Expert: William Forster - 7/14/2009

Question
Hi There
I was driving my truck and trailer in Arizona en-route to Mexico when some kids on a bridge dropped rocks off damaging my truck and trailer. I had a Mexican fellow fix the ding on my truck. He did a good job of the repair but got the paint color wrong. It was a slightly different color of metallic silver. So now I can see the repair because where the paint he used blends with the body paint there is a darker ring around the edge of where he sprayed. I am going to buy an aerosol spray can to get it all the same color and my question is, can I just simply spray it on to fix the problem or is the procedure more involved? My truck is a 2004 GMC Sierra 2500, silver birch color. The area involved is about the size of a grapefruit.
Thanks for any advice you can give me

Answer
You think it looks bad now, try using a rattle can to paint over the repair. Rattle can paint is laquer, and it will go after the paint the mexican applied with a vengeance. Silver birch is tricky at best to match anyhow, especially with a spot repair. It should have the panel partially colored(blended) and then full panel cleared. Only have it professionally repaired.