rock chips

[SVTL919]

I have some rock chips in the hood that i would like to repair but dont want to have to paint the entire hood. are there any good shops that do this or is there a product that works well for doing it yourself?

[F8LBITE]

I just got the Dr.Colorchip kit. I'll let you know what I think of it when I hopefully try it out Friday or Saturday.

[sonicx]

Rock chips are very tricky, alot of people believe that there's a "quick fix" just by applying touch-up paint and then massaging the area until the surface if flat and it's hardly noticavble to the naked eye once you've applied the touch-up paint.

From what i've experienced first hand and also from reading is that its all but impossible for the average car owner to do and difficult at best for someone that's actually really good at this kind of work. This is the reason why few if any detail shops / service shops have "Rock Chip Repair" listed in their list of services. Because owner's wouldnt want to pay an arm & leg that'd shops would charge and as the shop owner you aren't going to have the owner 100% happy and satisfied. (that's because it's hard to do). This is why if you have quite a few rock chips and try to take it to a shop, the body shop is going to recommended painting the entire hood. But as your well aware, after you paint the hood you're likely going to get another rock chip again unless you park the car and don't drive it & whats the fun in that? :)

Some may say, "apply the touch-up paint and then try to sand the blob flat with the rest of the surface and the remove your sanding marks." This gets difficult because normally you would remove your sanding marks with a rotary buffer yet in most cases when you go to remove your sanding marks with a rotary buffer often times the powerful rotary buffer will remove all the sanding marks and often time pull the touch-up paint out of the chip. Now your back to square one except now because you've sanded and buffed this area of paint on your car it is now thinner than the rest of the paint on the car and you have to keep this in mind as you re-apply touch-up paint for your second try. (I only say this because i've done it b4 :( .... not cool ).

How many or how bad are the rock chips? Because if there very light scratches that look like some white flakes you should be fine buying dr. colorchip. If there lil deeper and more noticeable ( for what it's worth) i'd suggest you run down to your local Michaels or Hobby Lobby and pick up a artist paint brush. I like to use #1, it has a very small brush tip, and easier to manipulate the paint where you want it. Then apply Isopropyl Alcohol (this will remove any wax that will prevent the touch up paint from sticking) and then apply the touch-up paint using the fine tipped brush you bought. Take your time with this, apply small amounts of paint. You will have to build up several LIGHT layers. Keep your patience and it should come out acceptable(not going to be perfect).

This isn't a fun answer to post because there isn't a product out there including dr. colorchip and like products which are going to fix the rock chips to your liking. People can make it complicated as they'd like ( i know i have hahaha) but sometimes the best thing to do is to clean the area and apply a little touch-up paint and then move on. Because it's going to do almost as good of job as those expensive chip kits that claim they have the end-all cure to your woes. (Which is true, just not 100% sometimes to your liking.) But if you don't mind spending some money its worth it otherwise for what in those types of kits you just could buy the items seperately, for less money at your local parts store.

But like you, i too am open to ideas if some else on here tried something that they have found successful. Because rock chips are annoying. :doh: