# Blending out masking lines



## James246 (Jun 26, 2020)

Hi folks. I've had a go (first time) at spraying some damage to my bonnet, which has come out OK (my expectations are quite low) but despite my efforts to blend the old and new paint with back-masking, there's a noticable edge. It's colour matched paint, but the car being 14 years old of course it's not going to be a perfect match. I'd like to get it as good as I can and move on.



As you can see in the picture, there's a noticable "halo" around the repair area. I covered the repair area with primer, basecoat and 1k clear. The rest of the panel was keyed with 1500 grit and cleared edge to edge.

I was hoping someone might have some pointers on:

1. If there's anything I can do about the masking edge

2. What can I do about those 1500 scratch marks all over the panel? I'll be working by hand to start with. I was thinking of going 2000, to 5000 grit then g3 scratch remover, then polish?

Many thanks!


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## steveo3002 (Jan 30, 2006)

only repainting will cure that , even a skilled painter would struggle to do a nice blend on a bonnet

ok for diyer to try a bumper corner or such , never a bonnet


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## Barbel330 (May 3, 2016)

Hard to say from that picture but it looks as though I can still see the outline of the primed area through the colour? Was the primed area quite large, just smaller than the area you’ve put colour on? You wouldn’t back mask a section of a bonnet like that, you’d either try to blend it out across the expanse of the panel or base the entire panel. The only time you’d back mask a bonnet repair is upto a defined swage line and even then it’s not the ideal situation.

There’s no saving that, it’ll need flatting completely with 800 then basecoat and clear the entire panel.


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## SamD (Oct 24, 2015)

Doing a spot repair on bonnet you have to take into the following factors 
- Colour
- Location of damage

I hope this image gives rough guide on how to attempt or approach a spot repair








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Taking into account you have the basic knowledge of prep before paint.

And hopefully you achieve something like this!


best free image hosting



Anyone wondering this was done 3 years ago outside and hasn't failed yet I really gave it a good bake under the lamps and cool down before 1500 orbital followed by 3000 and polish.


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## Barbel330 (May 3, 2016)

Nice 👍🏻 

This is a very technically difficult repair to pull off so not everyone should expect to get a finish like that without having the professional equipment and experience. SMART repairers do blends on virtually every single job every day of the week so we tend to get quite good at them


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## James246 (Jun 26, 2020)

Thanks for the replies all, some sage advice there. What I did was flat back a large area as there was lots of stone chips, peeling laquer, etc and then primed the whole area. Then I painted that primed area, and a little beyond but only perhaps an inch or two. So that was a big mistake as from SamD's advice I can see even a tiny blemish needs a pretty large working area to blend. As my repair area was large I should have painted the rest of the bonnet. Lesson learnt there! A scrap bonnet in better condition has come up so I might have to write this one off as more paint will cost more than a 'new' bonnet. It was quite fun, but a hell of a lot of work, and a learning experience!



Barbel330 said:


> Hard to say from that picture but it looks as though I can still see the outline of the primed area through the colour? Was the primed area quite large, just smaller than the area you've put colour on? You wouldn't back mask a section of a bonnet like that, you'd either try to blend it out across the expanse of the panel or base the entire panel. The only time you'd back mask a bonnet repair is upto a defined swage line and even then it's not the ideal situation.
> 
> There's no saving that, it'll need flatting completely with 800 then basecoat and clear the entire panel.


You're spot on here. The primed area was big and I didn't go very far beyond it. So I've got three shades now: new paint over primer -> new paint over old paint -> old paint.


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## SamD (Oct 24, 2015)

James if you don’t fail you don’t learn! Your overall theory behind it was nearly correct and don’t let this put you off future projects.


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## James246 (Jun 26, 2020)

SamD said:


> James if you don't fail you don't learn! Your overall theory behind it was nearly correct and don't let this put you off future projects.


Too true. My 'new' scrap bonnet has a stone chip on the very edge, so that's a smaller more managable project I can have a crack at with my new learnings


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## SamD (Oct 24, 2015)

James246 said:


> Too true. My 'new' scrap bonnet has a stone chip on the very edge, so that's a smaller more managable project I can have a crack at with my new learnings


If you get stuck, stop and ask mate.


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## James246 (Jun 26, 2020)

SamD said:


> If you get stuck, stop and ask mate.


Thanks mate much appreciated! :thumb:


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## Andyb0127 (Jan 16, 2011)

It's not that you've failed mate. Sams advice is spot on as always. It was the back masking that caused the problem, and taking clear/fade out to close to it need to give your self a bit more room than you think. It's never easy trying to do a bonnet even us pros struggle sometimes every days a learning day keep practicing at it tho don't let it put you off.


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