The PO of my car had it painted in 2000 I have the receipts and the paint color/code. The paint is overall still in very good condition but the front of my hood has a few hard bubbles on front edge. It is the only area on car showing any signs of rust. I looked on the under side and see no signs of rust there and was wondering if I find a competent painter if this could be repaired and not be noticeable. I did bring it to a guy in town to look at and he just rubbed me the wrong way. I asked him if he thought he could blend it without doing entire hood, "yeah you most likely won't be able to tell". You have a estimate on cost "you can drop it off next week and I will let you know after we get started on it". Also should I do the body work on it, that I can handle but I cant paint to save my life I have tried a few times and failed miserably.

 

I think you'll need to pain the whole hood, worst case the tops of the fenders and the cowl vent also.

 

Paint 15 years old has definitely faded, and there are no paint codes for any color that has faded. The body shop should try to blend the repainted, repaired area into the rest of the paint on that particular panel, in this case the hood. That means "feathering" it in in some fashion. Body shops have done this on cars I've had repaired, and they had paint much younger than 15 years.

If the entire hood is repainted and nothing else, the car would likely look funny as the hood would be a different color. That means, as oldcutlass suggests, painting more than just the hood. But that means you'd be simply moving the transition point from the old paint to the new paint to somewhere else on the car. If that point can be obscure, such as low down on a fender or something like that, the transition would not be noticeable, and this could work.

Dealing with a situation like this is not trivial, but a competent body shop should be able to handle it. In the end, though, short of repainting the entire car, it may not possible to completely eliminate a transition point.

 

Is your damaged paint area just on the blue areas of the hood,or does it extend into the white stripes.If the stripes are ok ,is it just the middle section of blue? The up to date automotive paint stores are equipped with a camera ,that is used to take a photo of the paint ,and they can get the paint formula from the photo.
If the complete hood needs to be painted,paint the tops of the fenders also, but when taping the side of the fenders,let the tape "stand up " about 1/2 of the width of the tape along the top edge of the fender.
This allows the paint to blow under the tape when being sprayed ,eliminating a hard edge on the corner of the fenders top edge. Good luck, Larry

 

It is just the front edge of the hood in the blue only, guess I will take it to someone competent I hope and see what they can do.

 

If it's only on the area or both areas between the white stripes,it shouldn't show if they can match the paint decently.I would do the body work if I were you.Make sure you get the damaged area block sanded really well,then you should be able to find a painter just to spray it for you,and not cost a arm and a leg. Best of luck. Larry

 

If its just in the center area, that should be easy. If its close it shouldn't matter.

 

It is just center, I will post back with results hopefully before spring

 

In the body/paint industry there two terms used. painters and applicators. An "applicator" just shoots whatever the computer puts out for a formular good or bad. A "painter" knows exactly what it takes to make that color and has the ability to customize it to the actual color on the car. The most important part of this is what paint is on it. If acylic enamel- Forget it. Nobody has the tints anymore in fact dupont Centari is discontinued all together. Base /Clear - find a real painter and he can make it match. Lastly don't expect it to be cheap the time involved doing multiple spray outs, and that may be many to get the color right, is not cheap.

 

One of my hobbies at home is to paint and restore cars. I have done dozen of complete show quality paint jobs and body work.

Here is what I do when trying to match paint, older paint when your not doing a complete;

I go to Sherwin Williams Automotive Paint and they have a gun that they can shoot on your car and get the correct color codes to mix up paint that will match old sun faded paint if your not doing a complete. They are very good at it and if your in with the guys there they will do this for free. That will save you a lot of monies at the body shop having a specialist try to match your color. And then have them mix ya up a pint or quart to take to your body shop.

Just my .02 cents worth!

 

Oh buy the way there is a lot of great advise here.

And, if you do go with the blend feature they will have to blend the entire front end of the car including the sides of the fenders to make it all look right.

Again just my .02 cents worth!