12 replies to this topic

[Redman]

What would you fellas say the best option for touching up chips in vehicle paint is. I've seen commercials for pens or wax but do they really work? I'd love to find something other than touch up paint that is nearly impossible to get even. Thanks.

[RookieBlue7]

Nail polish.

[SilverBullets]

I would say Nail Polish as well.  Touch paint really isnt hard to get though depending on the car.  Generally you just have to ask the service depart. at a dealership and they can get you exactly what you need.  It's also not that expensive.

[Johnny4379]

Where is the chip ?

[Redman]

On the back door of a Honda Pilot. My wife shut the garage door down on it and it chipped the paint in about 4 spots.
Do any of those pens or wax actually work?

[Johnny4379]

So it's not a chip, it's a scratches ?
Is it all the way thru the paint ?

[chickenpotpie]

Didn't Billy Mays have some kind of product for this?

In all seriousness, my wife scraped her car up against mine once.  I went to an auto parts store and got the factory color pens for both of our cars.  It does a good job of hiding the contrasting color of the primer gray underneath, so on first glance you wouldn't notice.  But up close, if you are looking for the chips, you can still see the discontinuity.

[RookieBlue7]

If it's just surface scratches (see not through the paint), Meguier's ScratchX works insanely well.

Regardless, the trick with getting touch-up paint right is applying it as thin as possible, feather outside the edges of the scratch, tape it off and then go over it with light sandpaper (3000 grit trizac is my choice).  Once it's smooth, rubbing compound followed by polishing compound followed by your favorite wax.  Done right, you'll never see where the touch-up is at.

Edited by RookieBlue7, 27 February 2013 - 08:38 AM.

[highergr0und]

Do you have a good relationship with the dealer you bought it from?  Take it there and ask them to knock it out real quick.  We have a Pilot and until we moved always had it serviced at the dealer we bought it from.  They would fix little stuff like that for us.  Great service.  All we ever had to endure was the occasional sales person begging us to trade it in and get a new model because they were desperate for used Pilots.

Oh yeah, and if it's seen on TV or seems easier than it should be, it doesn't work that well.

Edited by highergr0und, 27 February 2013 - 11:11 AM.

[chri55]

Post a pic of the damage. I've been a subcontractor to car dealers and have specialized in these types of repairs for fifteen years and can give you some good advice.

[chillr710]

chickenpotpie, on 26 February 2013 - 11:08 PM, said:

Didn't Billy Mays have some kind of product for this?

In all seriousness, my wife scraped her car up against mine once.  I went to an auto parts store and got the factory color pens for both of our cars.  It does a good job of hiding the contrasting color of the primer gray underneath, so on first glance you wouldn't notice.  But up close, if you are looking for the chips, you can still see the discontinuity.

Exactly this!

If the car is a metallic, it will never look that great no matter how close the touch up colour is to the actually vehicle colour itself.
But it wont draw your eye to it as much as it would if you could see the primer underneath, or the bare metal if its gone that far.

If its a solid 2k white/red or something it will look a little better.

[hbear]

Pearl or metallic finishes never blend perfectly...but as above, get a color match pen, and slowly fill the chip layer by layer (not just a single blob)...when cured use 3000 or 3500 UNIGRIT (very important that it's unigrit) and sand the filled area smooth.  Then use Scratch X (my preference is a dual action orbital and proper polishing compounds) to remove the haze....wax/seal and you are done.

Not difficult, but takes a while to do properly.....

[Redman]

Really appreciate all the input fellas. Some good info here for sure.