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

 

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

 

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

 

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!