Hi Cindy,
You can sand the bad areas without the paint by by using wet or dry sand paper until smooth, Prime and then spray paint several thin coats of gloss black paint. If you can't remove all the pitted areas you can fill them in with car bondo filler. It is red and comes in a tube (from auto store) sand again until very smooth before painting. Let cure for a week and then you can french polish with shellac and linseed oil to match the rest of the finish. You can repair the bad patch job in the same way. Make sure you clean all surfaces first with naptha to remove any oils and dirt.
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