Last Feb (2008) we had a pretty nasty wind storm here. I thought the bird poop canopy was well secured, but that turned out not to be the case. Below is the only pic I have of the canopy, taken back during the paintjob. I bought it to keep the birds from pooping on the Corvair while it dried. It worked, most of the time.
So this big wind storm blows in, rips the canopy out of the ground, wads it up into a ball and grinds it all over the side of the Corvair. It chewed through the paint in two spots in front of the door. The rest of the marks buffed out fine. This incident turned out to be a handy opportunity to test how easy it would be to spot repair paint damage. After 4 months, I'm finally getting around to it.
The damage. Paint is ground away and scratched up pretty good.
I wet sanded it with 600 to blend the edges. This took out the scratches that were above the gouged area.
My plan from the beginning was to repair any paint damage with spray-paint Rustoleum, as opposed to re-rolling. A spot fix with a rattlecan would allow me to lay down 4 or 5 thin coats in one day, and wet sand buff out the next. Below, the area is masked off, ready to spray.
The paint. It matches the Rustoleum gloss white in the can perfectly.
Below, I layed down 4 thin coats, one about every half an hour, and left it until the next day. The next day I wet sanded the area with 1500 grit paper. The paint blended perfectly and after about 5 minutes of work, the area was ready to buff out.
I had some of the cheapo compound left over, so I slathered on a gob and went at it with the polisher. Ten minutes later, and I was done. The repair is perfect. You cannot tell where the paint was damaged at all.
I washed the rest of the car afterwards and took some pics of the car, actually clean. It's been just over 18 months since the paint went on, and the car is just as glossy as ever. Click for cross-eyed 3D shot.
