Paint for a ding repair job

[slaerts]

What sort of paint would you use to touch up a small ding. The bass is a black MIM fretless. What kind of glossy stuff do I paint over the paint with?
Any suggestions would help.

[lousy hero]

Hi,

Small "dings" on chips can be repaired easy.

BUT Trying to repair the area with paint can be a messy task plus matching your colour can be tricky too (specially if your bass is old and finish has dulled.)

I've found for smallish chips superglue is great.

Firstly mask off the area as close as possible.

Add the superglue in stages small amounts at a time slowly building it up.

Build it up till its slightly higher than the chip.

Then sand down with a fine paper or some finishing wool.

After this apply a cutting compound (t-cut, turtle wax). The beauty of this instead of paint is you can apply layers of different colours to suit your original finish which will stain the superglue perfectly.

After this polish to a deep shine. Plenty of elbow grease needed and use a lint free cloth.

Taking your time is key to anything, the steps above done correctly with time and love your chip never happened.

Cheers

[pkr2]

Often overlooked, but a great retouch paint is fingernail polish. It is nothing more or less than garden variety lacquer, comes with it's own applicator brush, has driers added for almost instant cure, comes in every color of the rainbow, including black and mixing colors can produce any tint that you can imagine. It can be thinned with lacquer thinner and lacquer thinner is used for cleanup.

Be careful with the thinner, it can almost instantly start dissolving some finishes leaving a mellava hess.

For a quick, but not invisible touch up, just apply within the ding and it'll only be noticeable up close.
For an invisible touch up, build depressed area to at least level with surface with several coats ( Don't try to cheat by filling it in with one application. Trust me, always use multiple thin coats, rather than one thick one). Deeper dings can be filled with JB Weld as a filler. JBW sands and feathers beautifully and it wont pop out. Allow the paint to cure a couple of hours and carefully scrape down to level of original surface with a razor blade. Finish off with rubbing compound and wax.

[jrfrond]

Be aware that, no matter HOW you touch up a poly finish (like on an MIM Fender), there will ALWAYS be "witness lines" around the touch-up area, because polys won't dissolve into the touch-up lacquer. Once cured, they are inert.

[slaerts]

Wow guys! Thank you so much. As I read each one I was thinking Now why didn't I think of this"
Cheers,