Rock chips! Buff over them?

[Still Learnin]

I was wondering what you people do when you are buffing a front bumper/hood and there are alot of rock chips in them from from being a daily driver. should i polish over them lightly? or tape it off and buff only the top portion of the hood and avoiding it all together.

Reason I ask is cause i wouldnt want polish/wax to get built up in the holes. making them stand out more with residue from cleaning.

it would be a pain to try and remove. im not talking 1 or 2 holes. im talking about the whole front is spotted while or black haha. Any tips or suggestions will be greatly appreciated

[tcope1]

Re: Rock chips! Buff over them?

I have that problem on my company car (aka "test vehicle"). I just polish over them and once the product is removed I don't see that they are any more noticeable. I think any product in these "large' ships is removed from normal removal of the product.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Rock chips! Buff over them?

It can sometimes be noticeable when doing this on a very dark colored car as some products do tend to dry white in the chips. On a lighter colored vehicle you won't notice it. You could always just give that area a final IPA wipedown, which should pull anything out of the chips, and then wax with something that dries clear, like M26.

[Still Learnin]

Re: Rock chips! Buff over them?

yah sometimes it hurts to work on a car and make it look nice then look at the front bumper.... ive been meaning to pick up some #26 from autozone and use my rewards card! i tried the IPA wipedown worked pretty good. was just trying to see what other options i had. Thank you guys for your input!

[HCAD]

Re: Rock chips! Buff over them?

I've had the same problem with a black Jeep that had a ton of tiny clearcoat cracks. Once we compounded, it looked like snowflakes on the hood! Unfortunately, the IPA wipedown didn't help us in this case.

[Still Learnin]

Re: Rock chips! Buff over them?

yah sometimes it helps sometimes it doesnt... sometimes ill just avoid working on the bumper itself ... cause i dont want to deal with it

[tcope1]

Re: Rock chips! Buff over them?

Here is what I do my _my_ car for those small chips...

DISCLAIMER: I'm in no way recommending that this be done on someone else's vehicle.

I use a Sharpie to color in the chips so that they are less apparent. If you look closely enough, you can see the difference and over time it will get removed from the chips but it's the less of two evils.

I mention the "disclaimer" as this in no way is "proper" to do but it's my company car, does not harm the vehicle, and from more then 4' away it looks just fine.... better then white chips in the paint.