Paint Chips

Millermagic

New member
After I detailed the car today, I noticed that I have some spots where the paint must have gotten chipped by stones or maybe rock salt. Either way, they are really small - not even noticeable unless I am looking for it. I have seen a duplicolor kit for it, but I don't know if that is any good. I don't have alot of money to spend and I'm not looking for something that looks like it just came out of a bodyshop. Mainly, I don't want rust. Any suggestions. I searched, but didn't come up with anything that met my criteria too much.
 
My dealership gave me a FREE bottle of touch up paint for my Tacoma. I just gave them the VIN# and they gave me the exact paint match. The parts guy said that touch up paint is free from Toyota. :bigups You might want to check with your dealership. They might do the same.



I had some chips in my hood down to the metal. I built it up until the paint was above the surface. Let it cure for 2 days. Then wet sanded with 2000 grit. Then polished with Sonus SFX1, 2, & 3. The hood looks perfect. You'd never be able to find where the chips were. Check my CarDomain for some pics.
 
I would go for factory touch up paint to start. Use that and "over fill" the spots. After that, you can use something like Langka (chemical) or the Norton (wetsand) kits to smooth the spot back down. I have done this with great results on solid, non-metallic colors.



-GT
 
Millermagic, I hope you don’t mind if I add a question to your thread. I also have two rather large scratches on the passenger’s side of my M3 convertible (silver gray metallic).



My question for the group is how do I blend the repair to match the shininess of the rest of the paint? I have followed the instructions on the repair of chips and scratches here on the site (http://www.guidetodetailing.com/articles.php?articleId=27). After building up the paint in several application over a course of several day I wet sanded the paint repair with 2000 grit sandpaper, my problem now is that the new paint doesn’t have the metallic shine of the surrounding paint.



I have Sonus SFX-1, SFX-2, (with matching sonus pads for each), AIO, and some 3M rubbing compound, what would be the best approached to get the metallic paint to match the surrounding paint in brilliance?
 
I think the issue with metal flake paint is that you have to apply it in many extremely thin layers. The problem is that the metal flakes are not evenly distributed in the paint 'blob' that is applied during repairs. It either sinks or floats, don't remember which, but I think it is either mostly all at the top or bottom of each repair layer. Then when you wet sand, you are leaving exposed the middle of the last applied blob which is defficient in pieces of metal flake. In order to reduce this effect, apply only very thin layers so each thin layer has metal flake distributed throughout it's thickness (or thin-ness). Make each layer so thin that the metal flakes are the same throughout the layer.

Does this make sense?
 
smprince1 said:
I think the issue with metal flake paint is that you have to apply it in many extremely thin layers. The problem is that the metal flakes are not evenly distributed in the paint 'blob' that is applied during repairs. It either sinks or floats, don't remember which, but I think it is either mostly all at the top or bottom of each repair layer. Then when you wet sand, you are leaving exposed the middle of the last applied blob which is defficient in pieces of metal flake. In order to reduce this effect, apply only very thin layers so each thin layer has metal flake distributed throughout it's thickness (or thin-ness). Make each layer so thin that the metal flakes are the same throughout the layer.

Does this make sense?



It makes perfect sense, since I have noticed that the paint “dulls� after it has been wet sanded. I had even thought about applying a thin layer of paint with a toothpick that has the tip cut into a small flat tip or airbrushing a thin layer of paint over the repair then buffing it out.
 
GTScott said:
I would go for factory touch up paint to start. Use that and "over fill" the spots. After that, you can use something like Langka (chemical) or the Norton (wetsand) kits to smooth the spot back down. I have done this with great results on solid, non-metallic colors.



-GT

These spots would measure less than 1mm on each side. So I whould like tape off the surrounding bodywork and just try to get it a few times with a little paint each time?
 
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