Best fix for black on white paint overspray

Working on the roll pattern on my Mercury Redstone, I got a little paint bleed and overspray of the black Rustoleum 2X paint on the white Rustoleum 2X paint. Does anyone have any recommendations to clean it up before I totally screw this up? I tried alcohol and nail polish remover and it did nothing. Now I'm thinking straight acetone or wet sanding with 800 grit. I'll wait for some advice before proceeding further.

I'd use a X-acto knife and lightly scrape the overspray off. I've done this a number of times. Clear coat after and it all looks good.

Let paint cure, then lightly scrape with new blade in an Xacto knife. Go slow! Otherwise, I think you may only be happy with wet sanding and repainting. Try Tamiya masking tape, available at hobby stores. My Hobby Lobby also carries it. It is relatively expensive, but it's not like your masking around windows and baseboard trim on a bedroom repaint.

It only takes one screwed-up masked paint job to make regular masking tape look expensive ...

I've used magic erasers (mr clean) with good results. Just go easy on the pressure.

All good advice. I did consider lightly scraping with an Xacto knife. I do plan to dull coat it when done. I will impatiently wait for the paint to cure. Will post pics of results if anyone is interested. I know about the Tamyia tape but got impatient last night and used 3M blue painters tape. I knew better but thought luck was on my side. Will also try the magic eraser for final touch up. Thanks all and still open to other suggestions until the paint cures.

Best advice I ever got was after masking for the black, apply another coat of white, and then the black. That way if you get any bleed, it is white, and you won't see it.

Yes, my impatience got the best of me. Stupid, stupid, stupid! I learned my lesson, now the lesson on fixing impatience.��

I've learned my lesson well...regardless of what type of masking tape you use, if you have a white/very light base color and you're spraying darker over, do a lot of extra checks that whatever is supposed to be covered is covered well and that the edges of the masking are down really good (go three+ rounds of checking). Even one little gap and you'll see something like a red/black/blue/etc. streak/spot/spray that really sticks out. An ounce of precaution...

I switched from the blue painters tape to FrogTape and have been very happy with the results.

Guys:
Sealing your masking with a color coat adds addition paint dam thickness and some additional paint mass that is unnecessary. A better Masking sealer is to use a matte or dull coat Clear to seal the edges of your masking. Clear contains NO pigment, dries to a much thinner Film faster (because it's matte) and add much less mass to the model.

Another Painters trick to help eliminate just about any over-spary, run, fingernail or other paint problem is: Once the color coat is dry (Sniff Test) apply a clear coat to the entire surface. Allow this to dry then apply your next color after masking. If you make a mistake, have a run or paint seep under it can be easily removed with a clean cloth tip dipped in Mineral spirits. Just one wipe in one direction with each clean cloth finger tip. but any mistake is simply erased.

Scraping with the blade of a new or sharpened X-acto or Razor blade with the blade at 90deg to the painted surface also works on Dry color coats.

As Trident mentioned Tamiya masking tapes are pretty good but they will wick paint just like most other edge sealing masking materials. The major difference is it is So darn expensive. you can get exactly the same quality edges with Frog Tape YELLOW for fresh paint or 3m fine-line green masking tape. yellow frog tape I've recently found at Lowe's and the 3m Fine line tape at the auto paint stores

Micromeister said:

A better Masking sealer is to use a matte or dull coat Clear to seal the edges of your masking. Clear contains NO pigment, dries to a much thinner Film faster (because it's matte) and add much less mass to the model.

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+1.

Dremel polishing wheel and some buffing compound.
Just a smaller version of the old auto finishing overspray removal tools.

Woody's Workshop said:

Dremel polishing wheel and some buffing compound.
Just a smaller version of the old auto finishing overspray removal tools.

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I would think this would rub the black overspray into the white undercoat leaving a gray spot. Same goes for paint thinners and solvents.

Nope, just cuts away the high spots and leaves a bit of shine behind.
You can work it with finer compounds to get high shine if wanted.
The compound has grit, while wet, it gives a lubricant.
If you tried it dry w/o compound, that would surely burn the finish.

The scraping worked very well along with a bit extra wet sanding and still a bit of white paint touch up, I am satisfied with my paint job. Something to note, I sprayed the Rusto 2X white into the paint cap for the paint touch up and the coverage over the black was incredible! One coat concealed the black underneath.

Swissyhawk said:

I switched from the blue painters tape to FrogTape and have been very happy with the results.

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+1 on the Frog Tape. Excellent stuff. I use the yellow, for delicate surfaces.

Mr Rocket said:

Best advice I ever got was after masking for the black, apply another coat of white, and then the black. That way if you get any bleed, it is white, and you won't see it.

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This is what I normally do because it works so well.

Normal blue painter's tape works fine for me but I have found that it is important to store it in a plastic bag so that it stays clean. If dust and stuff stick to the side of the roll then the paint lines will be less than perfect.

Nathan said:

Normal blue painter's tape works fine for me but I have found that it is important to store it in a plastic bag so that it stays clean. If dust and stuff stick to the side of the roll then the paint lines will be less than perfect.

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+1000 :wink: