Touch up paint pen usage tips?

[Maverick Life]

Just ordered an OEM paint pen for minor touch up but I haven't used these before and I'm looking for some help or tips on getting the best results from it.

My plan:

• Thorough clean and dry area around chip with ph-neutral car wash soap.
• Use a small bit of polishing compound to smooth out small sharp edges of paint chip. Will this turtle wax product work?
• Clean out polishing compound with isopropyl alcohol. Is this ok or should I look for denatured alcohol instead? It seems more difficult to find locally.
• Don't know: Do I need to put down some kind of primer coat before using these Motorcraft paint pens?
• Two coats of paint with ample drying in between, applied in the shade.
• Don't know: Should I re-polish at this stage?
• Don't know: Do I need some kind of clear coat over the last layer?

TBH my primary concern here is long term protection against rust. That said, I enjoy learning about this stuff and figure why not take a shot at making it look good too? Any tips and advice are greatly appreciated.

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[Tailender]

I don't have any tips that might help with it looking better, but I'd test it in a small are out of sight first. I got one form my dealer and they used my Vin # to look up the color and it's wrong. I have velocity blue and the paint looks like alto blue. You can easily pick out the places I painted.

There are a lot of videos on you tube with advice on how to do it. That's where I got my info from.

 

[Red Ryder]

I had excellent results on an earlier vehicle using the following technique:

1. Abrade the chip area with a sanding pen
2. Apply the touchup paint, slightly overfilling the depression
3. Use a Meguires 2000 grit Unigrit block sander to level the repair
4. Finish by polishing with a compound (Meguires Scratch-X works well)

I was able to repair some chips leaving them undetectable following the repair.

 

[Maverick Life]

I had excellent results on an earlier vehicle using the following technique:

1. Abrade the chip area with a sanding pen
2. Apply the touchup paint, slightly overfilling the depression
3. Use a Meguires 2000 grit Unigrit block sander to level the repair
4. Finish by polishing with a compound (Meguires Scratch-X works well)

I was able to repair some chips leaving them undetectable following the repair.

Oh wow - sanding pens are such a great idea. I wasn't familiar with those until now. Thanks!

 

[Maverick Life]

I don't have any tips that might help with it looking better, but I'd test it in a small are out of sight first. I got one form my dealer and they used my Vin # to look up the color and it's wrong. I have velocity blue and the paint looks like alto blue. You can easily pick out the places I painted.

There are a lot of videos on you tube with advice on how to do it. That's where I got my info from.

Great advice - thank you. Just curious - did your dealer offer any remedy? ...even a replacement pen?

 

[Darnon]

Oh wow - sanding pens are such a great idea. I wasn't familiar with those until now. Thanks!

The Ford/Duplicolor touchup paint pens have a sanding pen built in.

 

[hdave]

I had excellent results on an earlier vehicle using the following technique:

1. Abrade the chip area with a sanding pen
2. Apply the touchup paint, slightly overfilling the depression
3. Use a Meguires 2000 grit Unigrit block sander to level the repair
4. Finish by polishing with a compound (Meguires Scratch-X works well)

I was able to repair some chips leaving them undetectable following the repair.

this is awesome thanks

 

[Tailender]

Great advice - thank you. Just curious - did your dealer offer any remedy? ...even a replacement pen?

I didn't get back to them yet. Don't know if they can order the color by name so I'm not sure what they can do for me?

 

[Falcon first]

I find that putting on touchup paint with the brush in applicators puts too much paint on and isn’t real smooth. I use the micro applicators which have small cotton or foam tips (Amazon). Not that you can’t use the brush for big scratches but small chips definitely worth buying the Amazon yellow sticks with fiber tips.

 

[Last Truck Ever]

I've been trying to order this same OEM paint pen for my Mav for over a month now, everywhere including Ford shows out of stock/backordered. I just looked up the OP's, there's plenty in that color, but the HPR is still unavailable? Weird....

 

[Darnon]

I've been trying to order this same OEM paint pen for my Mav for over a month now, everywhere including Ford shows out of stock/backordered. I just looked up the OP's, there's plenty in that color, but the HPR is still unavailable? Weird....

FWIW I didn't find the OEM HPR pen to be a very great match. It's much more orange, possibly not accounting for the red tintcoat and the clearcoat that comes with it is, well, clear.

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