The car body inevitably gets damaged during operation and rust gradually appears in these places. Some cars initially have weak spots where the metal of the body begins to rust even without damage. In this regard, the weak point of many cars is the bottom of the hood niche, where the radiator grille is inserted.
You can eliminate this defect with your own hands, even far from the garage, if, of course, you have at least basic car painting skills and the appropriate painting products and tools.
Do-it-yourself partial car painting
We unscrew the radiator grille and, using a drill and a wire disk, clean the metal from rust, swollen paint and various contaminants.
We process the cleaned areas with P150 grit sandpaper.
We wipe the treated areas with a cloth moistened with solvent 646 to wash off any remaining dirt and remove particles and dust formed when sanding the metal surface.
Apply a suitable degreaser to a cloth and treat all areas to be painted.Next, using a regular brush, apply the rust converter to those places where it still remains in the form of traces.
Leave everything for 1 hour.
Apply putty with aluminum dust twice, after 10 minutes sand with P150 sandpaper and wipe with a soft cloth.
Apply the third layer of putty selectively and also after 10 minutes sand it with softer sandpaper P180.
Lapping sanding is carried out using P240 sandpaper.
We wipe the restoration areas with a hard damp cloth and then with a soft cloth such as an old towel. We cover the engine compartment with a piece of unnecessary fabric and secure it in several places with tape so that it does not blow away in the wind. We treat the restoration surface with a degreaser and after a short time sand it with P500 sandpaper.
Using tape and newspaper, cover all areas of the radiator grille that cannot be painted. We degrease the perimeter of the grille and cover it with epoxy primer from an aerosol can in 2 layers. We also apply primer to the bottom of the front of the hood.
We apply seam sealant to the back side of the bottom of the front part of the hood. We wipe the front side of the restored surface with a damp cloth. Now you can start applying paint, prepared in advance, in a color that matches the main color of the car.
We fill the prepared paint into an aerosol can using a special piston-type charging device.
First, we paint the periphery of the radiator grille, and then the front part of the car’s hood. After 10 minutes, apply a second coat of paint.
After waiting 10 minutes, apply a colorless varnish from an aerosol can and immediately apply a transition solvent.
We remove the tape and newspaper from the radiator grille and install it in place. Partial painting of the car has been completed.
