Most liked posts in thread: Paint chip repair

When you say "serious" and "starting to rust" how large a chip are you talking? Have some pic's?

 

I'd suggest hooking up with Octane Guy/Richard Lin on this one for tips

Once you get it prepped and painted you might want to check out Lanka for prep and smoothing out the 'blob' of touch up paint. Works real well

Good luck

 

Paint Chip and repair system

LANGKA Paint Chip and Scratch Repair

Highly recommended.

 

Mmmmmm... that's kinda nasty lookin....

Looks like the paint is pulled up around the edges of the "gash"- probably with rust underneath. Need to make sure you get all this loose paint off and all the rust out - get back to bare metal. This may be near or beyond the limit of what you can do with that fiber pen and traditional touch-up... might be at the sand/prime/airbrush level.

But, yes, definitely put some primer in there after you clean it out REALLY WELL and allow to dry before painting. And yes, langka is your friend. I love it.

 

eww, ugly little wound.... have you considered LangKa... I have used their products a few times with fantastic results.

 

While I realize there are many Langka fans, I am not one of them. I do the product to remove touchup that has gotten where it's not supposed to however.

But the biggest problem the OP faces isn't what to do with the blog, it's the difficulty in touching up his Dark Silver paint.

When metallic flakes are sprayed on a car, it's done over a large area. What happens when you take metallic flakes from a bottle of touchup and try to brush it on? You can a tight concentration of flakes that don't match up with the existing flakes.

Your repair will look darker than the existing paint. Touching up metallic paint is extremely difficult and that's why body shops will spray a much larger area, then attempt to blend or feather the flakes at the edges so that you don't see where the new paint merges into the existing paint.

For your situation, I'd probably have the front end resprayed. It should only cost a few hundred dollars. The proper fix would involve sanding the paint down and removing the offending rust, primering, and respraying it. That's going to look closer to OEM than trying to touch it up.

If I attempted a repair like this, the actual painted area would be much larger than the chipped area alone. I would then use spot putty to build up the hole, and apply 3 to 4 layers of paint. Wetsand using 2000 or 2500 Unigrit papers, then polish to blend in the edges. Results would still be hit or miss...it would look a heck of a lot better than a touch up blob, but it still wouldn't be a perfect match for color or reflection.

Richard

 

Hey OG,

Are you saying you are not a fan of their line of touch up paints but use their "blob' remover? I've used it once and had middling results. I followed the directions to let paint for European cars dry for 2 hr's. I did it at exactly 2hr's cause i was pressed for time and the smaller chips worked out great but the larger ones about 50/50 on the coverage. I attributed to not enough dry time.

OR are you suggesting there is a better way to deal with paint chips? (I'm talking 1MM or smaller type ones, no rust. Def not like the OP

 

Oh I wasn't aware they had touch up paints. I've only known them for their "Blob Eliminator" product. To me, it's like wetsanding with molasses and I don't care for the smell.

What looks "great" is of course relative. For me, a "great touch up" looks nearly perfect an inch away and the touched up surface flows nearly imperceptibly along the same reflection lines. When light is reflected off of them, the light changes only so slightly that it looks like a drip in the paint, despite color matching nearly perfectly.

On the other hand, a rockchip colored in with a marker or even a tiny dab of touchup will hide the primer or metal and look perfect from a foot away and that's also acceptable. It all depends on the size and location of the repair.

Richard

 

Not sure if Langka mfg's or partners with another company. They have a link for "OEM Paint" on their website. Have not used

Is there a wiz bang OG video or write up on touch ups out there somewhere? opcorn:

 

I am certain you will be happy with it. If it is a deep wound it may take 2-3 applicatiions. I have a Pure Silver MCS that had a large scratch on the drivers sill/side areo kit. It is about 95% invisible. If you get close you may see a little more or less silver flake, but who cares.... at least I am not looking at a major wound, it's sealed, and the scratch through the paint is gone.

 

I have to say silver has to be the hardest color to get a good chip repair on especially a large chip, for what its worth something I've had some sucess with making it less noticable is once you get the chip filled to your satisfaction using a small brush with a very small amount of reducer on it lightly brush the just filled chip in one direction, this flips the metalflakes, with a little pratice you can make it reflect light similar to the surrounding paint, not perfect but from a little distance it is hard to see.

 

The difference is location. Being on the front end, he will see it every day, and in every photograph he takes, and in every photograph anyone else takes. Point being, that in many cases, an improper fix can look worse than no fix at all. With an area as large as this is to repair, it's definitely going to be a challenge, but if he's happy with the results, that's all that matters.

 

You are absolutely correct! If it was on the hood or across the face of the door, it would require the panel be repainted entirely. Thanks for making me clarify.