Touching Up Paint On Site

11/12/2014


From original questioner:

Wondering how you guys do touch up paint on your installs, like on crown joints? We've been doing a lot of painted kitchens lately that ear off white, to almost beige. I've been taking some of the paint with me and using a paint by numbers brush to touch it up. Time consuming.wondering if any of you guys have found a better way, or tips?

From contributor Da


Use a scriptliner artist brush, at least 1" long. Add MAK to your finish as a retearder (for solvent base).

From contributor Le


I use Mohawk Fil Stiks to fill in corners and nail holes on crown and other areas.

From contributor Mi


Leo, are those stiks hard like a crayon or more pliable? How hard is it to match up colors? I have a set of the fast cap blocks but they are hard and hard to work with.

From contributor Le


I'd say the Fil Stiks are about as hard as a Crayola. Matching is pretty easy if you get all of them.

From contributor ma


Some of the cabinet manufacturer that we deal with has touch up paint in a aerosol can
(Mohawk/finish and repair)
If I'm dealing with custom color i order a qt of paint and use a touch up spray gun.
I like to use Timbermate putty to fill nail holes and fill any gaps
The paint is usually a pre cat lacquer

From contributor Da


There are two easy answers to the uncooperative nature of fil-sticks.

1. Konig makes sticks that are much more pliable than the usual sticks you're used to. They have a great assortment of colors.

2. I have the FastCap and Mohawk and who knows what else, but they way to deal with those is tyo use a hair dryer to soften them up. Then, they go in like butter, cool down and harden back up. Burnish 6them with a piece of white copy paper wrapped around a sanding block or a piece of styrofoam. . If you have to razorblade your fill material, heat the blade up. You can also heat up a spatula-type burn in knofe with the heater to manipulate the wax fill.

From contributor Mi


Thanks for the pic Leo. That looks like a good selection for matching. I wondering that with using aerosol cans, how do you keep overspray from getting on ceilings, floors, etc? I thought once about getting an air brush to touch up but I'd still be afraid of getting overspray on everything.

From contributor Le


It's not that powerful of a spray. It really doesn't get everywhere. It has a low solids content and it is anti halo. Not sure how they do it but after the sheen calms down you can't see where you sprayed it as long as you used the correct matching sheen.

Otherwise just some tape, paper or cardboard.

From contributor Mi


I'm having the same issue. I need to touch up some panels on site and need to use a spray. I have a small compressor that we use with our finish nail gun.

Can someone please tell me what brand of small touch up gun to use? Do I use it with the compressor or is a small aerosol gun the best. These on not typically on joints but on the flat surface. Thanks for the help.

From contributor ma


There are touch up guns that can be use with a small compressor
They usually use 2-3cfm
CA Technology/Asturo are pretty good
touching up flat panels can be difficult depending on how big you need to touch up

From contributor an


i am only just finding out about the konig brand from this thread, can you guys who use them give more info on what exact products from them you used for touching up? I went on their site and they seem to offer different grades of their touch up kits.

From contributor Da


Konig fillers:
Soft Wax Kö140 series.
Get the Special Applicator (that yellow plastic scaping tool, Kö161-500) and a Special Scraper (the Konig flexible metal cabinet scraper, Kö 406).

Use a lighter or a hair dryer to make the wax fill material more pliable.

Get their pigmented color touch up products:
Kö240 Color Touch (bottle)
Kö 241 Pen
Kö 243 Edging Pen Plus
Whichever of these pigmented touch ups you think will work best for you.