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Touch up paint a little chip?

3K views 22 replies 3 participants last post by  joe_dirte9 
#1 ·
So I washed my car and found a chip in my new paint. I can feel it a little and it's not is able if you look at it and want it fixed.

What are proper steps to touching up a chip?
How much does it cost?
Does it really even work?

Cars Spectra Blur Mica if that matters.
 
#2 ·
I got my initial advice from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xi3xmeO6C4

The paint bottle is about $10, and you must get the exact color code that matches your car or it won't look good. I used a modified form of his technique with good results. I filled in about 60 paint chips on my car (no joke), which took over 20 hours (not all at once). It gets your car looking good from 25 feet to looking good at 5 feet. In other words, if you do a very good job, beyond 5 feet your paint will look perfect and you won't see where the chips were. No matter what though, if you look up close, you will see where you touched the paint up. It can't be 100% perfect; only way to get 100% is to repaint the entire panel or car.

My car looks considerably better now after touching up every chip, and a small 3 oz bottle covered all ~60 chips.
 
#4 ·
Possibly, until you stare at it from a foot away. My front bumper and hood were BAD, it actually looked like someone had taken a paint brush and flicked black paint all over the front of the car. Highly noticeable from even 15-20 feet away. Now you have to get within 5 feet and really examine it; the chip fills I did are pretty discrete and blend in nicely.
 
#5 ·
I don't think I've posted a full frontal picture of my car before. Well, here it is. 40 of those paint chips were on the bumper/hood. Do you see the touch up fills in the picture? That's how good it can look if you take your time and do everything correctly.

 
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#7 ·
Yours are white b/c they only go down to the primer, which is white. Mine went though the primer to the steel and rusted out, making them a very dark brown/light black.
 
#8 ·
The proper way, as in how a shop would do it, requires very light sanding to get rid of the edge, blend the paint, clear coat and done. Thats obviously not a step by step instructable lol. However, Light Force's method works perfectly well. Just make sure you let the paint dry before driving as it can streak lol
 
#11 ·
Yea, so the technique I use, which differs a bit from the video, is spot sanding each paint chip with 1000 grit until all the jagged edges are gone, cleaning each paint chip mark with alcohol on a towel, applying the paint by dabbing it into the mark/hole with an awl until the paint has filled the mark and is even with the surface, let paint dry for 1 hour, sand entire area of chips (or your individual chip) together with 2000 grit until even, sand with 5000 grit, then polish.
 
#15 ·
I'm personally a Meguiars fan; I use their general purpose polishing paste. It's also a good idea to wax the area when you're done to protect it. Just be sure to only sand as much as you need to - too much and you can burn through your paint.
 
#16 ·
The only reason I dont use Meguiar is from when I worked in a Carbon Fiber shop. We tried to use that polish on our moulds but it had a very slight, and I mean very slight, roughness to it that gave all our parts we pulled from the mould slight lines in the natural reflections. So I got used to not using it. Never had an issue with it on my car though. Just making moulds with it.
 
#17 ·
I use turtle wax on my car already so I'll just keep that and buy the nupolish.

So, I sand the edges with a high grit sandpaper like 1000, then clean with achohol. Then dab the paint on until it covers the spot and went don't sand with 3000 then 5000. Wait an hour. Then when done use nupolish and turtle wax?
 
#18 · (Edited)
The edges and middle/bottom of the hole itself to give the paint a nice rough surface to adhere to. You wait an hour after applying paint (or longer if it's cold), and then sand it. 3000 grit will work too; then 5000 grit then polish until it looks perfect. You CAN skip using 5000 grit, but I find it takes 2-3x as long to polish if you don't final sand with a high grit like 4000 or 5000.

You only sand enough to make the touch up paint even with the rest of the surface and to blend it in. How much is up to your discretion. If when wet sanding the color of the water turns the color of your paint, that means you have no clearcoat left and you need to be VERY CONSERVATIVE with your sanding or you'll burn through the paint.
 
#20 ·
No, just make sure to wax it afterwards.
 
#22 ·
I'd suggest practicing on your sunroof or headlights first if you are nervous. The first 'surface refurbishing' I did on my car was the sunroof to remove the thick layer of UV damaged and yellowed plexiglass. The sunroof/headlights have a lot of room for error and mistakes due to how thick they are, so you can mess up many times and you'll have plenty of material to work with to correct the problem. Try sanding your headlights with 500, 1000, 2000, then 5000 and polishing. Once you can get them looking like brand new and have a feel for how much each grit takes off, then move on to the paint work.
 
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