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Tried painting a dented fender myself last weekend and it came out looking like a bad tattoo
So I got this 2010 Ford Focus with a nasty dent on the passenger side fender from a parking lot hit and run. I used to just take everything to Maaco or a body shop but that costs like $500 minimum around here in Phoenix. Watched a few YouTube videos and decided to try sanding, filling, and spray painting it myself for $40 in parts. The color match is off by a mile and you can see the sanding scratches if the light hits it right. Honestly it looks terrible up close but from 10 feet away it's fine lol. My neighbor said I should have just left the dent and got a junkyard fender for $60 instead. Has anyone else tried the DIY paint route and regretted it or actually had it turn out decent?
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the_jenny5mo ago
Ngl the sanding scratches are the real killer here, that's the part that's hardest to fix without proper equipment. Did you wet sand between coats or just go straight from 220 grit to primer? I made that mistake on my old Civic's hood and it looked like I dragged it behind the car for a mile. A lot of folks skip the 400 and 600 grit steps and that's where the orange peel texture comes from. Curious what brand paint you used too because the color match being off could be the paint or just how Ford did their clear coats that year.
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claire_wells875mo ago
Gotta jump in here on the 220 to primer thing... that's actually not wrong if you're stripping old paint or doing heavy body work on bare metal. The problem is when people DON'T step up the grits after primer coats. You're right about needing the 400 and 600 steps, but that's after the primer is on and dry, not before it. If you go straight from 220 to primer without sanding the primer itself, that's where you trap those scratches and they show through the basecoat like crazy. The wet sanding between primer coats is what smooths everything out, but you gotta let each coat dry fully first or you'll just peel it all off. On the paint brand thing, I've had good luck with the major brands but even a good paint won't fix bad prep work underneath.
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angelar573mo ago
You said "even a good paint won't fix bad prep work underneath" and that's really the whole thing right there. I've seen guys drop $800 on a gallon of top tier paint and still end up with a mess because they rushed the sanding steps. The grit progression matters way more than the brand on the can. I usually stop at 400 on the primer before base, but I'll go to 600 if it's a metallic or a real dark color where every little imperfection shows. Paint is just a fancy colored clear coat if the surface underneath is trash.
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