About 9 years back I took the wife’s car to a local shop to have the fender repaired. Job looked great for years but recently a small area of paint flaked off (she also added a small scratch by it).

Car is a 2001 Mustang GT conv. we bought in 2002, wife drives 9k a year so the car just hit 150k miles. It looks and runs like it did new but this spot is bugging her so it is now bugging me (day and nite)

Before I take it to a body shop what is the process repair something like this?

I should add I checked it closely and can not find any other area's were the paint is loose.

Obsessively wife is ready for a new GT conv but this one runs great and gets 24 mpg on trips.

Selling and replacing with a new GT350R

A proper repair on base coat clear is to paint the whole panel.

"Selling and replacing with a new GT350R'

^^^or this^^

Saw the GT350R on Spike TV, one sweet car but not in this years budget.

Also, if it's flaking off the panel needs to be stripped; you shouldn't paint at all over the existing paint. Prep work is the key to a good job, and taking off all trim is part of that.

Sometimes trim gets damaged removing it, and anything glued on should be replaced. As old as the car is, the pinstripes might not match perfectly with the rest of the side, but good vendors can usually get it very close.

Done right, it's a bit expensive.

Okie is absolutely correct about painting the entire panel.

Dont' feel too bad. Repaint the panel.

You could have a ford like I do.... 01, everyone the color of mine I've seen, has done what mine is... clear coat coming off...

The whole damn thing has to be painted. Ford has zero liability.... [bleep].

I've had fords for a long time, first wiht a bad paint job though.

But I digress... I'll do it one day, or it'll just stay the way it is, I can't afford to pay someone to fix fords mistake.

When I was doing it and I had spot like that I would use a razor blade and try and peel it further. Some cars you could scrape the whole panel clean of base coat and clear coat. If you just feather that, prime and paint it will just peel again if it's not taken care of. Depending on how far it peels, you will likely get into blending surrounding panels to guarantee color match, especially silver.

Most shops here, even back then offer lifetime warranty on paint or prep defects.

6 pack of PBR, couple Pall Malls and a 99 cent rattle can and you'll be good to go.

Knew a guy that cut the top off an El Camino and overlayed his buggered top. Rattle canned and sanded, then clearcoated, looked like a $5000 paint job. Not clear on how much beer was needed to complete the project.

If you try to paint the entire panel I can guarantee you it won't match!

If the rest of the paint on the fender is solid, sand, prime and feather the spot, blend the base color in the area of the repair and clear the entire panel. If the edges of the flaked off spot are suspect, I'd test adhesion with high pressure air and then a razor blade. If it's loose, you will need to strip and base coat the entire panel, blend the base coat out onto adjoining panels then clear all panels that have been base coated.

Hey! This is the Fire! A bullethole decal will take care of that then you trade for another gun, er car.

Strip and repaint

CALLING NORTHERN DAVE!!!!!!!!!

I was really hoping this was about body paint....

What you need to look for is someone who bills themselves as an "automotive reconditioner" instead of a body shop. They're guys that specialize in making small repairs and blending the paint. All new car dealerships will know who the good ones in the area are, they use them to fix little dings on the new vehicles that come in and got dinged up in transit. It happens a lot more than people know about on new vehicles and they won't tell you it's been repaired.

I had a 2013 BMW 535I with a little curb rash on the lower left front bumper cover. I called the paintless dent repair guy I'd used before and asked him who to take for it. He sent me to a guy that runs Deep South Automotive Reconditioning in Pearl MS. I know that doesn't do you any good in CA. He specializes in minor touch ups for new car dealerships. He had me in and out in a day and when I picked it up I was shocked, it was blended perfectly and I absolutely could not tell in any way that it had been repaired. Most perfect repair job I'd ever seen, looked factory flawless. I think he charged me about $250.

A regular body shop is going to want to repaint the whole panel. One of these reconditioning guys can touch it up without going to that extreme. Call a local high end dealership (BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, etc.) and ask who they use for their touch ups, they'll have a guy on speed dial because new cars are constantly getting dinged in transit & they have to fix them perfectly before they go on the lot.

Thanks to all who responded, Crow Hunter now that I think about I have seen work done by "automotive reconditioner" tech's before that came out very nice.


thanks!

Gotta love a good paint job:

If it were me? A 15 yr. old mustang? With 150K miles? Factory touch up paint...the same thing a good detailer would use. There are a lot of good detailers around if you don't want to or can't do it yourself.