A multicoat refinishing process for repairing an area of damage of an original finish, in which
- A) the area of damage is prepared for the application of a refinish paint system by cleaning, sanding, and, if necessary, applying a surfacer and/or body filler,
- B) a first coating material is applied to the prepared area of damage and to an adjacent original finish area,
- C) a first coating film, having a dry film thickness of between 2 and 50 .mu.m in the area of damage, is formed from the first coating material,
- D) an aqueous basecoat composition containing metallic and/or special-effect pigments is applied to the first coating film at such a thickness that the basecoat composition hides the area of damage and has a dry film thickness that gradually diminishes outwards from the edge of the area of damage to 0 .mu.m within the adjacent region of the original finish coated with the first coating film,
- E) a basecoat film is formed from the basecoat composition,
- F) a transparent topcoat composition is applied to the basecoat film, and then
- G) a topcoat film is formed from the topcoat composition and the topcoat, basecoat, and first coating layers are dried together at a temperature between room temperature and 100.degree. C.,
- wherein
- I) the first coating material is aqueous and comprises
- a) 5 to 50% by weight, based on the total weight of the coating material, of at least one water-thinnable or water-dispersible film-forming material,
- b) 0 to 20% by weight, based on the total weight of the coating material, of at least one organic solvent, and
- wherein
- the first coating material and/or the basecoat compositions contain resins selected from the group consisting of polyurethane resins, emulsion polymers obtained by
- (a) polymerizing in the first stage 10 to 90 parts by weight of an ethylenically unsaturated monomer or a mixture of ethylenically unsaturated monomers in aqueous phase in the presence of one or more emulsifiers and one or more radical-forming initiators, the ethylenically unsaturated monomer or the mixture of ethylenically unsaturated monomers being chosen so that in the first stage a polymer is obtained having a glass transition temperature (T.sub.G1) of +30.degree. to +110.degree. C., and,
- (b) after at least 80% by weight of the ethylenically unsaturated monomer or monomer mixture used in the first stage has reacted, polymerizing in a second stage 90 to 10 parts by weight of an ethylenically unsaturated monomer or a mixture of ethylenically unsaturated monomers in the presence of the polymer obtained in the first stage, the monomer used in the second stage or the mixture of ethylenically unsaturated monomers used in the second stage being chosen so that a sole polymerization of the monomer used in the second stage or of the mixture of ethylenically unsaturated monomers used in the second stage furnishes a polymer having a glass transition temperature (T.sub.G2) of -60.degree. to +20.degree. C., and the reaction conditions being chosen so that the resultant emulsion polymer had a number average molecular weight of 200,00 to 2,000,000, and the ethylenically unsaturated monomer or mixture of monomers used in the first stage and those of the ethylenically unsaturated monomer or mixture of monomers used in the second stage being chosen so that the resultant emulsion polymer has a hydroxyl value of 2 to 100 and the difference (T.sub.G1)-(T.sub.G2) is 10.degree. to 170.degree. C.