What Is A Paint Blob?

What Is A Paint Blob?

As they say, there's no such thing as absolute perfection in this world. Touching up your car's paint is no different. No matter how good of a job you think you did, and regardless of how easy the repair kit was to use, the end result may or may not be noticeably different than what your car should've looked like brand new. But those pesky stone chips and scratches have to be filled in someday, right

The most common 'oopsie' that we'll all face while touching up our car's poor paint is the dreaded blob. That feeling when you've applied just a bit too much touch-up, that it now looks like your car's got pimples. This newly erected mound of paint sits annoyingly far up over where the rest of the car's surface should've been. So, how do we go about peeling off this unsightly paint blob

How Do We Get Rid Of Excess Paint?

Now, there are more than a few ways to remove excess paint. Go online, and you'll quickly find loads of suggestions to use paint thinner, or sand the entire blob out. But there are flaws in this. Using paint thinner may not have as much of an effect, while sanding is a bit extreme. The latter requires skill and precision to do it right. Even then, you'll likely sand off more than you'd like

It may badly affect the clear- and base-coat entirely. There are, thankfully, more effective and easy-going alternatives to this. Some key factors that may make your life easier will be how big is the aforementioned blob, and how long has it been since you've noticed it. Is the paint still more or less not fully dried out?

Well, let's take a peek at some of the better ways that you can remove a paint blob..

Method 1 - No-Tools Required

The first, and most instinctive method to remove a paint blob is brute force. Not literally, of course, but you won't even need any specialised tools. A good start would be to use your fingernail, and see if you chip off the excess paint. This is the easiest choice you have, which costs precisely $0. It's better to use your nails if the paint is relatively fresh

Or, you could instead grab a toothpick. This also works well if the paint is still freshly applied, as it makes the blob more susceptible to being removed by the tip of the toothpick. It may help to have some prep solvent to loosen the paint surface. Now, carefully pick at the blobs, and lift the blobs from underneath them. Again, you can use that prep solvent to loosen it further

When you've done using either your nails or a toothpick, you can start to re-touch up your paint, just to even out the look under the blob. This time, though, it may be better to use the smaller tip of the toothpick to add the touch-up paint, instead of the paint pen or brush that came included in your repair kit.

Method 2 - Acetone Or Lacquer Thinner

Both of these are very different chemicals, but their respective strategies are nonetheless the same. If you can't find pure acetone paint remover, then nail polish remover (which also contains acetone) may be a good substitute. There's a very important note that we have to remind you all here, in that either thinner compound can damage the rest of your car's paintwork

So, you'll have to be careful when applying them, and limit their contact to only the blob. To do this safely, we recommend having some cotton swabs or Q-tips handy to apply the acetone, nail polish remover, or lacquer thinner.

Step 1: The first step would be clean the surface that you'll be working on, which includes the blob. Use a mixture of mild soap and water, and wash off any dirt or debris that might be stuck to the paint. Then, rinse and dry the area with a microfibre cloth or towel

Step 2: Get your cotton swab or Q-tip out, and gently cover just the tip of them with the acetone or lacquer thinner. Now, rub it over the paint blob, until the blob slowly dissolves and comes off the paint.

Step 3: When the blob is removed, you may want to do a bit more touching-up to iron out the surface. If so, then use a toothpick to very carefully add touch-up paints, and then letting it dry thoroughly before adding another layer

Method 3 - Sanding

So, we mentioned earlier that sanding the blob away isn't always the most efficient course of action. It will require a lot more touch up afterwards, and it gets really messy. Nevertheless, you may have to get the sandpaper out anyways in the event that the blob is far too stubborn for any of the earlier options to work. In that case, sandpaper is your best friend, if you do it right

Step 1: As with using thinners, you should always clean the area around the blob before attempting any fixes. Use a mix of mild soap and water to rinse off all contaminants, and then dry it off completely with a microfibre cloth

Step 2: This next step is important, as it will help to prevent any accidents while sanding the blob. You should very seriously consider taping the affected area off, just in case you sand out a large enough surface to affect the rest of the car. Remember, you only want to sand off the blob itself

Step 3: Now, you can start using some coarser grad of sandpaper, somewhere around 400 grit would work. This will be aggressive enough to start chipping away chunks of the blob. Slowly sand away the peaks of the blob. It might be helpful to combine both dry sanding first, and then wet sanding after. The latter is a process where you add water to the surface of the sandpaper, making it cut smoothly and prevents the abrasive pads from clogging up

Step 4: When the surface has now dried up after the rough sanding, we can smoothen it out post-blob with a finer grade of sandpaper. We recommend 1,200 grit for this, along with a combination of both dry and wet sanding from earlier. Keep sanding until the once blobby surface becomes flush with the rest of the paintwork.

Step 5 (Optional): Often, if you sand your car carefully, you won't need to touch it up afterwards. At most, maybe you'd want to apply a clear-coat finisher. However, if you've accidentally sanded off far too much paint, you can easily compensate with a re-touch-up to fill in the gaps. Once again, make sure that each layer has dried thoroughly before moving onto the next one.