Help with rockchips *PIC*

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imported_Big P

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My fellow Autopians I need some help on what I should do with the rock chips I acquired on my black Dodge Ram. I got these when travel down a gravel road last weekend. I tried to get the best pic I could, it looks like little speckles and are behind all four wheels. They are all small, but grouped together. I think it may have gone to the primer/metal. When I run my hand or a MF over it, it catches and looks grayish. I need some advice: Is there anything I can do, I do have a PC. Should I take it to a body shop. Thanks in advance.
 

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Is that pic after washing? The reason I ask is I wonder how deep the chips are. Does it look like they went through the clearcoat and through a layer of paint or two? If this is the case, you could try to touch them up with some a touch-up painting process. If they are very severe you might want to have a professional tackle it. If the discoloration is just left from the rocks and the paint didn't penetrate your clearcoat, you may be able to fix it by compounding--->polishing---sealing. I'm fairly new to detailing, but I'm sure some other autopians can add to this or correct anything I may be mistaken about.



BTW - if you need to touch up the paint, be sure to get the touch up paint from a dodge dealership, and do research before you attempt! It's a pretty significant process you need to go through to do it right. As a first step, check out the "Paint Clinic" section of David B's e-book.



Good luck with it!
 
Texas, thanks for your reply. Yes this pic is after washing. I was also thinking about some touch up paint, but there are way to many rock chips. The pic that I posted is a close up, so they look a little big and not spread out so much. But real life, they are very tiny and grouped together.
 
If they are small and grouped together, this *should* make touching up a bit easier I would think. Since you have to prep each mark the same way, it would be nice to have them all in one place :D
 
When I was doing research on this subject I read something on airbrushing the damaged area, does anyone have experience with this? How was the outcome?
 
I think that was for one large dime size chip, I wouldn't call that a chip, but if yours are the size of the tip of a toothpic than airbrushing might actually cause you to do more work than you'd have to so I wouldn't recommend it for small chips, only large coin sized ones.
 
Yes the size of my rock chips vary, but are anywhere from the size of a tooth pick tip to pencil lead tip. Do you guys recomend getting some touch up paint from the dealer and touching up every single chip, then wet sanding,polishing, and waxing?
 
From what I've read here, that would be the way to go. Or have someone else do it for you if you're not comfortable. Just make sure you prep the surface for the touch ups first, and don't sand too much:xyxthumbs
 
Definately going to get some mud flaps after this. For prep, your talking about completly removing the wax from the area and the chips. Is there anything special I need to do to the chip itself?So if I understand this correctly, once I prep it, use the touch-up paint to fill in the many chips. Now should I build up many thin coats till it is above surface level? After this, do you recomend wet sanding or with PC?
 
Small layers with something like a toothpick the the paint stays within the chip. Build it up until slightly higher than surrounding paint. Then wetsand. This is what I have raed in an articlt about chip fix at least
 
Ok, so I'll build it up and then wet sand. What grit do you all recommend? Should I wet sand flush then apply clearcoat or is just the touch-up paint good enough?
 
Couple of thoughts...



First, the paint contracts/shinks as i it cures. give it at least 24 hours to cure. Only then can you wetsand. Then, you may well find that you need to add more paint. And then wetsand again. Keep your ETG at hand, otherwise, you'll have no idea of when you'll remove too much clear...



Second, my paint touchup tech uses a 'smear' technique with great success... find a local pro. My guy will do an entire car for about (retail) $80.



Tread softly



Jim
 
Thanks for the input. I will look more into Langka, it sounds a lot easier and safer for a newbe like myself than wetsanding and causing even more damage.
 
salty said:
You could check out www.langka.com
Click to expand...



I did a search for this and read through quite a few threads. It seems that most have never tried it because of skepticism. I tend to feel the same. Why would anyone wetsand if this product really worked that well?? Has anyone had experience with this Langka stuff? I'd be interested in hearing about the results. Though it seems that if you're going to prep the damaged area correctly, wetsanding and then buffing out the marring would not be that much more difficult. Then again, I've never done it so I could be dead wrong.



Also, the Langka site says "commonly used by professional body shops." Any pros here use it?



Thanks for the insight.:bow
 
Yeah I'd like to know more about Langka as well. I've got a few chips that I've been putting off messing with because I'm sketched out by wetsanding.
 
I have used Langka a lot. Does it work? Yes. There is a learning curve to get it perfect, but it will work.

Although some members say it will not work, clay is my favorite technique for leveling touch up over fills. Much easier than langka-especailly if you have a lot of chips that are close together.



As far as what to use to fill with, I prefer the bamboo bbq skewers you can get at the grocery store for about a buck for 100. They're long enough to give you good control, fairly sharp, and cheap. I will only go into my paint with one a couple of times then toss it-keeps from getting gummy, dried out paint on the tip. If you use them, do check each one to make sure the tip is sharp-some of them will be split & unuseable.



And if you're not familiar with doing touch up-the biggest thing is to shake the bottle a lot-I have a metallic & shake for 5 minutes to start and then don't go more than a minute without recapping & shaking. It's the only way to get consistent color.
 
I just recieved an order from Langka and plan on trying it this weekend, will post back with the results.
 
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