Front End Nicks | FerrariChat

Front End Nicks

Discussion in 'Technical Q&A' started by JoeG54, Dec 29, 2004.

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  1. JoeG54

    JoeG54 Karting

    Aug 24, 2004
    183
    Bay Area, CA
    Full Name:
    Joe G
    Well, not having had the 355 out for about a month, I caught a few sunny hours between recent storms here in the Bay Area and decided to take it out for a ride. When I got back, I saw about 5 paint nicks in the front -- which is about 5 more than I've had in the 6 previous rides (I took delivery 11/20).

    The roads were 95% dry, I stayed well behind any cars 90% of the time, so I'm puzzled. I'm wondering if it's just not a good idea to take the car out until the spring!?! Is there a reason why more paint nicks during the rainy season?

    Also, aside from repainting (the nicks are small, but still visible given the white primer), what do you do to fix these? I read once on one of the Porsche boards that you can use the tip of a toothpick to deposit a very, very tiny drop of touch-up paint to the nicks.

    Any ideas, comments, suggestions are appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Joe
     
  2. Nuvolari

    Nuvolari F1 Veteran
    Owner Silver Subscribed

    Sep 3, 2002
    6,663
    Toronto / SoCal
    Full Name:
    Rob C.
    www.paintscratch.com

    You can buy a touch up bottle for your car and brush in the chips. Remember you are applying a tiny amount of paint so it is bearly noticable. Chips are part of life, if you don't want them park the car.
     
  3. atheyg

    atheyg Guest

    A tooth pick works well, if your paint is base coat clear coat i wouldn't use a single stage touch up product, go to a propaint supplier abd get a pint of the cheapest brand,put the base on then the clear and wet sand it with 2000 grit it will work much better.

    We've had a ton of rain here in Nevada also, their is rocks and dirt all over the roads now from it and cars are just kicking it up, I would wait a week for traffic to blow it off the road or city street sweepers to pick it up, should be fine then.
     
  4. Jdubbya

    Jdubbya The $10 Trillion Man
    Silver Subscribed

    Dec 28, 2003
    43,605
    Hell's waiting room
    Full Name:
    John
  5. robertgarven

    robertgarven F1 Veteran
    Owner

    Feb 24, 2002
    5,322
    Ventura, California
    Full Name:
    Robert Garven
  6. 911Fan

    911Fan Formula 3

    Apr 15, 2004
    1,294
    Southern California
    Agreed. But it works better on non-metallics than metallics.

    btw, a tip for metallic paint repair using Langka is to apply a thin layer of the metallic then fill with clear.
     
  7. Muteki

    Muteki Formula Junior

    Jan 14, 2004
    269
    Guam
    Once you get your chips repaired, I really suggest getting a product called "invisi-shield". You will probably check around the paint shops and see who offers this. Its a clear coat that is super hard. I had a huge rock, yes I saw it because it was so big, smack the front end of my car and there was only a hairline crack in the clear coat, no paint missing so you can't see it uless you wax the car. I just take a tooth brush and clean the groove and its invisible again.
     
  8. ghost

    ghost F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa

    Dec 10, 2003
    10,046
    Singapore
    I've got a number of pin-head sized chips up front that the PaintScratch pen would work well for. For this reason, am thinking going with the PaintScratch product, unless people advocate superior results with Langka.

    BTW, for Langka products, I understand that if we order through the following link, that they will end up making a donation to the Ferrari Club.
     
  9. peajay

    peajay Formula Junior

    Apr 17, 2002
    454
    near Paris, France
    Full Name:
    Paul
    The Langka is used in addition to paint and not instead of paint, Just buy the paint you think will do the best job and apply it to the chip by whatever method you like, being sure to leave excess. When it dries you then use the langka which removes excess paint. The theory is it makes the new paint surface flush with the old and so improves the match. My results have been so so, but worth using.
     
  10. JoeG54

    JoeG54 Karting

    Aug 24, 2004
    183
    Bay Area, CA
    Full Name:
    Joe G

    Where can I get PaintScratch? Is there a web site? Thanks.
     
  11. f355spider

    f355spider F1 World Champ
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    May 29, 2001
    18,055
    USA
    Joe....save this for future reference: www.google.com you can find anything with this search engine. In the mean time, this is where to get your touch up paint: http://www.paintscratch.com/
     
  12. ghost

    ghost F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa

    Dec 10, 2003
    10,046
    Singapore
    That's a good point Paul. Langka does not supply the actual paint, which you have to source from elsewhere. With PaintScratch, you actually get the paint included along with the application materials and clearcoat. They have a number of Ferrari color's on their site.

    I haven't ordered either product yet b/c I have been busy at the office, and I also wanted to see the video on the Langka site. I DO know that I don't want to deal with the hassles of trying to get a paint that will match Rosso Corsa from elsewhere, which is why I am leaning towards PaintScratch. Unless I note something special in the Langka video's which I will watch this evening, I plan on ordering the PaintScratch materials.
     
  13. Cincy Ken

    Cincy Ken Karting

    Jan 24, 2004
    219
    Cincinnati
    The down side to paint scratch's product is that the felt-tip applicator pens dry up in reasonably short time, so you need to use them promptly. It's no big expense, but you'd be hard pressed to use the same one at both ends of the driving season. I found that a small bottle of custom touch-up paint from my local restoration shop works just as well and lasts a lot longer.
     

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