Expert: William Forster - 7/16/2007

Question
I had a few paint chips in my 2001 Ford Focus (Zinc Yellow) I ordered touchup paint (by code), primer and clearcoat. The touchup job went half bad: I was able to touchup nicely BUT:

a) when I apply the paint (small brush) it looks EXACTLY like my Zinc yellow - when it dries however, it is several shades darker. Do I do something wrong, or is it the shops fault, that sold me the paint?

b) Touching up the paint with clearcoat is a problem: when the clearcoat is dry , I just cannot get it sanded down enough. So when I apply the rubbing compound, the result is a clearcoat covered blob. If I sand aggressively, then I rub the clearcoat off. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks
Niki

Answer
You are WAY over applying the touch up paint. Less is always better with touch ups. You want to JUST color the damage, forget trying to make an invisible repair. It ain't gonna happen. Sanding and rubbing are just going to produce a miserable result. Just paint it, and let it go. Remove excess touch up paint with thinner, then redo the spots with less paint. Ask whoever mixed it up if they will tint it for you a little, or mix you a tube of a lighter colored variant. They will know what that means.