Rock chip repair

[JTKALAF]

I have a new Lexus IS with Tungsten Pearl paint. I recently got a bad chip in my hood, and was looking for advice. Body shops tell me to repaint the whole hood, and give me little information for alternate ideas. A friend recommended me to this forum.

I am not allowed to post images. I would like everyone to see the chip. What can I do? I am afraid to even wash the car, expecting the chip to become even bigger.

I just bought a touch up paint bottle from Lexus. Now I was hoping someone can tell me how to proceed. I know it won't look perfect, I just want it to be flat and easy to wash/wax.

Thank you!

[JTKALAF]

Re: Rock chip repair

I am not sure how to post images to the thread. I added an album to my account, and 4 images are there. Please let me know your ideas/thoughts. Thanks!

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/album.php?albumid=42

(http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/alb...&pictureid=183)
(http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/alb...&pictureid=182)
(http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/alb...&pictureid=181)
(http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/alb...&pictureid=180)

You can see how deep the chip is. I do not think it goes all the way down to the base coat. What do you think?

[Andy M.]

Re: Rock chip repair

First, Welcome to MOL!

You should be able to post a picture. If not, I have had some luck cutting a card board match stick at a 45 degree angle to apply touch paint in small chips. Make sure you clean the area of any wax before touching up, and go slow. Build the layers up until the chip is filled. Don't just put a big blob of paint in there or it will be very noticeablae.

Andy

[Andy M.]

Re: Rock chip repair

I am not sure how to post images to the thread. I added an album to my account, and 4 images are there. Please let me know your ideas/thoughts. Thanks!

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/album.php?albumid=42

(http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/alb...&pictureid=183)
(http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/alb...&pictureid=182)
(http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/alb...&pictureid=181)
(http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/alb...&pictureid=180)

You can see how deep the chip is. I do not think it goes all the way down to the base coat. What do you think?

Here is a how to on posting pictures. It looks like you just have to click on the image link but you are getting there.

How to upload and insert an image into your posts

Andy

[Nick Chapman]

Re: Rock chip repair

In order for your hood to be "perfect", a repaint is nessesarry.
Pearls and metallics don't wet sand too well(at least for me). You can touch it up, but it will always be noticable to you.

You can try the match stick as Andy mentioned, or run down to your local Michaels or Hobby Lobby and pick up a artist paint brush. I like to use #1, it has a very small brush tip, and easier to manipulate the paint where you want it. The brush that comes with most touch up paint bottles is very large and unusable if your anal(like me).

Make sure you start off by cleaning the spot with alcohol first. This will remove any wax that will prevent the touch up paint from sticking.

Take your time with this, apply small amounts of paint. You will have to build up several LIGHT layers. Keep your patience and it should come out acceptable(not going to be perfect).

Nick

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Rock chip repair

Here's one of the pics





A couple of notes, our Spam software places any New Member's posts with pictures or links into a moderation queue to prevent bad people from joining the forum and posting bad things.

This cause a delay for new members with nice pictures, we apologize for this but it protects our forum community.

As for your rock chips, everyone wants what you want, they want a way to apply touch-up paint and then massage the area until the surface if flat and it's hard to see where you applied the touch-up paint.

Truth it this is all but impossible for the average car owner to do and difficult at best for someone that's actually really good at this kind of work. Like Nick said, metallic paints are the hardest and even if you were really good at doing rock chip repair, it's going to be near impossible to fix a rock chip on a metallic finish and not have it show up.

This is why you don't find detail shops with "Rock Chip Repair" listed in their list of services, it's hard to do, no one wants to pay for it and you can never make the owner 100% happy and satisfied, (that's because it's hard to do).

This is why the body shop recommended painting the entire hood.

Problem is, after you paint the hood you're likely going to get another rock chip again unless you park the car and don't drive it.

So most people clean the chip as well as they can with Isopropyl Alcohol and then apply the touch-up paint as best as the can and move on with life.

Now follow me on this.... this is what I always tell people...


"You can make rock chip repair as difficult as you want"

And that's a true statement, by this I mean you can apply the touch-up paint and then try to sand the blob flat with the rest of the surface and the remove your sanding marks.

This gets difficult because normally you would remove your sanding marks with a rotary buffer and most people don't own or know how to use a rotary buffer. So then thy try some other means which is usually the old "Traditional Orbital Buffer", like you buy at Sears for $30.00 or by hand or with a DA Polisher.

Traditional Orbital Buffer



DA Polisher


Here's what they get... because the touch-up paint is a soft paint an the clear coat paint they are applying the touch-up paint tends to be a hard paint, they are able to remove the sanding marks out of the touch-up paint but not the clear coat.

Then they join a forum and asks for help.

Then someone like me explains the above about the paint softness or hardness for the different types of paints.

Even if you have a rotary buffer and know how to use it, in most cases when you go to remove your sanding marks with a rotary buffer often times the powerful rotary buffer will remove all the sanding marks and often time pull the touch-up paint out of the chip.

Rotary Buffer




Now your back to square one except now because you've sanded and buffed this area of paint on your car it is now thinner than the rest of the paint on the car and you have to keep this in mind as you re-apply touch-up paint for your second try.

Anyway, you can make touch-up paint or rock chip repair as complicated as you like, but sometimes more and more work won't get your a better and better looking repair as compared to just carefully applying a little touch-up paint and moving on...

This isn't a fun answer to post because I'm sure you were hoping for a simple, quick, easy, fail-proof method of fixing your rock chip but it just doesn't exist. Again, if there was a simple, and easy fix you would find rock chip repaint listed as a service provided but you don't find this at 99.9% of all detail shops.

Anyway, applying touch-up paint to repair rock chips isn't easy, it isn't fast and it isn't fail-proof, you can make it as complicated as you want but sometimes the best thing to do is to clean the area and apply a little touch-up paint and then move on...

[JTKALAF]

Re: Rock chip repair

Hey, you all are fast! I had a feeling I would not be able to post temporarily as a new user.

I posted online BEFORE I did any of the work, I tend to do my research, too, and learn as much as I can before doing a project.

I know it will not be perfect. I will be able to see it from 100 yards away. I am prepared for that. I just want it to be safely repaired and do not want to have to worry when I wash/wax it.

The hole is actually quite small, sorry the pictures show no reference to size. I would estimate the size to be approximately around 1/8th of an inch in diameter.

A couple of shops told me to pick away at the pant/clear coat that looks loose. Would the paint fill in under this area? Is that good or bad? This did not seem like a good idea to me. What do you think?

I like the paint brush idea. I can fill it in easily. I used to detail in my spare time, and have a steady hand. I am patient and will do it slowly with a little paint each time. How long should I wait for it to dry before adding a little more?

So after the paint is filled in completely, should I mask off all but the fixed area and then clear coat with a spray? Or is this unnecessary? Or can I just wax the whole car?

I will have to check out the chip repair on the Lexus you are doing, that sounds good!

[Nick Chapman]

Re: Rock chip repair

Yes, the paint will fill in the area that is loose, but it will cause you problems down the road. I can't speak for everyone, but I will pick the loose paint off, and fill it in.
You should wait about 15-30 minutes between coats, but a hair drier or heat gun will speed this process up a little.
I typically don't use any clear on touch up areas. Simply brush in the touch up paint, let it dry, then wax.

[Nick Chapman]

Re: Rock chip repair

I need to explain myself a little better on picking at your paint.

If you go picking/peeling it, you may get more than you bargained for and make things much worse by picking/peeling a large amount off. I will use an X-acto knife or a sharp razor blade and lightly cut around the area that I want out. No pressure on the blade, just enough so that it won't peel past that point.

Just thought I should elaborate a little more on picking/peeling.

Nick

[JTKALAF]

Re: Rock chip repair

Nick, clarification is good. Thanks.

I guess I really want to know is if everyone thinks it is a good idea or not to pick away the paint. If it is not really raised it should be ok, right?

To pick or not to pick, that is the question. I would appreciate a few opinions that can be backed by actual experience.

Thank you everyone!

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Rock chip repair

I guess I really want to know is if everyone thinks it is a good idea or not to pick away the paint. If it is not really raised it should be ok, right?

To pick or not to pick, that is the question. I would appreciate a few opinions that can be backed by actual experience.

Don't pick, might make things worse. Just clean as best as you can and apply the touch-up paint.

[SHYNEMAN123]

Re: Rock chip repair

E Z DABBER TOUCH UP STICK WORK GREAT TO KEEP T/U PIN POINTED LOCAL AUTO BODY PAINT SUPPLY SHOULD HAVE
NICK AND ANDY ARE ON THE MONEY WITH PROCDURE

[SHYNEMAN123]

Re: Rock chip repair

IF THE PAINT IS LOOSE AROUND THE CHIP YOU WILL BE REPEATING THE REPAIR AGAIN I AGREE WITH NICK. RADIO SHACK HAS A GREAT LITTLE MICROSCOPE THAT WORKS GREAT FOR VIEWING PAINT DEFECTS AND RUNS ABOUT $ 8.00 IT WILL GIVE YOU A GOOD LOOK AT THE EXTENT OF THE DAMAGE. FACTORY PAINT IS A LOT HARDER FINISH THAN A REPAINT DUE TO BAKE TEMP. SO KEEP IT AS LONG AS YOU CAN. IMO PAINT TOUCH UP IS A PART OF YOUR MAINT. PROGRAM CHIPS HAPPEN AND WILL HAPPEN MORE WITH A REPAINT.

[JTKALAF]

Re: Rock chip repair

Thanks for the help, Shyne. Good ideas. Have not had the time to do the repair yet. Hopefully this weekend. And I found another, but not as bad as this one.

Thanks again!

[erobertson]

Re: Rock chip repair

My wife's Lexus IS has the same paint. You'll probably find the factory touch up paint is not a close match as it tends to appear lighter in color. These cars tend to pick up a lot of chips on front bumper and leading edge of hood due to close proximity to ground somewhat like a corvette. I'm not sure I'd pick at the paint but have found using ScratchX on a terry cloth with "Lots of Passion" will clean up the chip and round off the edges. While not really endorsing them, I've found products from Touchup 123 work well for these cars and blend in enough your eye is not drawn to the chip repair. You can apply with a brush or use their wipe on wipe off method. I'd start with the base color toner and if it dosen't match they have toners that can be mixed in that will improve the match. When I ran out of their cleaning compound found that ScratchX works well but here is a case where only light pressure is needed as if you put the passion behind it you will take off all the touch up paint. Found this to be a multi-step process. 1) Clean up the area with ScratchX 2) Use their cleaning compound or alcohol prior to paint 3) Apply the paint either with brush or wipe on small amount with terry cloth 4) Wait 15 minutes for paint to dry and then clean with their compound or ScratchX LIGHTLY 5) Wait a few days and repeat if you need to buildup the layer 6) Some of the repairs will need thin coat of clear (You can pick up at auto store Duplicolor most popular brand around). 7) If you apply the clear wait a week and then use ScratchX LIGHTLY over area to blend in.

The process is easy and doesn't require a steady hand. Nothing short of a clear bra type product is going to keep your car from becoming a rock magnet but found keeping the front waxed often does seem to slow things down and let's you find repairs while small. I generally use NXT 2.0 on these areas every 2 to 3 weeks and have found #26 HiTech Yellow works well for spot waxing as it seems to build up and acts more like a filler. The wife dosen't like the look of the clear bra or that would be my long term solution.