I have a few stone chips on my hood and they are really buggin me. Do you think I should touch them up with touch up paint to cut down on noticing them or just leave it?

 

i touched it up, much better!

 

Do it, but bust your *** over to Autopia and research the proper technique.

My fenders are faded (bad...you can tell they don't match the new paint on the bumper, etc.) and the bodyshop asked me if I wanted them to touch up the chips when they re-cleared them. I said yes. If you look close, you can see every single touchup mark quite clearly, but the overall effect is that the fenders look much better. I will be experimenting with using the airbrush to touch up this summer...

 

ok, cool, thanks guys, ill chck out autopia and see what i can find

 

I think touchup paint looks ugly. I'd either rock the rock chips, or shell out some money for a repaint, and the use that 3M plastic over it to protect it..

 

yes because i 2500-3000 dollars to spend on a repaint...i wish i was rich

 

2500-3000 is like an expensive all over job. I know what you mean though, I keep forgetting since ive been painting cars for just cost of the materials.. But I still think rock chips look better than touch up paint, at least every touch up paint job ive seen..

 

definately touch them up. i'd rather see touched up spots than primer or rust spots. plus the touched up spots blend better and you usually have to be looking for them to see them. i couldn't tell you how much better my bumper looks now then it did 2 months ago. it still needs more work done, but i had extra paint from www.paintscratch.com and used primer, base coat, mid, then clear coat on them and it looks so much better.

 

try langka. i bought some and it really works well for paint chips. you fill up the chips with touch up paint, and then in a few days, you use the langka to smooth it out. its pretty magical :P i bought it with the intention of fixing scratches... i havent been too successful with that. but it is good for chips.

 

be hardcore:

apply touch up, let it cure, wetsand, and then do all the polishing to make it look like new again.

My hood is covered with rock chips... it's horrible.

 

yeah, it is going to take a while to do it right.
After you touch it up, you will probably want to wetsand and then polish like nadir said. It will take quite a while, but will be well worth it.

 

Would it look funny to just put the 3m cover stuff on a little bit of the front of the hood? I mean, can you really see it?
I just got my hood painted in Feb, and there are already a few rock chips on the front. I know a certain amount of this can probably not be helped, but I was curious.

 

No I don't think it will look funny, Actually I think that is what your supposed to do. As I have not seen it in person, I have seen pictures, and many people have also told me about you not being able to tell.. I am for sure going to do this after I paint mine, because right now looking at my black hood, It looks like im looking at the stars..

 

I am not that big a fan of the 3m stuff. Lots of people using it, but I think you can see it, and the prospect of keeping wax out of that little crack is more than I want to deal with.

 

what little crack, endus?

Will, what did you decide about the rock chips?
Have you come to a conclusion?

 

if you have little rock chips with some rust in it, is it best to use a light tip sandpaper or even those small point attachment for the dremeal to sand them out?

 

By crack I think he means where the 3M stuff stops. Well there is alot of other crack everywhere else on the car too.

 

Does anyone know of any other good touch-up paint suppliers (besides Paintscratch)? Maybe something somewhat cheaper?

I have a small rusty spot coming through on the underside of my hood (it is on the inner sheet metal which is spot welded to the actual hood. It is the spot weld that is starting to rust, the paint isn’t “bubbling” yet, but I want to take care of it before it does. Anyway, I want to grind this down and then primer/paint it.

Touchup paint recommendations?

 

The 3-m stuff "Invinceashield" has it's pros and cons. We use it at work. First off, shell out the $150 and have your hood repainted and polished, it'll look far better than you could do at home unless you can paint. As for the invinceashield, after time it yellows and starts to craze (crack) and is very hard to remove after aging. The only place I would use it would be on the front bumper and side mirrors. Rocks can still penetrate the shield but it would have to be a good smack. For now just brush touch the chips till you can get it painted.

 

can't you mess up the clear coat by sanding?

 

i read somewere on another forum about touch up, they guy touched up and let it cure and then used compond and buffed, waxed and it looked as if the touch up wasnt even there, any one heard of this method.

It sounds like it would work.

 

I got a nasty one today from a flippin semi... go figure. This was the first one bad enough to make me consider trying to touch it up...