Paint chip damage on my new car - how bad is it?

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One Ton Soup

New member
Anyone mind giving me some insight on the extent of this paint chip damage here? This is my first new car (2016 Honda Civic), I`ve only had it for over 2 weeks so don`t really have much knowledge about this kind of stuff.

My huge concern is what`s the chance of this damage causing the metal to rust? It`s been there since last Sunday and I`ve been so caught up with work that I don`t have much time to repair it until after Labor Day weekend. I`m planning on having someone buy the OEM touch-up paint for me tomorrow and have it fixed when I come back the following Tuesday. I`ve been checking every morning and it looks the same to me as the picture below.

If you guys think it will rust, I will probably get someone to fix it for me over the weekend and pay the labor cost. If it won`t rust, then I don`t have to be concerned about it over the weekend and have it fixed it by next week. Let me know your thoughts...I`m really hoping this is just clear-coat chip damage.

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Just clean it and touch it up. It`s no different than any other new car with a rock hit. You are cratering over nothing, it`s part of owning a car.
 
Pretty metallic blue !

I don`t see bare metal showing, so its probably not going to rust that quickly if at all..

You can purchase the touch up paint in a little bottle with a terrible brush at your local auto part store..
Just be sure to get the 2016 Honda color name or the paint code and compare that to their offerings..

I would (as has correctly been already said above), clean that spot out and around it with something like rubbing alcohol to help get as much grease, etc., out of and around the area..

Shake up the paint for awhile, put a little at a time in the area if you have time, or just carefully add enough to get it level and then let it dry for a few hours, dont touch it with your fingers, etc., until its absolutely dry..

Depending on how much paint you had to put in there, it will take awhile for it to completely dry since it dries from the bottom > to the top..
Good Luck !
Dan F
 
It shouldn`t rust. It doesn`t look like it is past the primer. Just a good old fashioned rock chip. You could look into buying a Dr. Colorchip kit, then you will have something to take care of this chip and any that will pop up down the line. The Dr. Colorchip kit will match better than an oem touch up pen/brush and in my opinion is easier to apply and make the chip almost disappear.
 
One Ton Soup- Welcome to Autopia!

Inspect the chip under magnification and see how many layers of stuff it`s penetrated- It`s obviously through the clear, but is it through the blue basecoat? If so, is it through the primer? If so (doubt it, but...) is it through the E-coat (factory metal treatment)?

Don`t fix anything that doesn`t really need fixed.

Get some *real solvent* to clean the chip. Not just Rubbing Alcohol...use the sort of stuff that a bodyshop would use. (Local autobody/paint supply store oughta have it.)

If you use the Dr. ColorChip stuff, I get *INFINITELY* better results when I use it like conventional touchup paint (with a small artist`s brush..like a size 1, 0, or even smaller) instead of their "smear it all over the paint" instructions.
 
Thanks for the welcome!

Huge relief to know that it won`t rust so I could wait and get it fixed properly next week.

I`ve heard great things about Dr. Colorchip but unfortunately they don`t have it in my color based on my color code. I could have them mix it but not sure if it would be an exact match. I did however, buy the touch-up paint from my dealership, you think that would suffice ？
 
Looks like just clearcoat chip, I would just put a dab of clearcoat over it and let it dry and build up with another coat until it leveled and polish it to blend it in. If you want to get touch-up paint I would suggest you get an aerosol can of the basecoat color and a can of the clearcoat. The content will never dry in the can and you can use it both ways in either a spray or touch-up from a little cup. Those overpriced OEM touch-up paint bottle/pens are notorious for drying up and do a horrible job as well because of the viscous paint.
 
One Ton Soup- IME it`s kinda rare for *ANY* touchup to turn out better than ~75% on a metallic no matter what, so expect it to show under close inspection.

The dealership stuff might not be any worse than anything else if you do need to attend to the basecoat, but as Edlancer said, if it`s just clearcoat damage then just touch up the clear. Even if there is damage to the basecoat, you`re less likely to make things worse if you merely touch up the clear and say "good enough".

If the resulting touchup leaves a "blob" of paint that bothers you, be forewarned that leveling that blob can be opening a huge can-o`-worms. Unless you`ve already done it with enough success to feel *utterly confident* in your abilities, DO NOT attempt to level it via wetsanding. Leave that work to people who are already highly skilled at it. You could try Langka`s Blob Eliminator liquid, but it can remove the touchup if you`re not careful (not a biggie, just redo and try again).

Back to my initial advice- the first step is to examine it under magnification and see what you`re really dealing with. Maybe you can get by with just a dab of clear.
 
Hey guys, I took your advice and had someone stop by and take a look; was told it`s down to the primer, so he cleaned the area with some solvent and applied the OEM touch-up paint/clearcoat.

It`s only noticeable extremely up-close, but I`m wondering is it possible to smooth out the jagged edges of the chip even more by applying another layer of clearcoat or touch-up?

Once again, thanks for the helpful information!

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One Ton Soup- Glad to see it`s turning out OK. You could probably add a little more clear, but I wouldn`t get extreme (i.e., wetsanding, etc.) about smoothing the edges/reducing any "blob" effect. Know when to say "good enough".
 
Hello again,

You guys were a tremendous help last time, thank you for the tips and warm welcome.

Mind helping me out again by letting me know whether or not this is wax baked into the paint or from something that must`ve rubbed into the clear coat? I did a spray wax last weekend and found this "scratch" this past weekend while washing the car. If it is clear coat related, mind telling me if Meguiar`s Ultimate Polish should do the trick, or should I apply the clear coat that came with my OEM touch up and buff it out from there? Hopefully a solution that wouldn`t require me to remove some of the clear coat. Thank you!

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Looks like a minor scuff if it doesn`t come off with spraying some QD/Spray Wax and carefully trying to buff out, if that does not work and you can`t feel your nail going IN the defect, a gentle polish(maybe even an AIO/Cleaner Wax) might do the trick. If your nail DOES go in the scratch, a bit more aggressive approach might be needed. You will keep finding something new as time goes by.
 
With that arc it`s probably a swirl due to poor wash technique. How do you wash the car?
Was the car completely clean when you spray waxed it?
What type of applicator or towel did you use when washing and waxing?
No matter how careful we are swirls happen. heck, anytime you touch the paint something can happen. Having the best tools and technique when washing and waxing help, but a swirl here and there are also part of owning our cars. I am very careful, but I need to use my DA about once a year to remove swirls like that.
 
One Ton Soup- It appears to be a scratch, and as you figured the only way to remove it is to remove clearcoat.

If it *is* deep enough to catch a fingernail, you might oughta think twice about removing it completely. The current standards for acceptable clearcoat removal are far more conservative than the old ones (and in the case of Ford, even the older, less stringent standard made "nail-catchers" a risky proposition).

Yeah, I know...people here remove more clear than that all the time. But that doesn`t make it a good idea.
 
One Ton Soup, its over, just sign the car over to me... It will all be fine after that.

jkjk!

Glad the touchup paint came out well, some guys really work in the wet sand which is very sad because not many people are qualified to do so.. no matter what they claim unless they can show you their previous work.

So on the scratch, I`d say if you are not confident in your capabilities to polish it out, or analyze it properly, seek some help. The advice here is solid, if it doesnt catch your finger nail, you can probably carefully and slowly "buff" it out with a bit of polish, however, if you are not careful on the task, you may introduce more scratches or maybe swirls. so again proceed at your own risk. It isn`t really that hard to do, but I`d suppose it is important for you to know what your risk may be.

If it catches your finger nail, then.. it has to be looked at closer, since it can mean anything from polish to repaint and everything in between... if you are located near a forum member, I think most of us wont mind taking a look for you to advise you on what you need to do. Scratches are hard to analyze in photos.
 
glfnaz said:
With that arc it`s probably a swirl due to poor wash technique. How do you wash the car?
Was the car completely clean when you spray waxed it?
What type of applicator or towel did you use when washing and waxing?
No matter how careful we are swirls happen. heck, anytime you touch the paint something can happen. Having the best tools and technique when washing and waxing help, but a swirl here and there are also part of owning our cars. I am very careful, but I need to use my DA about once a year to remove swirls like that.
Click to expand...

I follow the two bucket method and use nothing but microfiber towels/mitts/applicators. I spray waxed after washing/drying, but maybe it wasn`t 100% clean.

The scratch is smooth and has a greasy/wax feel to it when I used my fingernails so I thought maybe it was just a poor wax job.

I guess there`s no way around swirls/scratches unless I want to invest in 3M paint protection film.
 
Raymoche said:
One Ton Soup, its over, just sign the car over to me... It will all be fine after that.

jkjk!

Glad the touchup paint came out well, some guys really work in the wet sand which is very sad because not many people are qualified to do so.. no matter what they claim unless they can show you their previous work.

So on the scratch, I`d say if you are not confident in your capabilities to polish it out, or analyze it properly, seek some help. The advice here is solid, if it doesnt catch your finger nail, you can probably carefully and slowly "buff" it out with a bit of polish, however, if you are not careful on the task, you may introduce more scratches or maybe swirls. so again proceed at your own risk. It isn`t really that hard to do, but I`d suppose it is important for you to know what your risk may be.

If it catches your finger nail, then.. it has to be looked at closer, since it can mean anything from polish to repaint and everything in between... if you are located near a forum member, I think most of us wont mind taking a look for you to advise you on what you need to do. Scratches are hard to analyze in photos.
Click to expand...

Yeah the touch-up job wasn`t bad at all, barely noticeable. I followed Accumulator`s advice and told myself "good enough"; don`t want to take that risk and cause more damage since I have no experience with detailing.

I`ll probably have someone take a look at it and advise on what to do since it is hard to analyze based off of a photo. But there`s something else I`d like to ask, the detailer that helped me with my paint chip, he told me he offers a paint protection service; uses a product called "GLARE". Charges 300 dollars to apply it and it`s good for 5 years. Is that BS or is it a quality product?
 
Uh, I think that is like one of the many lesser known companies... americoat, glare, etc... I can`t say they`re bad, but a 5 year claim is BOLD at best... whats the maintenance on it? for 300 dollars... I haven`t seen a price that low in ages unless he means 300 on top of a full correction job.... then there is some merit to the price.

While it probably is a good product, I feel like if it was that great, there would be more chatter about it. Their website also don`t make a lot of sense... best paint protection polish? is it a coating or a polish? does it protect or does it shine? its really two different things... I`d pass personally, I worked in the R&D industry on surface finishing, I can honestly say, when someone cant tell the difference between a polish and a coating, it... says a lot.

Edit: Just watched their video, the I can smell it.. do you smell it? the b...s..... "covalent bonds.... canauba wax melts at 85 deg F...." oh goodness.... Carnauba melts at 179....F... damn, I would avoid this product like the plague. If there is one thing I dislike, its technobabble... ugh. lol

Sorry don`t mean to bash a product, but sometimes they ask for it, their target is the unaware audience.
 
Well, you saved me 300 dollars that`s for sure.

What do you recommend? I live in NJ, other shops that I could find uses CQuartz and Opti-Coat. Let me know your thoughts on those.
 
Both CQuartz and Opti-Coat have a wonderful reputation.

You can`t go wrong with either one. I feel CQuartz look better... but I believe OptiCoat has better durability.
 
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