So my 67 Lime frost has an “oops” in the paint job that needs to be fixed. Don’t have a picture to put up at the time. Pretty easy to describe though. Just a scratch through clear coat and base coat in the small flat raised area of the wheel well on drivers side. It is lower about a foot above where the rocker attaches to quarter. It is just basically in the flat but does make it to the body line. The wheel well trims will cover quite a bit of it but obviously not all.
The paint is 15 years old already, but never seen any driving time or much sun except when I move the car around from garage to shop to work on it, or what peeks in the windows.
So I talked to two different body guys. One looked at it, one I sent pictures. Both initially said blend base coat, and then re-clear the whole back of the car along with the sail panels and roof (minus trunk deck, quarter extensions, rear valance, etc.) They are saying this because there are no good places to stop the clear coat. I asked about clear coat blend, and both said you can do it, but spoke of haze lines, possible pealing issues, and visual differences.
So the stripes are not on my car yet, so I brought that up as a possible break point. Two 1/16 in stripes isn’t much, but doable, and now you just have to re-clear the one quarter. Still a repair that can be seen though.
However I have seen plenty of video and looked up just spot repairs (cutting and blending clear) and it looks very promising. Here are a couple of links to what I found. One is from a prominent restoration shop about 3hrs from me. https://www.hotrod.com/articles/ccrp-0807-car-paint-job-restoration/# and http://nastyz28.com/threads/blending-clear-the-right-way.258231/
So I am at a quagmire on what to do. Right now the plan is to get the F-42 stripe from Finesse get it placed correctly on the car so the local body guy can see where he has to work to, and just clear the quarter, then put the lines on. Re-clearing the whole back and roof of car just don’t seem like a great option. Restored window trims, bumper, quarter extensions, repro quarter emblems etc all have to come off and go back on, not to mention cost.
Target is a nice driver quality car that could perhaps be taken to some local events (without a gouge in the fender well)
Thanks in advance for input.
I’ve tried the blending over the years with base/clear. I have fixed solid colors like Wimbledon white, black, yellow. However if its a metallic or has pearl in it I would get a dark boundary line around the fix and end up re-doing the panel. There is different sprays called melts that you spray on the old clear around the repair that softens and allows the new clear to absorb. Body shop guys will do fixing on dark colors but even then the clear can give away the area.
Blending is definitely possible, but should only be done by someone/shop who has done this before and feel comfortable doing so. If those shops say they don’t recommend it, then don’t let them do it. If you are looking for driver quality and not pristine I would consider it.
Peeling should be no issue if the surface is prepped correctly. Colormatching the body color is generally alot harder, but you know the color name and as you say the car hasn’t been out much, so It should not be that faded.
All will depend on the bodyshop I guess. After the blend, they will (or should certainly) polish the blend in with rest of the original clear and will be hardly visible.
ClawIt, It is a metallic (Lime frost) The two places I have talked to claim they can blend the base coat no problem. It’s the clear that they fuss about. I would think with the metallic you would need a pretty good size area to get it to blend, but it sounds like not from what they are saying.
Hanver, I actually have a real good paint match already. A camera shot was done, and I actually repainted and cleared the 4 extensions as they got somewhat chipped up and such from this project dragging on this many years. It is a near perfect “Butt match” on the paint. The average onlooker will never notice. Blending that into existing paint though and re-clearing an entire panel or spot repair isn’t my cup of tea even though I made the extensions come out good.
David, I just went through this recently with my lime frost car and the consensus was it will never be the same I chose not to do any repair. The best to me was to patch the chips with hand brushed on paint and finish as best as possible. Haggerty was talking about repainting the entire car to make it correct.
I agree the base coat usually goes on ok and soaks into the clear. I’ll pass on two statements made to me over time about spot fixing light base/clear colors. One body man got the color in single stage urethane (which has the clear blended in) and sprayed over the area. After a couple of days wet sanding and buffing he said the customer was happy with it. Another was the spot was repainted with the base and allowed a few days to dry. Mixing some clear and its hardener and applying to the spot while overlapping with a foam brush. Then after several days wet sanding and buffing. I have not personally seen the results of either method.
Interesting topic. Our past-owned Black 70 XR7 Convertible had re-paint work done on a section of its hood. Black, being Black, blended well… new paint to old paint at Left side body line at hood’s center. The clear overlap blend was slightly visible when looking at the “right” angle in direct sunlight, and more noticeable under florescent lighting… Florescent lighting brings out finer variation that will exist in paint / clear finish coats. Hope your 67 Lime Frost fix goes well.
Thanks katnip.
I value everyone’s input to this point, and don’t doubt the wisdom and experience everyone has had along these lines.
One thing I find myself trying to figure out (just for the sake of doing so more-so than for my decision making) is most say if you try to blend clear coat you will get a hazy line where the blend is, and the more time that passes the more distinctive it will be. I don’t question this. But what I don’t get is what creates that hazy line, and why don’t you get haze under clear coat over clear coat if you do an entire panel edge to edge?
The only thing I can figure is with the blend you don’t ever get a true “joining” of the clears at that point (no matter how much blender or “melter” you use) and you get moisture (oxidation) that permeates the blend line? One would think you would still get that doing a whole panel at some point. even if you “wrap” the edges of the panel are the two coats of clear ever joining?
Still don’t know what I am going to do. Here is the spot. The pics don’t show the scratch. Just show that I was stupid enough to think I could wet sand and make it look less noticeable 
If you can tape to a sharp body line then blend clear to that line. you can leave the sharp edge and wet sand it out on the body line so it isn’t that noticeable. When you’re blending out to a flat panel the clear you’re spraying becomes to thin and will have a hazy look to it. Sometime you can wet sand the clear back so it blends good and sometimes you can’t 
That’s the part that takes some experience to master. Unfortunately I’m not quite at that level yet.
If you’re not pass that body line on yours around the arch (think of where the GTE molding would mount) I would spot color it and clear to that body line and then wet sand the parting line. One advantage it’s lower on the car and less noticeable.
pellets4fuel: Yes, our clear coat break being transitioned on the hood nose bodyline was probably a plus. And, would follow along with Brian C’s previous comments & suggestions. Looks like you have a nice break point at the bodyline around the rear quarter wheel opening. So, your repair area shouldn’t be too noticeable when complete. Also, You, being the Cats owner, will notice subtle after-the-repair flaws that others won’t see. 
This may sound dumb, but something I have thought about is the two tone that the GTE’s have, and the trim they put at that lower body line. Is that just a stick on trim that is reproduced? Not sure I would go two tone cuz what color would look good down there on a Lime Frost car? The whole concept might be totally stupid also being that I don’t have a vinyl top. Thought about that too, adding a vinyl top. Then one could reclear just that one quarter. Need the windshield and back glass out though for a vinyl top correct? Trim hard to come by?