How to Mask When Blending Paint Lines on a Car

When you repair and paint a section of your car, you dont want to leave noticeable lines in the paint where the repainted area is. Masking tape helps protect the surrounding paint, but it can leave a visible, noticeable line, which is called a hard line. There are a few things you can do to make sure there is no hard line in your repairs and still have your paint looking like the surrounding paint already on the car.

Instructions

1

Complete all repairs as needed on the car. Once the repairs are made, spray your primer and let it dry.

2

Sand the primer and the surrounding paint with 900-grit sandpaper and water. Keep the sandpaper soaking wet while it is in contact with the car. Sand 8 to 12 inches around the outside of the primer to lightly scuff the existing paint. Rinse the area and let it dry.

3

Place the foam masking tape around the edges of the scuffed area. The foam tape looks like rope and commonly is used in door and truck crevices. Since the tape is standing off of the cars surface, there is no hard line.

4

Place regular masking tape along the outer edges of the foam tape. Place paper around the regular masking tape to protect the car from overspray.

5

Paint your car as you normally would, concentrating on the areas sprayed with primer. Lightly spray over the scuffed area outside the primer. The overspray from this will fall near and slightly under the foam, but wont accumulate in one line as it would with tape.