How often do you paint/repair chips?

[Furd]

My black Audi is nearing 3,000 miles. Its a daily driver, so it has a couple small chips on the front of the hood.



Do you paint or repair chips as you find them? My thought is to wait until the spring for the first serious post-winter detail. Is that a bad idea?



TIA

[Accumulator]

My black Audi is nearing 3,000 miles. Its a daily driver, so it has a couple small chips on the front of the hood.



Do you paint or repair chips as you find them? My thought is to wait until the spring for the first serious post-winter detail. Is that a bad idea?



TIA

I`d wait until spring, or longer.



I`m always repeating the quip from the museum curator that I read in a car magazine back in the `70s: "Real cars have stone chips."



I almost always just let chips go until the panel needs reshot. Yeah, sometimes that makes the leading surfaces look pretty road-rashed but it simply doesn`t bother me for some reason. When it *does* bother me I have the panels redone by a good pro. I hardly*EVER* touch up individual rock chips.



The front of my wife`s `00 A8 (~95K, lots of highway use) is pretty pocked up, and my `01 S8 (~15K) isn`t close to perfect either but they don`t bother me. I let two chips on the Jag go for over 20 years (my painter finally touched them up because he just couldn`t stand them...we had a, uhm, discussion about that...).



And, heh heh, I fully realize that I might be the only person here who handles it that way

[Thats Fresh]

youre not the only one. the front of my `04 jet black M3 (54k) could use a respray also. its the only bad part when i got it two years ago. until i get some major rock chips or dings, ill then take it to the paint booth.

[Macruz19]

If you want.. I`d get them repaired, or repainted and invest in a clear bra.

[LICamaro85]

I do the complete opposite. Every time I see a new chip in the front of one of my cars I fix it ASAP. When I am done with it you could NEVER tell the area was touched up or anything happened there. I did in the area of 15-20 on my 8,000 mile old car already just on the hood and if you looked at it at one foot away you could never tell the hood was touched.



I am just very OCD and like everything in a certain place and neat and clean so that`s why I do it like this. I realize this may not be practical for a lot of people but for me it is.







- LI 85

[JSFM35X]

I do the complete opposite. Every time I see a new chip in the front of one of my cars I fix it ASAP. When I am done with it you could NEVER tell the area was touched up or anything happened there. I did in the area of 15-20 on my 8,000 mile old car already just on the hood and if you looked at it at one foot away you could never tell the hood was touched.



I am just very OCD and like everything in a certain place and neat and clean so that`s why I do it like this. I realize this may not be practical for a lot of people but for me it is.







- LI 85

do you do this as a profession or for your own cars only? Where on LI are you?

[DM101]

How do you repair the chips ??

I do the complete opposite. Every time I see a new chip in the front of one of my cars I fix it ASAP. When I am done with it you could NEVER tell the area was touched up or anything happened there. I did in the area of 15-20 on my 8,000 mile old car already just on the hood and if you looked at it at one foot away you could never tell the hood was touched.



I am just very OCD and like everything in a certain place and neat and clean so that`s why I do it like this. I realize this may not be practical for a lot of people but for me it is.







- LI 85

[BobD]

I guess it depends on deep the chip is. If it`s down to the primer or metal I`d repair it ASAP. Honestly, I`d say a chip should be repaired ASAP regardless just because it could lead to the chip peeling and getting larger.

[LICamaro85]

I would not call it a profession but I get paid for when I do, do it. Also when I am doing a complete detail on a customers car I will usually fix a few of the bigger ones for free. I like the look on their face when they pick their car up and notice the hood looks "different" and they realize those chips are gone.



It really amazes some people how you can fix a scratch/chip and how good it can look afterwords.



This is of course a very simplified version of what I do to fix the problem area.



Clean it.

Put just a very thin layer of color down.

Fill the rest of the scratch/chip with clear.

Then compound the area after the clear starts to harden but not all the way, there is a very fine line with this step.

Then just do a normal detail as you would.



It is the compounding when the clear is not fully hardened that I personally think it comes out so good since there is no wet sanding. I feel whenever you wet sand you can tell since that small area has just a tiny bit less orange peel then the rest of the panel does IMO.



I am right off exit 62 on the LIE.





- LI 85

[Accumulator]

LICamaro85- Heh heh, more power to you guys who can do touchups that well :xyxthumbs Try as I might, I just can`t get metallics to look right from the normal viewing angle, and only one pro I know can do it significantly better :nixweiss Even *he* might do one many, many times until the metallic content looks like the surrounding paint; I usually give up and live with the best attempt out of five or six tries.

I guess it depends on deep the chip is. If it`s down to the primer or metal I`d repair it ASAP. Honestly, I`d say a chip should be repaired ASAP regardless just because it could lead to the chip peeling and getting larger.

Noting that there are a *whole lotta* variables here...I`ve never had a chip get bigger or turn to rust or otherwise cause problems. I just polish the edges smooth and keep things LSPed. Those ones on the jag were fine for *decades* even when I was really using the car.



Having posted that, I wouldn`t be surprised if I soon have some awful issue in this regard

[Bert]

and only one pro I know can do it significantly better

Knowing a good painter is so valuable. I am sure there a few good ones here in Louisville, I just haven`t hunted them down yet.



What does it typically cost for a good painter to reshoot the front or the hood of a car? I know it varies but could you give a typical range?

[BobD]

LICamaro85- Heh heh, more power to you guys who can do touchups that well :xyxthumbs Try as I might, I just can`t get metallics to look right from the normal viewing angle, and only one pro I know can do it significantly better :nixweiss Even *he* might do one many, many times until the metallic content looks like the surrounding paint; I usually give up and live with the best attempt out of five or six tries.







Noting that there are a *whole lotta* variables here...I`ve never had a chip get bigger or turn to rust or otherwise cause problems. I just polish the edges smooth and keep things LSPed. Those ones on the jag were fine for *decades* even when I was really using the car.



Having posted that, I wouldn`t be surprised if I soon have some awful issue in this regard

I had one rust on the roof of my Subaru. Somehow a rock or something smacked the top on the expressway and I put off fixing it too long and it rusted. I had to sand it down and repair it then.

[Accumulator]

I had one rust on the roof of my Subaru. Somehow a rock or something smacked the top on the expressway and I put off fixing it too long and it rusted. I had to sand it down and repair it then.

Ah...yeah, you *do* have to be pretty diligent about maintaining them if you`re gonna leave (to-the-metal) chips go. Heh heh, which is why my "leave `em go" approach is probably dead-wrong for most people

What does it typically cost for a good painter to reshoot the front or the hood of a car? I know it varies but could you give a typical range?

I just called my good painter and asked him. Noting that he has a nice low hourly rate (~$40) but spends time doing things right, he says that a hood will typically cose no more than $400-600. Ditto for a front bumper cover (including R&Ring it so it`s painted off the vehicle). He says the pair wouldn`t come to over $1,000 and I suspect the bottom-line price would actually be less as he never comes in over his estimates and he`s probably doing a little CYA here with such a vague guesstimate.