I hate bodywork, and I try to stay away from it. I know that it's an art, but any online help to show how to paint a spot that doesn't have a natural break line? If you mask a small square, you get a painted small square. I need to understand the technique to blend and feather into the surrounding paint.
How big a spot? My way is to NOT mask, just let the over spray fly and buff when done. I am NOT a painter and it shows. 
Gearheadotaku wrote: How big a spot? My way is to NOT mask, just let the over spray fly and buff when done. I am NOT a painter and it shows.
You can actually get decent results by doing this, assuming the original surrounding paint is not pristine.
Don't mask the spot you're painting. Just spray it in a fanning motion. When it dries thoroughly, wet sand the whole section and buff.
I've got the clear coat flaking off one of my cars. Could I use the same technique to redo the clear coat only, or do I have to do the base colour,too?
Nope, you'll need to redo the base coat.
Tom Suddard wrote: Nope, you'll need to redo the base coat.
Not necessarily. I have seen cars have the flaking clear wetsanded out to feather back to the solid parts or very carefully sanded to remove all the clear and re-clear.
It takes a light hand an a lot of patience as factory basecoats are very thin so you'll most likely cut through it but if you are good you can get away with it.
Well, i guess if you were not paying yourself for time and labor you could do patch jobs on clearcoat but i sure as hell wouldnt pay someone to do it because if it is coming up in spots it's ABOUT to come up in other spots.
hrdlydangerous wrote: Don't mask the spot you're painting. Just spray it in a fanning motion. When it dries thoroughly, wet sand the whole section and buff.
1000 then 2000 grit or something different? If I'm going to do my touchup/repair with a base and clear, do I need to wet sand in between or just at the end?
Youtube has lots on this subject.
Proper way is to do the engire panel.
Not masking and having a can of "blender" that melts the new clear into the old is also a repetive topic.
Of course, they all recomend that you have "experience" but where you going to get that if you don't start somewhwere?
My first effort sucked, but since it was abeater car and it started with a crumpled fender that was straight and shiny when we finished, I was still a hero!
As a long time pro painter and body man, My recommendation is to leave that type of repair to a pro. I was a rep for Sherwin Williams and taught the techniques of tinting and blending to body shop painters. Without a lot of experience, you will be better doing whole panels.
Regardless on the type of paint your working with a spot in the middle of a panel is going to be extremely hard to make invisible. If you can use any of the body lines to minimize your seams it will help. I've had good luck spraying the panel with the paint being used (base/clear or single stage) and then adding lacquer thinner 50/50 on the last coat to "burn it" in. Then you can sand and buff.
The alternative is to add graphics to cover the spot. The AC Cobras I did years ago just got stripes added most of the time to cover the seam. Often the stripe across the fender into the engine compartment was there to hide the seam.
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