Results from 1st rock chip repair

[irf@n]

Re: Results from 1st rock chip repair

Nice work...

[sharpja]

Re: Results from 1st rock chip repair

Did you brush the new paint on like the rock chip repair paint brush things, or did you spray it back on?

I filled the paint back in with a fine-tipped artist paint brush.

[rusty bumper]

Re: Results from 1st rock chip repair

I admire your courage.

How did you match up the paint?

Was it custom blended for you?

[sharpja]

Re: Results from 1st rock chip repair

I admire your courage.

How did you match up the paint?

Was it custom blended for you?

Thanks! I used some touch-up paint that I bought at the dealership when I got the car. I just didn't use the giant brush that came with it.

[ebevo]

Re: Results from 1st rock chip repair

Post-sanding (and a moment when I wondered if I would regret my decision to start this in the first place)


To clean up the wet-sanding marks, I used several applications of UC. I did 3 by hand (just to see how well it would come out), followed by a 4th with the DA to remove and last trace of the sanding marks.


The result came out better than I had expected. Now I'll think about getting some of the chips on the hood.

Okay the top picked I quoted what is that brown area that got huge around the rock chips looks like the paint is gone?

Hard to believe you got from the top pic to the last pic by applying UC

[ianrayburn]

Re: Results from 1st rock chip repair

When it comes to matching paint I found that you really have to go to a specialist shop. The one I use in Ottawa is a place called CMax. They will custom blend any colour for you, spray or brush on. The reason I recommend custom mixing is that in many cases there is more than one particular "colour" blend for your particular year. For example, my Honda Accord is "Paris Gold", CMax informed me that in actual fact there are five (5) "Paris Gold" shades for that year. Using my VIN number they were able to blend the exact shade by punching the numbers into a computer, something that is not possible at a regular parts store. On another note: I had to replace a right front fender as it was badly creased in a hit & run at a grocery store. My Honda body shop was able to match the paint on the new fender by using a computer programme that will match new paint with the old paint on the rest of the car so that you are unable to tell which is old & which is new. Ain't science grand!!

[cnfowler]

Re: Results from 1st rock chip repair

You did a great job because I can't even tell where the chips were. I've looked back and forth between the before and after pictures and can't for the life of me tell where the chips were. Darn good job!

Colin

[the_invisible]

Re: Results from 1st rock chip repair

I had a shopping cart dent on my driver's side rear quarter panel... the dent was accompanied with some paint chip. I was quoated $500 to have the area refinished.

Instead of having the area repainted, I tried to fix it myself.

What I did was that I peeled away all the chipping paint and scraped the area ensuring good touch-up paint adhesion. I applied a few layers of touch up paint to level the surface. Unfortunately, because the chip was down to the bare metal, I was unable to make the paint fully flush. The touch up paint also did not match the factory paint too well. The car is 5 years old and there is some slight discoloration.

After a few days of layering the damaged the area using touch up paint, I started applying clear coat to the area. I applied a new layer of clear coat after a day or so. I applied clear coat to a larger area because blending the new clear coat with the factory coat can be done fairly easily.

After two thick layers of clear coat, I waited for a day before wetsanding the area. I masked off the area and sanded the touch-up clear coat using 2000 grit sandpaper. After the the clear coat becomes even, I removed the masking tape and sanded a larger area using 2500 grit sandpaper. After that I sanded an even larger area using 3000 grit sandpaper. I washed the area then applied Ultimate Compound by hand. The result is that the clear coat has been blended in very nicely. Unfortunately the uneven color touch up paint still shows up.

Here are some post repair pictures.








As you can see, the repair is not perfect. However, I managed to thicken the clear coat over a large area to compensate for the damaged from the scuffing. Most wetsand touch-ups are done on smaller scratches. For a damage about 1.25" long, I think I did a fairly good job of blending in the touch-up and clear coat by means of wetsanding.

[sharpja]

Re: Results from 1st rock chip repair

Okay the top picked I quoted what is that brown area that got huge around the rock chips looks like the paint is gone?

Hard to believe you got from the top pic to the last pic by applying UC

The brown area you see is the scuffing caused by the wet sanding. The light was starting to get low, which probably accounts for the color. But the paint was definitely still there

I couldn't believe the results using UC either. I did the first 2 or 3 applications by hand just to see how well the UC did. And a little "passion behind the pad" did about 90% of the work. I did a final application of UC by DA to get to where I couldn't see the sanding marks.

[sharpja]

Re: Results from 1st rock chip repair

When it comes to matching paint I found that you really have to go to a specialist shop. The one I use in Ottawa is a place called CMax. They will custom blend any colour for you, spray or brush on. The reason I recommend custom mixing is that in many cases there is more than one particular "colour" blend for your particular year. For example, my Honda Accord is "Paris Gold", CMax informed me that in actual fact there are five (5) "Paris Gold" shades for that year. Using my VIN number they were able to blend the exact shade by punching the numbers into a computer, something that is not possible at a regular parts store. On another note: I had to replace a right front fender as it was badly creased in a hit & run at a grocery store. My Honda body shop was able to match the paint on the new fender by using a computer programme that will match new paint with the old paint on the rest of the car so that you are unable to tell which is old & which is new. Ain't science grand!!

You raise a good point about color matching. I had to have my front fascia replaced a few years ago and found out that there were two shades of "Mystic Blue" and the body shop had to have me come down to pick the shade I thought matched the best. I guess they didn't want to be on the hook if they chose poorly and I was unhappy with it. Too bad they couldn't color match with the VIN number. That's pretty neat.

[rusty bumper]

Re: Results from 1st rock chip repair

After a few days of layering the damaged the area using touch up paint, I started applying clear coat to the area. I applied a new layer of clear coat after a day or so. I applied clear coat to a larger area because blending the new clear coat with the factory coat can be done fairly easily.

Congratulations on your repair, but I've yet to see clearcoat paint, blended in, that didn't look bad down the road.

A bodyshop repaired a car for me in this manner, and the blended area looked terrible a few years later.