing compound. The middle of the door looks great, but where the edges of the clear are, I have this very noticable boundary between the old paint and the new clear. It simply will not go away.

Any thoughts? My next step is to simply buff the hell out of it to see what happens.

[Polish Painter]

Probably will get worse by buffing more. Its difficult to create an unnoticeable blend. Urethanes do not melt into old urethane easy.
Some guys are better at it than others.
I have found if possible reclearing the complete panel is easier and creates a nice blend.

[302 Z28]

Best to clear the whole door, blending clear takes heaps of practice and then not everybody can do it.

Vince

[bodyperformance]

depending on your comfort level if you wet sand the repair area agian 1200 and then shoot one easy coat of clear over the wet sanded area, keep the clear inside the sanded area,then remove clear from gun and using either blending solvent or the same type of reducer as in the clear lightly spray fade out area this should make the blend more seamless and require minimal polishing later. if not comfortable with that the whole panel could always be cleared. hope this helps

[BMM]

Re-clearing the entire door would be much, much easier than trying to blend.

[chas350]

I just did this on my trailblazer after 1 of my teenagers planted the front bumper against a telephone pole (lost control on snow, messing around)
lucky he wasnt going fast.
And the other teenager side swiped a single wide bridge guardrail trying to share it with another car

After shooting color base only where needed, I just cleared the whole panel. Except 2 small areas where I was forced to blend.
I left it in the sun for a day and then wet sanded up to 2000. Then a couple days later rotary buffed it with 3M Finishing.

Watch out spraying/fogging on a blending agent or reducer after, it can cause a run/sag real easy. Ask me how I know.

I am not a Pro but it worked for me.

[chas350]

If you do try to blend, clear well beyond where your base repair coat ends and make sure to scuff well the old finish up to an inch of where your clear will stop. While wet sanding/buffing you will gradually remove the new clear back to where your scuff ended and the edge should disapear if your lucky.
But its a hit or miss unless you do this everyday, and I dont and was lucky.

Again, I would simply clear the whole panel, its easier. Dont forget to scuff well or wet sand first for proper adhesion.

Good luck

[BarryK]

Here you go, step by step.
http://spi.forumup.org/about1998-spi.html

[kenseth17]

Your new paint may just be too soft, and you need to get your new clear good and hard by baking the area or allowing some good time setting out in the sun. Jim gives a good explaination in this thread. If the car has just been sitting inside a garage, the clear has likely not had the opportunity to cure up good and hard. http://spi.forumup.org/viewtopic.php?t=30&mforum=spi

Something like a door, like others have already said, you better off just reclearing the whole door, and not mess around with a blend. Unless you can keep the blend area small or have a hardline or area where you can backtape on to do the blend and approve chances of being successfull, reclearing the panel I think would be just as easy, and be a better repair. Sometimes you have little choice if you want to avoid reclearing several panels. Many still blend on sail panel area doing a quarter panel repair, on cars where there is no place to mask, to avoid having to paint the roof and other quarter.

With urethane/activated products today, your new clear will not melt into the old, and if you just have a thin edge of clear on the blend area, it will be subject to early failure.

I still do clear blends the same way I was taught many years ago. Sand out past the area you will be doing a blend with 1000 or 1500, have another gun filled with straight reducer, and hit the blend edge of your clear immediately after each coat (but be carefull, will slide easily if you hit too heavy, with only a 1500 scratch below). Let the clear cure and lightly buff the blend area.
If you have a hard line you can blend to, sand just past, backtape along the hard line, shoot your clear, pull off or roll back your backtapeing and hit with the blend with some reducer or blending solvent, lightly buff along it the next day if needed.
If you can, your always best off blending the base around the repaired area, and then reclearing the entire panel

[wildman1932]

Clear it edge to edge. The spot in will keep showing up, and get worse as time goes by. It is more noticeable on dark colors.
Dave
Daves Hot Rod Shop

[MARTINSR]

I have to agree, blending out clear is a looser 99% of the time. Can you pull it off to get out the gate, of course you can. But it isn't if it will fail, but when?

Preping and clearing the entire panel is faster hands down most of the time compared to babying a blend, let alone correcting a failed one.

Sure there are some times, say a dent on the lower quarter panel of a pickup where there is a body line you can back tape, sure, keep the repair small. Or some tiny scratch on a dog leg where you can keep the blend in a couple inch area. But to repair a dent in a panel and not clear the entire panel, I think that is a serious waste of time.

I know that around here at least, clearing the entire quarter panel, up over the roof rail to the windshield and clearning the entire rocker is the norm for ANY repair on any of these three parts. If there is no break in the panel like a seam where they are welded together or something like that, it gets completely cleared.

To spot paint and clear on a door, it wouldn't happen, it is just not the best, "bestest" or even the fastest way to go.

Brian

[homesimpsonr]

Thanks to everyone. What a great bunch of talent. What a great country.

Sand and shoot the whole door it is.