oh man.. here goes

there was really minor scratch on the rear right side fender of my car (2004 WRB WRX)... since i bought a bottle of touch up paint few days ago...
i thought if i put some of it on top of the scratch it will be good
so i put some on, but i had a bit too much, so i had to spread them out a little...
main problem is, the car wasn't really clean...
so now... there is a thumb length spat of purpleish color like glue stick smudged on a car....

WHAT CAN I DO TO REMOVE THE TOUCH UP PAINT?!?!
plx anyone.. help me... i really want to get rid of the touch up paint
my dad has some of those paint thinner in the garage but i doubt if it will ruin my stock paint on my car too...

:eek: would have been good to just wipe it off before it dried. Too late for that now though.
Hopefully someone here is an autobody guru and can give you some proper advice.

Put some paint thinner on a rag and wipe the smudge. If it comes off then use some polish and wax after to protect the finish.

Well a thinner like varsol is one way to clean up a spill.. If it's fresh enough you can sometimes get it off with a more mild solvent like WD40.. No you shouldn't use either on existing painted surfaces if you don't have to, but what can you do?

I use WD40 on a rag to remove tar spots, and I just wash it off when I'm done.

that's kinda what i did too. but not that long and not as much. but it was obvious. i didn't remove it. but i re waxed the whole car, machine and hand wax, to blend in the colors and unevenness. it looks good now. i took it to a shop. good luck with it~~

Acetone + Q tip is your friend if you plan to DIY, but be really really careful with the acetone, it's very strong that it may take your stock paint off.

Carefully do it with a box of cotton Q-tips.
After you removed excessive paint, find some wet sanding papers, or that "mud" thingy to remove the left overs.

Other alternative is , "Clear cut" the paint off. I recommend the Pro stuff.

If you don't wanna take the risk, bring it to a shop.

Umm I'm no paint expert, but I think I'd be very cautious about the acetone and the thinner and ... WD40 isn't really a solvent, but yeah ... If you go to town with the solvents I think you're just going to end up with a big hole in the clear coat and a *slightly* thinner blob of touch-up paint.

I think the only fix is to buff the stuff flat with a decent abrasive polish and random orbital buffer, followed by clearcoat or at least a really nice polish. This is the kind of job best left to a pro, IMHO.

Touch-up paint is a beotch to work with, ain't it? I ruined the bumper on my first car thinking I could touch up all the spots from people's front licence plate bolts bumping me while parallel parking. Then somebody on STi-mlist taught me how to do it properly: find a small hole and use a sharpened match stick to delicately apply a tiny amount inside the hole. After seeing the results of that method I still wonder why they include a big fat brush inside the touch-up paint bottle...

www.langka.com works like a charm, and won't hurt the rest of your paint or clear coat. I used it a few months after putting a blob of paint on, and it worked great.

Originally posted by Necromancer
Umm I'm no paint expert, but I think I'd be very cautious about the acetone and the thinner and ... WD40 isn't really a solvent, but yeah ... If you go to town with the solvents I think you're just going to end up with a big hole in the clear coat and a *slightly* thinner blob of touch-up paint.

I think the only fix is to buff the stuff flat with a decent abrasive polish and random orbital buffer, followed by clearcoat or at least a really nice polish. This is the kind of job best left to a pro, IMHO.

<removed>


I second Necromancer's comments on the solvents -- BE CAREFUL as you can easily make it worse and/or make the problem area bigger and bigger.

Make sure to CLEAN the area first with decent car wash, and perhaps some cleaner wax. Then use the professional polishing/cutting compounds until the "smear" of touch-up paint is gone. Then apply touch up paint VERY SPARINGLY, wait until dry, and then cut and polish till it's even. Then, wash and wax the area again.

If you have any doubts - take it to get professionally fixed.

To show that it IS possible, here's some pics of what I was able to remove with some careful application of touch-up paint and use of polishing compounds:

<see this thread for full details>
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=489980&highlight=hit+and+run

Here's the pics from that thread:

Polishing compounds:
http://www.sfu.ca/~roland/hitandrun/3MSwirlremover.jpg

************** BEFORE :(
http://www.sfu.ca/~roland/hitandrun/damage1.jpg
http://www.sfu.ca/~roland/hitandrun/damage2.jpg
http://www.sfu.ca/~roland/hitandrun/damage3.jpg

************** AFTER (fixed! :D )
http://www.sfu.ca/~roland/hitandrun/fixed.jpg

Good luck,

-- Dendrobium

ah.. thx to all the replies guys
i am jsut gonna bring it to some shop and ask for their advices.. cuz i reall really dun wanna screw up my car again... haha
sucks to be me...
now it feels like there is some small sand material things on the painted area.... its kinda rough... but i dun wanna touch it no more cuz i duno wat will happen next :(