Road Rash & Chips in Paint

You can look into the Dr. Colorchip line of repair kits and attempt it yourself. I have had some very good results using their system.

If you are not happy with the results, the only other option, in my opinion, is to have the affected panel(s) re-painted.

Hope this helps!

 

Depending on your skill and patience, there are touch up kits which are the next step above a Dr. Colorchip kit. I use the Dr. Colorchip and find it satisfactory for the 10 foot effect. The chip is still there though you can fill it in over time with their material. Still, the paint chip repair kits are more involved but yield a result that it almost as good as repainting. Nothing replaces a respray, however.

 

Wavey, most welcome!

I have successfully polished over chips, both repaired and not. I feel that you would be good to go with a machine polishing on your F car, however, if you are not comfortable in doing so, seek out a professional in your area to have a look.

This way you can rid your finish of those pesky swirl marks!

If I were closer I would love to lend a hand!

Regards,
Scott aka Sizzle

 

For tiny chips, aka rash, patience, a toothpick, and a touch-up bottle of paint and clear coat makes them near invisible. (Note: you need to scuff the tip of the toothpick to get it to hold paint)

For bigger chips, the chip will not be "level" unless you use excess paint and buff it level. Leave this for the pros.

 

Check with a local paint shop to see if they will tackle the touch-ups for you? Solid colors are easier to fix than metallics.

 

try 'chip-x'

 

What kit is steps above Dr Chip?

 

I've got so many I'm going to do a respray.

 

Sunny,

I purchased a small bottle of the origional Nero FER 1240 base coat paint to have my detailer touch up some tiny chips on my 348 Spider. The base coat is the color but I noticed you wrote to use clear coat also. Is this step necessary for tiny pin size chips. Bare in mind my car is black. Thanks for any feedback.

 

You should use clear coat , the base/color does not have any/much durability. You can probably pass the 10 foot test . When we sold paint everyone wanted a small can of touch-up ,but once base coat / clear coat became standard it made t/u more difficult.

Edward

 

Thanks Edward. I will purchase the clear coat also.

 

IF you want it done right, bring it to a professional. They can tell you whether it can be buffed out (doubtful) and the correct way to fix it. I have never seen a "kit" work well enough that you could not tell from 3 ft away. Personally, I just get the car repainted when my 360 starts to show the rock chips.

 

I am a professional detailer of more then 10 years now and will tell you that no touch up kit will make it look like a new paint job, you will always see the small pin head dot weather it's the color of the car or white primer.... whenever I have to do touch up work I make it known before hand that the goal is to only remove the white color so it's less noticeable as it will never be perfectly level with the original paint.

My suggestion if you want it to look perfect again is to respray it then wait a month and get a clear film installed on it. The films are really good now and look like the paint, you can't tell the difference. Just make sure the installer is using either expel or suntek film and do your homework, a good installer can do it with no stretch lines and tuck it under everything so you don't see it and don't go for the half way up the hood nonsense wrap it full on each panel.

 

The process of properly fixing paint chips is very tedious and time consuming. If you have just a handful the link I've attached explains the process and techniques for fixing chips. If you have numerous chips, a complete respray is indeed your best option as JoshVette stated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xi3xmeO6C4

 

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the advice...
I have two tiny needle pin size chips next to the Cavalini badge on the bonnet and one on the drivers wing mirror. At this point I will have my detailer fill these with the touch-up paint as I believe he will do a good job. I have had the front spoiler resprayed once and you are all correct in that it was the best way to go. I had the shop match the paint thickness to the car and it looks perfect even after 12 months of driving.

Cheers,
Stephen.