chips, anyone?

[seph]

howdy.....

this may have been covered before(if so ,humour me !).....
but what is the best way to remove chip marks .
is t-cut the way to go or would you recommend something else? i've got several quotes from garages of around the £150 mark which seems expensive so ive decided to do a bit of diy.
advice greatly appreciated!

[BrianS]

Light coloured cars are tough to fix yourself, mainly because its hard to get a colour match. If you have a dark car, Seph, it should be easy enough but tedious. You can get paint touch-ups from most car care stores and they usually let you take the tube out to the car to match the colour, so try park outside the shop to save legwork. These tubes usually come with a brush built-in but I find the best thing to use is a toothpick. You need to layer the paint into the hole and it will take a while. Apply the first layer then leave to dry for 30 to 45 mins (depends on the weather) then apply the next layer until the hole is filled in.

Before you apply the paint, make sure you wash the affected area and gently clean the hole (if you pardon the expression) because you don't want to make it any worse. Watch out for "blobs" and try to keep the application as even as possible.

The best thing would be to sand it off at this point with a very fine sand-paper (feels more like newspaper actually) but its not vital if its a small chip-mark. If it has an even finish, you'll probably get away with just giving it a good wax-job to help hide the imperfections, but don't go near the repair spot for about a week. It might be dry on top but the bonding to the surface could still be soft. Just remember to go easier on those spots when you are washing the car in future as well.

I hope this helps. I've done this on a few cars and have been reasonably pleased with the finish, but they were my cars. I did notice on a white car that although the paint match was good with the package, it dried to an ugly grey colour. It might have been old paint or something. If you try this, let me know how you get on.

A friend of mine taught me the method above. If anyone else has other recommendations, I'm always interested in learning more.

Take Care Out There.
Brian

[BeCos]

You could try "Chipaway" who, for IR£50, will go around every chip on your car with a very fine "artists" spray gun and fill the chip with paint.

I've had this done and the results are imperceptable from the rest of the paintwork.

BrianS's method is also good for DIY but I would suggest buying the genuine touch up paint from the main dealer and buying an artistst brush in a hobby shop. The smaller the brush the better and dip it into some thinners first!!

best o'luck !

[Anders]

I have never been able to get those guys to actually show up, but then I live in the sticks. They also prioritise dealers. I also subsequently heard that the quality varies dramatically based on who's doing it. The Chips Away guy I tried to get to call to my house was John Tully, 087-2495333. I'd say most dealers use those guys on 2nd hand cars so they can't be all bad, eventhough I have seen a good few fairly poorly touched up cars in showrooms.

[seph]

howdy,.....
hmmmmmm, brians tip is pretty good although i am a bit nervous of making a complete balls of it! (the colour is dark blue metallic).
chips away guy for £50 seems good value , ill give him a shout and see what he can or cant do.

thanks all....

[BeCos]

Yes Anders I reckon these guys do most of their work within the trade, we used to use them regularly !

Still they have their numbers advertised, they WILL do a better job than you or I AND if I wasn't happy with the work I simply wouldn't pay them!!

[Peter Lawrenson]

I was going to start a thread like this but glad... Well sorry not glad you have paintwork problems, but good to see my questions already answered. My problem is more lots of scratches, not too deep not even sure if malicious, but looks terrible all across bonnet. Colour is Renault Fidji Green. Tried metalic T-Cut on last car with similar problem and wasn't great.

[BrianS]

Hi Peter,

How deep do the scratches go? If you can see metal, you'll need a body-shop. If its a light scratch, it can probably be polished out with a high-speed buffer. Earlier in the thread, Anders recommended a guy who can spray fill the gap with paint- you could give him a call. Although if there are a lot of scratches, it might need a total respray.

What pattern do the scratches take? Are they like swirls or all running parallel with the car? Are they only on the bonnet? They may not have been malicious, but the most important thing to do is try find out the source of the scratch, so you don't get them again. The scratches could be from whatever materials you are using to wash the car with. Any little bit of grit in your sponge or chamois will cause a mark. Or if you are using an automatic brush wash, you and everyone else who uses it, will get a scratch in pretty much the same place. Have a look at the roof and back of the car to see if there are further scratches consistent with this one.

Best of Luck with it.

Brian.

[Peter Lawrenson]

Thanks Brian. Not down to bare metal. I don't use a brush wash, either jet spray or by hand. (I have a rear spoiler.) I remember a few years ago this guy in work messing draped himself over my bonnet and the zip of his jacket scraped it. It is very similar. Long curved scrapes just on the bonnet, but not circular enough to be from a mechanical decice.
Could I do the high-speed buff with a polishing bonnet drill attachment?

[BrianS]

I'm not sure what to say. I've never really tried using one of those and I'd be worried that it might catch the edge of the scratch and make it worse. The coat of paint is only slightly thicker than a plastic bag and I'm always wary of using something not designed for a car's painted surface.
Products like T-Cut are mildly abrasive and the idea behind them is to flatten the edge of the scratch so they don't reflect light so much. Doing a job like this by hand is a tough one. How long did you spend applying T-Cut? Its not a wipe-on, wipe off situation - you'd probably need to do it a number of times before seeing results. It also depends on the scratch. A wide, shallow one is not too bad, but a thin, deep one will be very visible. (Not to mention a wide, deep one!)

Also, is it newer Renault? (6yrs or younger) French cars use a pretty good paint process and the clear coat is strong. That could be why you're not seeing early results with T-Cut. Give the T-cut a few more shots, it might start to smooth the scratch off.

Brian.

[Peter Lawrenson]

Okay. I haven't tried T-Cut on the Renault, I tried it on my last car and yep I was a bit impatient, I thought it would be wipe on wipe off. I tried getting a paint match today from a motor factors and he said leave it. He maintains that the whole bonnet would need to be sprayed. He said metalics can't be touched up the same as 'flat' colours. I was taken aback but I will have to try something, the scratches are horrible and I can't afford to have the whole bonnet done just yet. Oh and my Renault is 1997.