Alright, I'm a little TOO adventurous these days. But after my trip to Toronto I had a rather not so nice stone chip.

And guess what, a clear bra would not have helped :( This was a little higher than where the bra would sit.


Anywho, today my touch-up paint came in, the chip was deep, right to the metal, so I went to canadian tire and picked up some filler and clear coat as well, I got a little kit that also came with sand paper 2000 grit.

So I went to work.

First pic is the chips (they turned out white, but really were black).

Then I filled it with primer/filler....

Then I did some sanding and filled it again. I never did this before so I messed up the first time. Also man it is scary when you see your paint start to fade :( I found out later I was able to buff it back to new again using some polish.....

Then I sanded this again and I put some touch-up paint on it..... it's hard to see but you can see the lighter spot where I am pointing.

This pic is after I put the clearcoat on, the bottle says to wait 24 hours before sanding so I'll have to wait to finish the job. The lighter spot around the clear should buff out later.

It actually looks worse in the picture than in real life.

And to show how much of a duffus I was, originally I was sanding and not realy paying much attention (brain fart) :( I ended up sanding the entire area shown in white in this pic. So it looked REALLY bad! I was getting a tad worried, so was my g/f.

Then I buffed it back to shine with some polish (as you can see it's shiny now) I didn't take any pics of the horrible mess I had made.

One question--did you use mazda's touch up paint
also nice pics

Yes 27A mazda velocity red touch-up even has gold flakes :)

I just went out and took a look and the clear coat makes it look almost gone! It's pretty damn good. I'll take a pic tomorrow before sanding again and after sanding. Then there is this "finishing" compound. I don't know what it is, I suspect it might be polish though, it says DO NOT APPLY until clear coat has dried for 24 hours.

Not too bad wing - I've seen much worse.

For other folks contemplating chip repair, I have found the following procedure works well for chip repair:

o clean it
o mask off the area to be worked on w/ blue masking tape
o lightly sand the chip divet & just barely around it w/ 400 grit
o clean it
o apply first coat of touch up with toothpick unless its a very large chip - then brush it
o wait 1/2 hr then apply another coat. repeat until chip is slightly more than full
o optionally apply clear cloat
o carefully remove masking tape
o let paint harden for at least 48 hours
o clean it
o wet-soapy-sand it down & smooth with a 1500 / 2000 grit sanding block
o clean it
o apply a rubbing compound to a drill mounted buff-wheel & buff lightly (don't use a dremel buff wheel - its too fast)
o apply a hand-glaze
o wax

astrlsrfr,

I like your procedure, but maybe use polishing compound? Rubbing compound is pretty coarse stuff! (meant to help, not a bitch or cut)

cc

Well using just paint would not work in this case, I tried.

Something my father told me years ago and it still sticks, paint WILL NOT hide anything.

It will mask it but not hide it. Using the filler to hide the holes was a must. We'll see when I'm done, so far it's looking much better.

Very nice repair job, but one comment. You mentioned that the clear bra doesn't go up that far. I had mine put on yesterday and it goes up to the rotor indention in the hood. It's a good 16" up. I was really worried about having the hood section done, but I noticed that when I cleaned bugs off, the first foot of the hood always had marks on it. I am really pleased with how the hood looks, especially on the red. It really isn't noticeable. The places it is most noticeable, but you really have to look, is around the lights where there are several curves coming together. I will try to take a few pictures later.

Here are a couple of images of the clear bra on the hood, it is barely visible. What you notice most is the change in texture.

second picture

Great job Wing don't forget the pics when done. I an planning on buying the clear bra as soon as I get my ride

JVSpiller, thanks for the clear bra pics, like I said the bra would not have protected it. This chip was above the rotor indent in the hood! Right along the edge.

It's getting better and better, the more I play with it, I'm still letting it dry some, it seems like it doesn't match up unless you let it dry completely. You can still see the primer under the paint (barely) I'm being VERY picky so I'm trying to get it as perfect as I can.

It sucks that I got this ding, if it was lower I wouldn't have worried too much but it was pretty bad and pretty high up.

I could always return the car (pay the ding penalty) and start over LOL :D

Ok here are some more pics.

1st close up (looks better than yesterday!)

A tad farther away.....

And from farther away, you can't really see it. There is a SLIGHT colour shift I need to put another coat to hide the primer more.

Sorry Wing, I thought the hood line I saw in your picture was at the front. Didn't realize it was the hoodline at the quarter panel. You did an excellent job with the repair. If I could do a repair that good, I might not have gotten the bra.

wing , looks like your work paided off

Originally posted by JVSpiller
Sorry Wing, I thought the hood line I saw in your picture was at the front. Didn't realize it was the hoodline at the quarter panel. You did an excellent job with the repair. If I could do a repair that good, I might not have gotten the bra.

Your forgiven :D

I'm sure you could fix it if need be as well... I've never done this before in my life!


I'm not done yet! I got some more sanding to do and probably a few more coats of paint, but it is coming a long. Perfection takes time :cool:

your brave to be sanding your 8
I dont think I could sand my velocity red paint job

Originally posted by Charles Cope
astrlsrfr,

I like your procedure, but maybe use polishing compound? Rubbing compound is pretty coarse stuff! (meant to help, not a bitch or cut)

cc

Unfortunately, there is no industry standard to quantify when a "polish" becomes a "compound" and one manufacturer's polish may have the same cutting ability (abrasiveness) as another manufacturer's compound.

But, your point is well received. The idea for the step in question is to use a mild compound which will be the equivalent of about a 3000-3500 grit. You are basically just taking down a few hundred molecules deep so that no fine scratches from the 1500 remain.

Originally posted by astrlsrfr


Unfortunately, there is no industry standard to quantify when a "polish" becomes a "compound" and one manufacturer's polish may have the same cutting ability (abrasiveness) as another manufacturer's compound.

But, your point is well received. The idea for the step in question is to use a mild compound which will be the equivalent of about a 3000-3500 grit. You are basically just taking down a few hundred molecules deep so that no fine scratches from the 1500 remain.

When I read "rubbing compound", all I could think of was the old DuPont products - their rubbing compound is about like 320 grit sand paper!

Originally posted by astrlsrfr
For other folks contemplating chip repair, I have found the following procedure works well for chip repair .....


Good procedure, thanks!

I have had it recommended to apply clear nail-polish on top of the chip just after applying the touchup paint. It is supposed to act as a thinner to make the paint flow and smoothly fill the chip. It also ends up acting as a clear coat.

I have NEVER tried this and was wondering if anyone knew if this actually works.

Good Job Wing!!

think we should create a DIY section.... thread like this and the one on cabin air filter should move to that section, so in the future when we need to (touch wood) do some fixing to our 8, we can refer to that section.

good job wing!

Thanks guys, I finally gave up. Well since I'm returning my 8, I figured I might as well give up.

Here is what I finally came up with.... It's not perfect but if you "feel" it with you finger it doesn't exist so it is nice to have a smooth surface at least.

too bad youre not keeping it

Good job Wing.

I have 3 paint chips now at about 2300 miles. I guess the price of being a daily driver through numerous construction zones. 2 really tiny chips on the hood and one matchhead sized one on the plastic nose. I just got touch up paint for my wife's car-I figure I'll get experience on her car then try my skills on the 8 if I do a good job on her car. But in case I don't feel competent enough, does anybody know about how much a body shop would charge for these minor types of repair?

Originally posted by red_rx8_red_int
But in case I don't feel competent enough, does anybody know about how much a body shop would charge for these minor types of repair?

Check with your local car dealer. They have to deal with chipped paint all the time and I believe they prefer to not use body-shop techniques unless they really have to. They usually have a reliable "wizard" service that does minor paint repair on new cars/used.

Over the years I have used my dealer's dent wizard, fabric/leather wizard and interrior-plastic wizard several times and have been pleased with both the results and the price.

Check with your local car dealer. They have to deal with chipped paint all the time and I believe they prefer to not use body-shop techniques unless they really have to. They usually have a reliable "wizard" service that does minor paint repair on new cars/used.

Thanks msrecant.

I have some chips too
I don't want to take the car to dealer for that
I will probably go to a custom paint shop when the chips start adding up but it sucks because shops always want to paint the whole bumper for one or two chips

I could be wrong, but I think msrecant was saying that ask the dealer who they use to fix the chips. The implication is that even if the dealer has their own body shop, the dealer doesn't do this themselves. They farm it out to "wizards". Either way, I'm calling my dealer Monday and inquire. In the meantime, I've already started on one chip on my wife's car. I turned a ton of heads when I pulled into the Honda dealership with my RX-8 to get the touch-up paint. LOL.

I went to a honda dealer today to look at the S2K, when I drove up in the 8 a salesman came out, saying THAT'S MY DREAM CAR!

He had the brochure on his desk it was pretty funny. Customers were asking about my car, then promptly left honda to find a mazda dealer. Unfortunately there aren't many cars on the lots around here!

what did you think of the S2k?

Awesome car, although they wouldn't let me test drive or start it, I got to sit in it. SMALL but the seats were more comfy. Felt like a cockpit.

Hopefully in the spring I can take another look, you have to put $5k down to even test it :(