Fixing Incidental surface corrosion or paint gouges on a 993

A while back I opened my door against the handle of a push lawnmower and made a one-inch-long gouge all the way through the mirror's pant and deep into the white plastic mirror housing underneath OUCH! As an experiment in avoiding having to get the mirror repainted, at considerable cost, I tried the below DIY procedure to good effect where on can't even tell the mirror was ever gouged. 

I would not use this procedure on open smooth areas of the body as the eye is very unforgiving in detecting any variance in the paint in open areas. I would use it on surface corrosion near folds in the metal, small open areas, and edges. 

My car is a light non-metallic color, Speed Yellow. Speed Yellow is also a single-stage paint meaning with no clearcoat and all the top layers carry color. For cars that have a metallic finish or any clear coated painted cars, I strongly recommend testing this procedure in a less visible spot on your specific car first and see if the results are to your liking.

The procedure will clean up any dime or nickel size surface rust or gouges or spot chips. It is not intended to address large area damage to the paint finish. It will also work well for fine chips in the paint that accumulates on the front wings around the headlights.

A modified version of this procedure to address surface corrosion surrounding the windshield and back window on a 993 can be found here.

Supplies:

• Body-color matching bottle & brush touch-up pant;
• 250, 600, 2000, 3000, 5000 and 7000 grit wet sandpaper;
• A "000" Artists paintbrush;
• A box of toothpicks;
• A roll of masking tape;
• lacquer  Thinner;
• New (unused) white Terry Cloth rags or washcloths;
• A plastic squirt bottle filled with water;
• Dupont Perfect-It Ultra Fine Machine Polish or similar;
• An electric hand buffer used with a "foam wheel", both available inexpensively from Harbor Freight.

Procedure:

Initial prep steps for larger than chip areas where corrosion may be present:

• Use some 250 to 600 grit sandpaper to dry-sand any corrosion down to shiny fresh metal; 
• To aid in working in small areas wrapping the sandpaper around a popsicle stick to aid in controlling the sanding area can help; 
• Use care to not sand the adjacent undamaged finish. Using masking tape one can mask off the surrounding area to avoid sanding into it;
• Then wipe or blow off the dust created from the sanding, using lacquer thinner very sparingly on a rag also helps in removing any residual grit, wax or paint sealant that may have contaminated the area.
• Remove any masking tape used to protect the adjacent unblemished paint;

Follow on steps for filling larger areas or spot fixes for small chips in the original paint:

• Remove any previously applied touch-up paint that has been applied to small chips and exhibits overlap of the surrounding unblemished finish. If the previous touchup is sparing in nature it can be left in place. 
• A previously applied touch-up can be removed with a little lacquer thinner sparingly applied on a clean terry cloth rag. The idea being that by using lacquer thinner sparingly it will flash-off dry before it attacks the original paint and just picks up the old acrylic touch-up paint. It will also aid in removing any wax or sealant that may interfere with the adhesion of the repair being contemplated.
• Put a puddle of fresh touchup paint in a small ceramic or metal dish. Do not use a plastic dish as it can contaminate the paint and cause it to not adhere properly;
• Let the paint dry to a thickened pancake syrup like state;
• Apply multiple layers, if necessary, of the thicked paint, allowing for drying between application layers, until it builds up in thickness just above the surrounding unblemished paint;
• Minimize overlapping the new pant over the unblemished finish as it will create a paint ridge around the damaged area's boundary that may require additional work to remove in later sanding steps. 
• For good control on applying the paint to small chips use an artist's "000" paintbrush or a toothpick to apply the paint.
• Once thoroughly dry start with 2000 grit moving to progressively finer grit sandpaper with the water bottle to wet-sand the applied paint flush to the existing unblemished finish that surrounds the repair;
• Use care not to sand through the outer layers of the existing finish adjacent to the repair;
• Use the spray bottle of water to keep things wet during sanding;
• Once done sanding the process can be repeated an unlimited number of times until the desired result of an invisibly flush surface paint repair is achieved.
• When done let the repair sit for a couple weeks to gas-out and harden before buffing with a foam wheel or polishing to remove any dullness in the paint from the sanding process.

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