Suggestions to clean up small hole & paint match inside of the tailgate.

[DrJoeSchmoe]

Long story short, we beat up the tailgate by closing it on a pull behind beach buggy. Lucky for us a hole needed to be made in the same general area to allow a drawer lever to pass though it. I used a dremel to make the 1" x 1" hole, first attempt at something like this, I always seem to know just enough to be dangerous. Looking back I would of placed a piece of hard wood behind the spot and with a circular saw drilled the hole, I see rubber grommets and cable pass throughs plentiful that would fit a circle. No luck for something as simple as a 1" square. I attempted to paint the area with Mopar factory spray paint, it covered up some sins but didn't match great. I get it needs some clear coat but do you think it will match? not darken up even more?

Generally speaking no. Mopar paint is supplied by duplicolor (I think), either way, it's a urethane-based paint and shouldn't change much with clearcoat. Waterborne paint will usually change significantly, but not urethane.

From my experience urethane paints will darken as you apply coats, so too many coats can make it too dark.

If you want great matching paint try touchupdirect.com.

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[SuMeRiaN]

Generally speaking no. Mopar paint is supplied by duplicolor (I think), either way, it's a urethane-based paint and shouldn't change much with clearcoat. Waterborne paint will usually change significantly, but not urethane.

From my experience urethane paints will darken as you apply coats, so too many coats can make it too dark.

If you want great matching paint try touchupdirect.com.

if I apply clear coat do I do it evenly over the general area or tape off and spray only the newly painted area?

Thanks everyone for the continued feedback.

 

[DrJoeSchmoe]

if I apply clear coat do I do it evenly over the general area or tape off and spray only the newly painted area?

Thanks everyone for the continued feedback.

It all depends on what you're willing to do. The correct way would be to start over and blend the base color (this would help hide the color match issue), then you would apply clear to the surrounding area as well. The correct way is much more work. The second way is much faster/easier but won't look as good. Even with perfect matching paint taping and spraying as you did will never look perfect. I'm not trying to critique your work btw, I'm just trying to provide some advice.

 

[SuMeRiaN]

It all depends on what you're willing to do. The correct way would be to start over and blend the base color (this would help hide the color match issue), then you would apply clear to the surrounding area as well. The correct way is much more work. The second way is much faster/easier but won't look as good. Even with perfect matching paint taping and spraying as you did will never look perfect. I'm not trying to critique your work btw, I'm just trying to provide some advice.

Thank you!

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