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Is a repaint the only option here..? Atomic silver
Got nailed by a flying piece of rock/tile on the drive home the other day. I was not expecting this much damage tbh because the debris did not look that bad.
Now the car is a daily driver so I'm not overly concerned about small rock chips, esp on areas that does not rust. But this one is a biggie and it's fairly obvious...but on any other car this would just be a normal touch up job.
Before I got the car in atomic silver, I never realized how garbage the match can be from touchup paints. I've had Pearl whites and normal silver cars before, and they generally come out OK. Not perfect, but definitely will pass the 2-3 step test given the right technique. Over the past 2.5 years I owned the car I've tried 3 different touch up paints for the atomic silver, from Lexus, from Dr colorchip, and from Automotive touchup, all of which I have used previously for my other cars, and they all come out looking trash. They are all either too light or too dark, and that varies by lighting conditions etc.
I gave it my best shot with the touchup paint, and yea...it did not come out well. It can pass the 3 step test depending on angle and lighting, but today I parked up at noon and as I was walking back to it I can see it from at least 10 steps away sticking out and looking garbage. It's not even close to being the same shade of silver.
Now I don't think repainting wise the cost will be prohibitively expensive, but I'm more worried about the color matching. I don't want an entire area of bumper to now look "off" to fix some stone chip. I had this happen on one of the rims, where apparently the acoustic rim is a 2-3 stage paint as well, so the wheel repair guy for the life of him cannot get a match on it, it will look too light or too dark depend on lighting and it ended up looking much worse than with the curb rash. So in the end I bite the bullet and spent 850 bucks to completely replace the rim.
Any suggestions? I don't think this is insurance worthy of the $500 deductible, but please let me know your experiences.
Spot/glaze putty + touch up paint will make that look 90% better. If you've never done such a repair before you'll probably fail (I did) it takes a few tries to get good at it.
The atomic silver is actually a 4 or 5 stage paint process, and, even for very skilled paint technicians, it is one of the most difficult colors for which to get a satisfactory color match. And that applies to both major paint work and even minor touch-ups.
To get an acceptable match, new paint will likely have to be blended well beyond where the damage is. By blending well beyond the damaged area and, perhaps, even into the adjacent panel, that won't make the color match any better, but what it will do is to spread out the mismatched color over a wider area and make it much less noticeable.
Depending on shop rates in your area, a properly done repair is likely to cost $500-600 or more. I'm also assuming that with the recent high inflation, the prices of body and paint work may have gone up in recent months.
I have numerous rock chips on my front bumper after 28k miles of daily driving. It's not worth it to spend 500$+ on that one chip if it'll most likely happen again UNLESS you PPF the whole front of the car which is more $$$ on top of the body work and repaint.
Also good practice if you can, to stay far behind cars. This allows time for debris to drop/settle so it doesn't hit your car and allows you to see debris and have more time to react so you can avoid hitting or running over it. Many times this happens cause you are following close and don't have time to react. It happens to the best of us. I've been practicing staying back lately, particularly at higher speeds.
Ouch. When it comes to time like this I am glad my exterior is black. On the down side it is a pita to keep clean and it a heat soaker in hot summer.
There is no question that black shows dust and dirt more readily than other colors, but there is also no question that non-metallic black is about the only color available for which it is possible to get a virtually perfect color match without the need for blending when major paint work is needed, and it is also about the only color for which, with good technique, minor touch-ups can be done with great results.
In recent years, I had several non-metallic black cars. For me, it was worth the extra effort to try to keep them looking clean in return for not having to be worried about having to deal with paint work, if needed, whether major or minor.
Yes. Touch up pens are Ok for non metallic colours. But terrible for anything else. If you posted earlier would have advised you to say clear of them, waste of money and time really.
you can do PDR to get the dent out and just spray some clear coat and call it a day.
I have numerous rock chips on my front bumper after 28k miles of daily driving. It's not worth it to spend 500$+ on that one chip if it'll most likely happen again UNLESS you PPF the whole front of the car which is more $$$ on top of the body work and repaint.
I have my fair share of chips on the bumper too, in fact you can see some of them on the picture. Those small ones I honestly could not care less. The only reason I care about this big one is because I can actually see the impact and missing paint from far away. This SHOULD be just a small touch up job on any other color to hide the black missing paint and that would be it. I repaired things larger than this on 3 stage Peral whites on my previous cars and it came out decently well, but this atomic silver is so ridiculous in that the paint is not even close to being the same shade of silver. So it does not matter how properly I fill the chip and level the paint, it will stick out just purely from color mismatch.
Originally Posted by E46CT
Former body/paint guy here. You have many options. Just depends how far up the perfection scale you want to go=more $.
What kind of options do I have? Not looking for absolute perfection, but something that passes the 3 step away test is likely what I'm going after here. And of course not making things worse by instead of having impact marks, having nonmatching paint...
Originally Posted by E46CT
Also good practice if you can, to stay far behind cars. This allows time for debris to drop/settle so it doesn't hit your car and allows you to see debris and have more time to react so you can avoid hitting or running over it. Many times this happens cause you are following close and don't have time to react. It happens to the best of us. I've been practicing staying back lately, particularly at higher speeds.
Yea and that's the annoying thing, I was not following anybody closely...a pickup truck passed me in the left lane, and he made quite far ahead of me before kicking this thing into the air. Missed the car following him, bounced a few times and came into my lane instead. Honestly I thought I avoided it because I did not even feel/hear the impact, but apparently not. All it had to do was hit a TINY bit lower into the plastic/chrome piece and there would be no issues...
Originally Posted by 703
Yes. Touch up pens are Ok for non metallic colours. But terrible for anything else. If you posted earlier would have advised you to say clear of them, waste of money and time really.
you can do PDR to get the dent out and just spray some clear coat and call it a day.
I got the touch up pens a long time ago, I use them to fix chips on metal parts of the car so they don't rust, I never bothered with any of the small rock chips on the bumper due to the crap color match.
But I don't think I had any non metallic color cars in the past 10 years, from the 3 stage pearl whites to darker shades of gray metallic, and touch up paints all worked just fine. Not perfect match of course, but once I blend it into the chip properly, there is no way to tell from a step or two away. This Atomic silver is just ridiculous in that it's not even close in terms of color.
I never heard of PDR on a plastic bumper, but regardless I'm not really dealing with a dent, more just a chunk of missing paint and some deep scratch, which PDR will not help.
The atomic silver is actually a 4 or 5 stage paint process, and, even for very skilled paint technicians, it is one of the most difficult colors for which to get a satisfactory color match. And that applies to both major paint work and even minor touch-ups.
To get an acceptable match, new paint will likely have to be blended well beyond where the damage is. By blending well beyond the damaged area and, perhaps, even into the adjacent panel, that won't make the color match any better, but what it will do is to spread out the mismatched color over a wider area and make it much less noticeable.
Depending on shop rates in your area, a properly done repair is likely to cost $500-600 or more. I'm also assuming that with the recent high inflation, the prices of body and paint work may have gone up in recent months.
Good luck.
Yea...I really did not want the atomic silver when I was buying, but it was the only color that matched the spec I wanted. I wanted it in white, which I know is also a 3 stage paint. But I owned several of peral white cars before, and honestly touching them up is not bad. I repaired areas larger than this on relative's car and the result is more than enough to pass the 3 steps away test.
Now every time I get a chip on the side of the car where I must touch up to prevent rust, or just a large one like this, I hate the atomic silver more and more...
This is small enough that I really feel like should not warrant a repaint, esp with risks of color mismatch, but large enough that it is fairly obvious so if I don't do anything to it it will continue to bother me...
Check with your dealer. Most dealers have someone they use for minor paint chip repairs. In particular, check with the used car manager to find out who they use for minor blemishes.
I would take it to the dealer and have them touch it up without repainting the bumper and see if you’re OK with the result. I took my wife’s car to them and they fixed probably eight rock chips on the front of her car and it looked really good for a couple hundred dollars. Then if you are happy with the way it turns out I would do the paint protection film on the front of the car to prevent additional chips and to protect the repairs. At this point I pay for the paint protection film on the front of the car, most of the hood, and the mirrors every time I buy a new car and it is probably one of the best things I have ever done. Of course I don’t like paying for it just like no one else would like paying for something extra on top of the cost of the car but you can negotiate the price of the paint protection film and I have paid $600 for both mine and my wife’s car in the last two years .
07-22-22, 10:37 AM
Is a repaint the only option here..? Atomic silver
