Paint runs and dust nibs

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Joined
Nov 15, 2016
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Location
Australia
My Car
1972 Mustang Coupe 302 Auto RHD
For those of us spray painting our own vehicles it is inevitable we will get some dust in the paint and no doubt most of us will get a run or two

There is nothing wrong with getting a run in the paint and from a well known local spray painter he reckons if you don't get a run every now and again you are not putting the paint on thick enough!

Anyway there are a few ways of removing these imperfections including applying fine body filler over the run then wet sanding the hell out of it or sanding the dust nibs with a tiny block and 1500 grit sandpaper or finer

Always looking for a better way I came across a relatively newer way of approaching this using a tungsten block so always looking for a better way I purchased a tungsten block receiving it today and couldn't help myself in at least giving it a shot.

Boy was I surprised at how easily it removed any blemishes but you do need to be careful with it

As much as I would like to take a video of my results I was lazy and have included a link here to a well made video


 
If i have a run that big, I tape off the area around it and then use a razor blade and scrape it in the same fashion he is doing in video. Wet sand it flush with 1,000 or 1,200. Then start stepping up the whole area around the run. I usually wet sand up to 2,500. I just wet sanded and de-nibbed the yellow mach 1 last night. Some areas I started at 1,500 that had some orange peel then stepped to 2000 then 2500. For the dust nibs I worked those with 2000 and made sure not to get anything in my paper while doing it. You don't want that dust nib sticking to your paper and making bigger scratches all over. Lots of different ways to tackle a run, but I never buy any special tools for it. Go slow and creep up on the run, tape off area around it and you will be fine. But that little tool looks like it works pretty good.

 
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$80.00 for a $5.00 piece of Tungsten Carbide is a little much. You can do the same thing with metal cutting tool inserts for lathe, mill and can even go to ceramic inserts. My aunt use to work at Kyocera Ceramics here where I live and if an edge did not clean up on the tool insert it was scrap since they were held to size within tenths of thousands of an inch. A triangle insert has six or eight cutting edges to use so if one if bad it is scrap. She would give me bags of them.

https://global.kyocera.com/prdct/tool/index.html#northamerica

The edge on the ceramic is like a mirror finish the only thing that will cut it is diamond.

They make carbide paint scrapers I use when working on the home also. Their edge is not cut that that fine of a finish but you can lap with diamond compound.

Will have to see if it works on the paint runs.

I use to shave the paint off cars painted with lacquer with razor blades. was faster than stripper and less effort than sanding. It did not work as well on enamel paint.

 
When I need fix a run or anything "too much" on a surface, I use the non cutting but sharp side of a cutter blade. If not sharp enough, I break for the next bit. I like I can hold it as a pencil and have precise control. I won't use a small tool like the one on the video for that reason.

 
$80 USD is certainly a rip off. I paid about $45 USD and it comes with a handle with velcro so you can put a 1 inch sanding disc on it, this one -

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/TUNGSTEN-BLOCK-DENIB-FILE-FILING-SANDING-DE-NIB/321505477605?hash=item4adb3843e5:g:zzsAAOSwQH5b23bl

Certainly an old razor works but best to sand the corners back a bit and no doubt many other ways to skin a cat but for me I can't help myself when a time saving gadget comes along to expand my ever growing tool collection.

 
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