Paint chip repair

[fmiller]

Well it was bound to happen, but to cause the chip yourself is enough to pee off the good humour man. When I got out of the car I didn't wait till the seat belt retracted far enough and bang. As soon as I heard the noise I knew. I have a beautiful black fusion and also have the touch up paint for the car. The chip is about the size 1/16th of an inch round. My question is.......What is the best procedure to use to come out of this relatively happy. All replies will be gratefully read. Mike I'm sure you've gone through this one before as have a lot of the members. Have a great week!

[Pro-mo]

Re: Paint chip repair

If you dont want to see it ave it painted by a pro.

If thats a route you dont want to do just dab it with a very small brush.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Paint chip repair

The chip is about the size 1/16th of an inch round. My question is.......

What is the best procedure to use to come out of this relatively happy.

All replies will be gratefully read. Mike I'm sure you've gone through this one before as have a lot of the members.

Have a great week!

Chip repair is never easy and unless you have some experience with this type of thing then it can be very challenging to make the repair actually look good. Paint chip repair consists of two things,

Applying touch-up paint
Making the repair look good

That's two things and the second one is the hard one, anyone can dab some paint to the surface.


Meguiar's doesn't have an official "how-to" on chip repair, the best thing you can do is NOT use the brush built into the cap, instead use a toothpick or do like I do and go to an artist supply store or a craft supply store and purchase a couple of very fine tipped artists paint brushes and a little bottle of paint thinner to clean the tips and the brushes are not cheap. Clean the chipped area as best as you can with whatever tool/brush/pick etc. you can find and then apply just a little touch-up paint into the chipped area and then stop and walk away from the car. Allow the paint to dry for a couple days and then inspect, if you see that you have room to apply more touch-up paint then apply a little more and again, stop messing with it and let it dry.

Most people use the brush that comes built into the lid and go from a divot, (a low spot in the paint), to a blob, (a high spot in the paint), because the apply too much touch-up paint.

So less is best, move slow, take your time.

Hope that helps a little, it's a hard job and there's no glory in it.

[SUBARU WRX]

Re: Paint chip repair

can u sand down the touch up paint to level it with the already existing paint? i was going to do a small touch up paint job on my mom's 05 outback sport. Should i just wait and have the car done by a pro or should i try it myself.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Paint chip repair

can u sand down the touch up paint to level it with the already existing paint? i was going to do a small touch up paint job on my mom's 05 outback sport. Should i just wait and have the car done by a pro or should i try it myself.

Yes you can sand it down. Can you get your sanding marks out? That's another question. You see, when you do this you will get sanding marks in the clear coat surrounding the touch-up paint, how are you going to get them out.

Now think...

The touch-up paint is gong to be soft and the sanding marks will come out of it rather easily. In most cases, the clear coat is going to be hard... that's where you're going to have problems.

[fmiller]

Re: Paint chip repair

Thanks for the reply Mike. I do have paint brushes that I've used to paint with (wooden Decoys) I like the go slow part, and somehow I think I knew the answer but had to hear it from someone else. Couldn't see the trees for the forest is the saying that comes to mind. Thanks again!

[Totoland Mach]

Re: Paint chip repair

Here are some useful tools I use: These are nylon tipped touch up brushes and work well.



I clean the chip area to remove any trace of wax and, depending upon color, thin the touch up paint before applying. If the paint color is metallic, I apply a mixture of clear/hardener to protect the metallic paint and build it up to level + of the original surface. That allows me to compound the chip area and bring it back to level.

Here's a black metallic BMW 745 that had a horrible scrape and gouge in the plastic rear bumper. The problem with plastic body cladding is you can't generate heat with compound + rotary, so I used my Festool Rotex and many different pad/product combo's to finish the surface as best I could.



Following that, I still have deep gouges (all the way to the plastic base) to work with and started building up that area with touch up. I'm not quite done yet as I haven't reached the original surface level, but will post them when I'm done. Here's what I've done so far:

Indoor Flash



Outdoor Flash



Outdoor, no flash and a little distance.



It takes time and a lot of patience, but you can do it. You'll know you're successful when you can't find the scratch any longer!

Totoland Mach

[Daniel Kinder]

Re: Paint chip repair

hi fmiller, i've done a lot of things like that and learned to use painters tape to block around the scratch so i don't put more scratches in or around the clear coat or paint when wet sanding.and use the p2000 wet/dry sand paper and like mike said going slow and always checking area after a couple back and forth motions.and when you've got the spot about level then use some m85 with a wool pad on a rotor.just rember go slow take your time keep checking your work area you can do it your self,and taking your detailing up another notch.

[scoobnewb007]

Re: Paint chip repair

Don't mean to hi-jack the thread, but I am in the same situation.
I got the gouge painted(not by me), there is a blob trailing from the gouged fender. I was thinking of wet sanding the area down to level the blob to the original paint.

I also thought about doing the same thing stang-krazy mentioned, just take the surrounding area and sand the blob and the gouge mark.

I know a rotary can easy take of the sanding marks, but can a G100 acheive the same result?

[Cleetus]

Re: Paint chip repair

Yes, I can attest for the stay away from the markers part. I got the autosharp pen. While I've found that it does color in the chips like Mike stated, it's almost impossible to not get a blob of paint that is not even with the rest of the surface. So from far away it looks good until you close in and see a big gob of touchup paint. I figured with a Wrangler it's not worth trying to fill in little chips, I can get another hood for around 400 bucks so I figure I'll just drive it for a few years then just purchase a new hood makes more sense.

[TimG]

Re: Paint chip repair

Just what I was looking for... Thanks guys.


BTW, here is a car brought in by a friend that wanted me to help him lessen the mess from a touchup work done by a professional detailing shop.
Didnt do any sanding as the paint around the scratch was already thin so I just applied #07 - #26 on the scratched panel only. Didnt charge him though (felt unfair to charge him since outcome was not really good). Told him the best was to repaint the affected panels.


Heres some shots I managed to get from (and this is a pro shop's work). Its like the touchup paint was just blob around the scratch.





















Cheers


ps: @totoland mach - cracking work there sir!

[deepstuff]

Re: Paint chip repair

Should I clean chip with a wax remover or similar before applying touch-up paint?