while at the shop I visited yesterday, I talked to the guy about chipping of the hood. I had asked what he could do about repainting it and making it not chip as easy. He said that what could be done was to repaint the hood... 3 coats of base, 3 coats of clear coat. But the shop would add flex agent to the clear coats. Normally flex agents are added to paint the bumper, to allow the paint to bend and flex some, so it doen't chip and flake off when the bumper flex in high wind for example. He said that while he cannot say that it will not chip ever, but it will make it a lot tougher to chip the paint. Makes sense to me... So if you are going to repaint the hood... don't forget to do this. BTW this shop was going to do it for $250: sand the hood, dark primer, 3 base, 3 clear with flex... dupont paint.

-Shing

 

Want to get mine done too shing?

 

How much is a new OEM painted hood. I would consider $250.

 

atleast $500... plus I don't think they are painted, you'd hav to get them painted anyways.

-Shing

 

avoid TX! of course, I'll need new shocks from our roads, so I guess you cant win anywhere.

The only downside to a flex agent in the hood paint would be that it would be marred/scuffed easily. that may be easily polished out, but if the paint 'gives alittle', it would prolly dull a bit where hit. btw, my bumper may not have little pecks, but it has much larger dings. like 3x-5x in size. so, I guess its less susceptable to the peck, but more so a larger 'ding'.

 

Thanks, Shing! I plan on looking into this in the spring. I need to get my front and rear bumpers painted as well...will ask the shop to do what you were quoted. Thanks.

 

What do you guys think about that 3M ScotchCal stuff...the clear mask thing. JimW has it on his A6 and I've seen it in person...clean, hardly discernable from normal distance. I was thinking about getting it after I repaint my hood and fenders...but it cost so much.

 

I think it's definately something yuo should do if it'sn ot too late. If I redo my hood and bumper, that's what i would do... put a layer of that stuff on the hood for sure. The bumper doesn't seem to have that much of an issue, but the bug stans are annoying as hell.

-Shing

 

I had my hood repainted for $250 last spring. I had that compound added to the paint and have maybe 2 chips after 20k. The reason your bumper doesn't have the chips is because it's plastic and 'gives' a bit; or at least that was the line they fed me at the body shop. I can say that they matched the paint perfect and it really has held up quite well.

However, I only paid $250 for the bumper and the hood.

Check out the link in my Signature for pics.

SHUMAX

 

What they told you is sort of true. The reason bumpers don't chip is because the bumper is "soft"... <b>BUT</b> if you don't use a flex agent on the bumper's paint, it will not only chip at the point of contact, it will chip in pieces. The flex agents allows for the paint to flex with the bumper. A good bumper paint job are the ones where when you back up and put a dent in the bumper, but the paint didn't crack... bad ones, you will know when you see it... flakes like a 50 year old house.

-Shing

 

There is one way to prevent rock chips(almost 100% sure). Ask about using a paint called "IMRON". This stuff is probably the toughest paint you can get. The last time I heard, they will still using it for airplanes. This stuff is even hard to sand!

 

bad for cars. I had my Honda painted in Imron back in school. the paint was indeed very hard to chip... very! but it will come off in huge pieces should it ever chip. hell, I think that paint was harder than the metal is was on. It lasted a very long time tho before it did chip at all.

 

What about adding some flex agent to the paint? so it doesn't chip off completely? Hmm... this is getting interesting!

-Shing

 

Guys where do U live? that little chin scrape I got from my accident on my car, Well the body shop charge to paint the bumper is $286. thats just to sand and paint the front bumper, thats what the insurance company wrote up. 8.6hrs of labor to remove the bumper, remove lights, Paint, and put it back togather. and U guys paid $250 for hood and bumper Damnnnnn

 

I paid $250 about 8 months ago. I took it to a shop that has worked on our family cars before. I don't know why the heck your guy needs 8.6 hours to remove, prep and paint a bumper; man thats a lot of time He had mine off in less than 30min and prepped in another hour. I can't imagine it took more than 30min. to do that actual painting; excluding dry time.
I think I'd check around if I was you. Although I was a bit shocked to see $250 for bumper and hood too. I was also very skeptical about this new paint method and asked him more than a few times about what all would be done just to make sure we were on the right page. One day later I had my car back.....maybe I was lucky???

SHUMAX

BTW I am in Cleveland Ohio

 

I need to also get my front fenders painted along with the hood. They are just as bad as the hood.... I think I will do this this spring or summer. I also need to get this huge door ding fixed. I cant believe that the MF hit my car that hard! And one of my door moldings is faded. I have no idea what cause this.

Tim 95SE/SC

 

I have no experience w/ IRON but instinct tells me no paint should come off in sheets even when chipped. With normal paint anyway, it indicates a lack of proper prep technique and or procedure. I could be wrong. Nature of the IRON beast??

 

you see big huge patches missing. that is the nature of the beast. its very very hard... and brittle. I guess what I meant to say is that with imron, instead of a needle size peck, you get a quarter to half dollar size patch if you manage to chip it. from there, it can even get larger. My car was prepped pretty well and painted by an aircraft painter, in a aircraft hanger, next to other aircraft, with aircraft imron (i worked at the airport thru school). that was many many years ago. Dupont my have many flavors of imron now. maybe even one more suitable to cars. As far as using that hard as hell stuff I had done, well it had its drawbacks too. On the plus side, you never had to compound it.. because you couldnt!!

 

Man Duponts website is lame... can't even get real information about their products.

-Shing

 

Did anyone try GS-27 stuff??
http://www.directlytoyou.com/Automotive/GS.html