Paint chip touch-ups:

[kouksie]

Hey hey,

I drive a chev blazer with a body kit installed, and the wheel-wells are just covered in chips that bounce off from god-knows-where. I'm irritated by them because the truck is a dark beige/brown, and the chips are a bright blue color. Without painting the whole piece again, how would you deal with paint chips so that they don't look like painted-in spots with respect to the rest of the panel? I tried touching one up in a inconspicuous place, and it totally looks like I dabbed it on.

Any suggestions/hints would be very appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[LauraSVT]

Getting just those areas of the truck painted may not be as expensive as you might think -- auto body guys not looking to finance an inground pool off of your business alone will probably charge $100-$150 a panel. Still, if the its not a vehicle that you're particularly fond of, a cheap fix might be in order.

Turtle Wax makes colored wax that comes with a "Chip Stik," a crayon-like affair that bears a striking resemblence to lipstick. The pair is designed to blend away chips and imperfections. This would be a fine idea for a quick fix, but they don't make it in brown, so you're SOL there. Perhaps someone else does make a brown wax, though -- might be a start.

Aside from that possibility, if you don't want to fork over the bread to paint it, I'd just live with it -- now that's a cheap fix.

[kouksie]

Thanks for your input, Jared.
The truck IS important; it's my pops' truck, and I am tired of seeing the paint chipped on it now that I have it. It's been kept in pristine condition. The paint on the body is flawless, but the body kit has been battered (could be due to the fact that my mother and sister have nicked the garage doors a few times too...)

Here's a picture of it. You can see the blue rather distinctly. That's the side my sister hit the garage with... (yea, she's bright):


I have the original paint colours from the dealership- we bought those when we bought the truck. There's no issue on trying to find the matching colours. My thing is just that the chips are so tiny and so consistant that it drives me up the wall to see them. That, and I thought it would be a nice thing to do for Fathers Day now that I'm making some money.

I wanted to do it myself because I have to do the same thing to my 'tour when I see it again, and want to learn for future nicks.

if you don't want to fork over the bread to paint it, I'd just live with it -- now that's a cheap fix.

I've watched it get dinged up for years now- I'm tired of living with it!

[LauraSVT]

Hey Iris -- Is the blue that shows through from the color of the fiberglass itself, or is it paint transfer?

Someone recently did a fix on here for a paint transfer problem after bowling over a mailbox or something. Removed most of the offending marks.

However, if that fiberglass body kit was originally molded in blue, then sanded, primed, painted and cleared to match the truck, as I suspect, you've got a bigger challenge. As you point out, touching up one spot at a time leaves the car with a leopard pattern that is a bit unseemly. Sanding it down and painting it isn't something I'd recommend doing without experience.

That said, now that I've seen the affected area, its clear that its not very large. I would seriously ask around about a reasonable auto body shop that could sand, shoot, and blend that for you. I think that would offer the best bang for your buck, especially if you're trying to impress the old man.

[hotdimmes]

I'm going to have to thread hijack a bit, although it's somewhat relevant. I've been playing around with repairing scratches/paint chips. I find that when I go to blend it in with high grit sand paper (1500-2000), I can never hand buff out the marks left on the original surrounding clear coat. Is it because it's so much tougher than the freshly applied paint? I've been using 3m "removes 1500 and greater" compound and i still can't buff any of it out.

[LauraSVT]

Urethane and clear harden up pretty fast, but if you're dealing with paint that's very recent, the problem you mention could be the one you're having. You might try going to an even higher grit for the surrounding areas, but it may be that you need to ratchet up your buffing efforts. Light work with 1500 should wheel out.

[hotdimmes]

Yeah, it could be I'm a huge fifi-man too. I've painted a few items and have been able to get real nice results with sanding/compounding which is why I thought the oem paint is tougher. I just gotta get my method down before I tackle more prominent areas like the edges of my front bumper. I'd rather have a mediocre touch up for now than bare plastic showing until I can afford a good repaint.

When I took my ding gaurds off, I tried sanding/buffing the clearcoat ridge with 1000 up to 2000 then buffing and I couldn't get my scratches out until someone did it with a machine for me.

I'll try the 2000 next and see if it helps. The only part I hate is that the sanding area just gets bigger as you try to sand out previous efforts.

[LauraSVT]

For what its worth, I would not expect you to be able to eradicate even light sanding marks by hand. You'll need a buffer to take them out. Orbitals should do for certain stuff, but the full-on wheel yields very professional results. Catch is, with a non-orbital such as that, you need experience, or you'll fire right through the paint, and then you're screwed. I'd see where an orbital takes you -- maybe it will do the trick.

[hotdimmes]

Agreed, that's why I got my brother a gift certificate to buy a Porter Cable months ago, unfortunately he's yet to place the order

[kouksie]

Hey Iris -- Is the blue that shows through from the color of the fiberglass itself, or is it paint transfer?
However, if that fiberglass body kit was originally molded in blue, then sanded, primed, painted and cleared to match the truck, as I suspect, you've got a bigger challenge. As you point out, touching up one spot at a time leaves the car with a leopard pattern that is a bit unseemly. Sanding it down and painting it isn't something I'd recommend doing without experience.

Yes, it's the fiberglass. I just took some more photos, and you're right, this isn't something I should attempt to **** with:


Scuff from original photo: it's definitely NOT something that rubs off. It's the fiberglass.


right before the rear wheel-well. It's UGLY and drives me up the wall. But I do think that it's beyond a chip repair, looks like I'd have to get the whole thing re-done.



I don't know if you can see it, but if you look at my shoe and look Directly UP, that is a chip that my dad tried to cover up and failed miserably with. You can see that the colour doesn't blend with the rest, which is why I'm thinking that perhaps I shouldn't take this as a 'me' project and should pay the money to get it done.

Thanks for the advice though. I just hate seeing them because I am rather fond of the truck and it kills its look.