Detailing World Forum banner

Stone Chip Repair Guide

1M views 404 replies 251 participants last post by  Breezy 
#1 · (Edited)
A common sight on everyone's bonnet is stone chips unless you've just had it re-sprayed but even then they are still inevitable!







So after spotting a few on mine I thought I would have a go at repairing them after reading a couple of repair guides. Firstly I got hold of some touch-up paint from Paints4U you can alternatively just buy a touch-up stick from the stealers but for the same price, I got a 100ml tin of paint and 30ml clear lacquer which was a perfect colour match too it also came with a fine artists brush.

I also got some IsoPropyl alcohol to clean out all the dirt, crap, polish & wax from the stone chips, once this was done i went round filling the chips with paint and making sure the paint filled the chip and not the area around it as this can easily be done if you use a brush that's too thick you need to fill the chip so that the paint is raised over the area of the chip.

once left to dry the bonnet looked like this with blobs of paint



the wet & dry paper I used was Meguiars unigrit 2500

The next job was to wet sand the blobs of paint down to the same level as the existing paint and the best way I found to do this and keep the repairs to the local area was to wrap a small bit of sandpaper around the end of a flat piece of plastic (aka a bicycle inner tube remover!) or a pencil and gently rub down the raised paint and then level it out with the rest of the surface.

I used plenty of water with fairy liquid which foamed up nicely and acted as a good lubricant and also soaked the sandpaper in some fairy liquid before hand.

some nice sanding marks afterwards!





these were easily removed using my porter cable polisher with a "4 lake & country orange light cut pad & Menzerna Intensive polish, the whole bonnet was then followed up with Menzerna Final Finish Polish (P085RD) with a "6 Sonus SFX blue finishing pad and 2 coats of Collinite 476s wax.

if you don't have a porter cable you can easily remove the sanding scratches by hand using 3M Perfect-It III fine cut compound

I can't see the chips anymore! :D





 
See less See more
9
#125 · (Edited)
No pictures mate. But I'll say this. Took 5 coats to get a deep one out of a plastic bumper. That was 3 colour and then a seperate clearcoat I had knocking around. Sometimes takes alot to fill, why you see guys using that stuff you plaster on and then sanding it, sometimes quicker.

Anyways try to get it only bearly above the existing paint. Then a tiny bit of sanding and I mean tiny with a small bit of 1500 or 2000, attaching it to something like the butt of a pencil and using washing up liquid to lubricate your sandwork. But keep wiping it off and checking the results in diff angles. Trying to only sand the blob of touchup not the bits around it. But as you seen from the pics at the beginning of the thread that happens. And this next part blends it in:

Then the bit that brings it back to new. Some compound. I used SFX-1 and a poshing pad by hand. Back breaking at times. Keep to kinda four inch square spots of work and keep checking the results by wiping it off. Could be five minutes of back n forth back n forth trying to get a single touch up blob to even out.

The sfx-1 will actually bring down touchup blobs without sanding but its even harder work. And you tend to see a warp in the reflection of light if you dont. And like I say by hand, could be a couple of hours per panel and painfull. But brings it up just like it says on the tin. Dont worry too much about sanding so long as you dont go down to primer. Just take it easy with it and do the mimimum amount. Then let the compond do its job

Leave plenty of time for the stuff to dry in this weather, maybe even a couple of days... Can see the pass side door of mine as an aftershot. No befores but if you can imagine major scratching/skuffing all along that door much like breezys pics. And completely gone now. perfect restoration
 
#127 ·
yeah it'll work. just need to see where you stand in the chart of all things in terms of paint layers. I mean, is it down to metal, primer or is there still some orignal paint left in it.

Something that size if it was down to primer youd need at least two coats of touch up nice and evenly painted on. Then at least one to two clearcoat. At that stage you'll have a bump over where it meets the rest of the car paint wise. So take that down with 1500, then 2000 grit. Using some fairy liquid on your paper to lubricate the sanding.

Should be left with similar pics to whats seen in the guide. Kinda skuffed looking where its been sanded. But you only need to do enough sanding to bring it level with the rest of the paint. After which. A good compound like sfx-1. Which Im not selling by the way. Never used the stuff before and blown away by it.

With a lil elbow greese you can get this stuff out by hand.
 
#129 ·
Hi, i like the sound of this but

A: never done wetsanding before

B: only have tcut and AG SRP, which im guessing arent ebrasive enough, oh and dont have rotary polisher, only my arms :p I dont mind taking my time over it and getting it right. im thiking fill it half in with paint then half in with laquer protruding the surface then wet sand (no idea how lol) then polish out. i hope. :p
 
#131 ·
Great write up to both pugleon and Breezy.

I am a complete noobie and want to have a go at getting scuff marks of the bumper of my car and haven't got an orbital polisher. Do you think the sfx-1 by hand would work? Is sfx-1 a pad or the compound you apply? If it is the pad then what compound do you use to remove scuffs? Looking at them I don't think I need to do any touching up as they are not too deep. I also want to remove nail scratches around the door handles. Can these techniques be used for for that? How much pressure do you apply to the pad if doing it by hand?

Cheers
 
#137 ·
Great thread, gave me the courage to give this a go. I have spent the last two days building up the paint on 2 stone chips, today I sanded but the outline of the chip remains in a slightly darker shade of paint, think I may have sanded to much so will add some more paint, sand lightly then try to blend in with polish?.

Does that sound like the best option?, and advice would be great.

Thanks
 
#138 ·
After reading how to do it decided to have a go at the BM bonnet today, thats after 2 days filling all the stone chips with paint. Wrapped well wet, wet & dry around a fork handle and got going, um not bad I thought, so out with the Kestrel rotary, menz 3.02 and cutting pad. Still posible to see in places where I have used the wet & dry so will have another go Tuesday with menz 1.06FF & polishing pad and hope for a better finish.
 
#141 ·
peppered bonnet

Looking at this guide I am wondering if I have to many fine chips to bother trying to spot them all in and polish out. Serious ones I can have a go at but the others are very small although deep, mostly down to the primer. Looks ok when the car is dirty but when clean and shiny they stick out a mile. Is there anything on the market that will cover them up for a period of time rather than painting?
 
#145 ·
I have bought 3m 09374 fast cut compound to remove the sanding marks by hand (I haven't started to fill my chips in yet). I have just realised that I should have bought the fine cut (09375), so shall I count my losses and buy the 09375, or just use the 09374 very carefully. I would also appreciate if anyone has had reasonable results following the guide on here to touch in chips on metallic silver paintwork?
 
#150 ·
fast cut plus and fine cut comount are fine to use by hadn they just need to be worked in well.

as for rusty stone chips yes removing the rust is a good way to start but the best treatment for rust wouldbe to use por-15 rust preventative paint as your base.
 
#151 ·
Looking through this guide I feel like I could well be tempted to have a go on the Mrs skoda where she has actual stone chips!.....can anyone tell me would any of the Paints4u kits be ok for scuffs as well?

The scuffs are bad enough to look like they cant be polished out although I havnt tried, but on appearance look like they havnt broken the clear coating either!

I guess what i am not sure of is can i just use the acrylic stage for the scuffs and the actuall kit for the stone chips? :confused:
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top