My daughter brought me her 2002 Indigo Blue Blazer, which was hit by hail years ago. It was repainted but not very well. This pic is on the hood, there are several of these spots on the roof, some with the rust coming through.

It is not a valuable car but she asked if I can fix it up. I bought some "perfect match" base coat and clear coat but not sure of how to proceed.

What's the best way to fix these spots - without investing any more money?

 

Well, I gave it a try and it is better - but not good. For those who want to try: I used a DA sander ($25 at Harbor Freight) with 150 grit to sand the edges smooth, followed by 220. Masked and gave 2-3 light coats of Perfect Match Indigo paint. After an hour I wet sanded with 1000 grit to get the overspray off of the good part surrounding the new paint. Remasked and applied 5 coats of Perfect Match Clear to the newly painted area. The last coat I sprayed pretty close to get a better shine. I waited two hours and then used rubbing compound to remove the overspray. Then Polish to get some shine back. Next week I will wax.


Unfortunately the paint did not match, not by a long shot. The circle line around the bad spot is still there though of course not as visible. The gloss from the new clear is different from the rest of the hood. Plus the rest of the hood is filled with white spots because of the bad paint job from years ago, and those are still there.


So I spent $50 and maybe if I sell the Blazer will get my money back. If I wanted to start over I would do the whole hood. Or I could have spent $200 for another cheap paint job at Maaco and the car, which is in otherwise great shape, would fetch another $600. I do not recommend trying to fix a bad paint spot the way I did.