What is the best way to handle the paint chips on the front of the cars hood? I know there is touch up paint you can buy, any other alternatives? How does the touch up look after?I have an 01 430 that is black and have about 5-6 chips on the front of the hood towards the grille so they are noticeable due to the color of the car. Any suggestions would be helpful?

 

If you do touch up paint, no matter how well you do it will still be noticable. There is a kit you can buy that helps to smooth out the touch up paint and helps it blend in with the rest of the paint. A friend used it on his blue car and it makes a difference but the touch up is still noticable. I say get the hood repainted and then put on a protective barrier like xpel or something along those lines. Then you wont have to worry as much about the chips


One other thing, PM a member on here his ID is guitarman and his name is Dan. He is like the clublexus Paint guru and if there is something special you can do to fix the paint he can do it

 

Unfortunatly I dont think there is no other alternative to fix up rock chips besides touching it up with paint.

A good thing to invest is to get the bumper or hood repaint it and then get a clear bra installed.

 

get the auto visual pen, it's good stuff

they are a vendor here

 

well i have the same problem. i called several places that install clear bras, they advised me that if you get the car repainted, that the transparant film will stick to the paint, but in about 4-6 years they advised me that you will run into problems with the paint when you decide to take it off or get it replaced, because of the glue that is being used to adhear it to the car, so if you get big rocks or chips after installing it and decide to replace the coating, and remove it from the car, it will take off teh paint as well, its like puting scotch tape on a piece of paper, you can not take if off easily, some of the paper will come off with it, so thats the problem with getting it on repainted cars, thats what i was told by 4 dealers that install and sell this product, there is like 3 major companies that supply this product, and all three of those distributors told me the same thing,

so im stuck with chips too

 

So then how long did they say you can apply the clear bra after the bumper is re-painted?

 

they said you can do it a couple weeks later,but they can not garuantee that they will not damage the paint because of the hardening that is used during the initial paint job at the dealer.

 

u can buy touch up paint from the dealer but the thing is that the brush givven is way to big.. you need to apply it with like a toothpick

 

New paint needs time to cure. If you put the film on right afterwards, yes you run the risk of paint coming off when you remove the film. Don't ask how I KNOW this.

You need to wait at least a couple of weeks, 1 month being optimal. The only bad thing about this is that if you need to drive your car, you also run the risk of more chips before you can put the clear bra on.

 

neo is right, you should wait a month for the paint to fully cure, that's the safest. otherwis you can put on the film no problem, it will stay good. but if one day you need to pull it off, you might have trouble.

granted though, i put on my clear bra 1 week after i got everything repainted, and i had no problem peeling off the whole bumper xpel

 

the key to applying oem touch up paint with the brush is to use about ten times less paint on the brush than you would expect. very, very small amount on brush and just barely touch the chip.

 

It sounds silly but it fits the bill.

I had a black GS and what really irked me was after waxing I would have white pock marks all over the place.

I've always sucked with touch-up paint - meaning it looked like a "touch-up screwup" versus a decent job.

Soooo one day I whipped out my trusty Sharpie Black marker and viola - pinpoint accuracy and no more pock "noticable" pock marks. Works like a champ and lasts about 6 months or until the next time you wax your car.

Now - for you folks with OTHER colors - go to Hobby Lobby and they have marker/paint pens in ALL TYPES of colors. I now have a pearl white GS and sure enough, found a pen that matches. I think it cost me $3.95

Try it and you won't believe the results. Cheap, effective and more importantly, you can't screw it up!

Good luck,
Eric

 

You took the words right out of my mouth or you can get the whole hood re-painted

 

their paint sux...doesn't match and the pen flows out paint like a retarded kid with down syndrome

 

really?! man, i am glad that mine is doing pretty ok here @_@