If painting a scratch on the hood of a 15 year old car and you bought new paint is there any way to get the paint to match better and should I worry about the fading of the car from the sunlight?

Answer 1

the severity of the fade is dependant on the colour.

often reds and yellows and some whites are the worst.

heavily metallicised or pearled paints are often better wearing to sun fade or bleaching..BUT.. often harder to match due to their complexity of the colour itself.

often repainting a hood requires repainting the whole hood.

sometimes it requires the painting the hood and the top portion of the fenders with a blending/feathering/fading technique at the downward curve of the fender.

the technique requires the new colour to slowly fog into the old colour in an area where you expect the colour to change or "gradiate"

sharp or dramatic curves are where the blends usually take place.

a fender flare can be repainted off the car and then reinstalled and look perfect due to the complex nature of the curves over the relatively small surface area.

old 50's style hoods often have chrome strips down the middle. you could have 1 side painted up to the strip. if the fade is not dramatic the match will look perfect even though it is not.

as a general rule

when a scratch is cleaned (washed wit soap and water and then paint thinners) if at any point through the cleaning the scratch becomes invisible.. it does not need painting. (thinned clearcoat can be used as a touchup then wet sanded as a guarantee)

wetsanding and polishing will do for 90% of those kinds of scratches.

If the scratch is not white in colour (on clearcoated cars) often paint is required.