Process for touching up pretreated metal surfaces

A process for touching up a surface of an object, said surface comprising (i) at least one first area of an initial protective coating over an underlying metal substrate, in which said first area the initial protective coating retains all the protective qualities that it had when initially applied and (ii) at least one second area which consists of one or both of (ii.1) an area of exposed metal and (ii.2) an area of a covering that provides protective qualities inferior to those provided by the initial protective coating in said first area, said process comprising steps of:

• (I) coating at least said second area of said surface to be touched up and a transition zone of said first area adjacent to said second area, said transition zone having a width of at least 0.2 mm with a layer of an aqueous liquid composition comprising water and:
• (A) a concentration of a component of fluorometallate anions, each of said anions consisting of:
• (i) at least four fluorine atoms and (ii) at least one atom of an element selected from the group consisting of titanium, zirconium, hafnium, silicon, aluminum, and boron;
• and, optionally, one or both of (iii) at least one ionizable hydrogen atom, and (iv) at least one oxygen atom;
• (B) a concentration of a component of divalent or tetravalent cations of elements selected from the group consisting of cobalt, magnesium, manganese, zinc, nickel, tin, copper, zirconium, iron, and strontium;
• (C) a concentration of a component selected from the group consisting of phosphorus-containing inorganic oxyanions and phosphonate anions;
• and
• (D) a concentration of a component of water-soluble and/or -dispersible organic polymers and/or polymer-forming resins;
• and
• (II) drying into place on the surface of the object the layer applied in step (I), without intermediate rinsing.