Spray Bomb Boogie

TEXT AND IMAGES BY MIKE SELF

LET’S BE HONEST. I wasn’t expecting much. Before you get it twisted, though, I want to be clear: I wasn’t expecting much from myself. I had heard great things about AutomotiveTouchup’s products, especially its touch up bottles and pens, but I wasn’t sure I’d be up to the task of tackling a paint job on a whole fender. Especially with aerosol cans.

Oh, I know it could be done well, but certainly not by me. Rattle-canning a fresh step notch is about all I trust myself with, and that’s just because no one would see it once it was covered up. When AutomotiveTouchup contacted me to see if I’d be interested in trying out some of its touch up products, I said, “Sure.”

But then I realized that I didn’t really have anything that needed touching up. I mentioned that I had a C10 that needed a new fender and door, and it was too bad they didn’t have anything to paint large body panels. Well, I was wrong—AutomotiveTouchup does offer larger quantities of paint, in both aerosol and ready-to-spray pints, quarts and gallons. And you know what? They also offer primers, clears and even things like sandpaper, sanding blocks, tack cloths and spray guns! This was news to me, so I arranged to have some of the company’s aerosol products and prep materials delivered to give it a go. A few days later, I got a big box o’ stuff in the mail, including paint that was a perfect match for my C10’s original Russet Metallic brown.