Car paintwork touch-up

Hi, all.

I've just noticed some stone-chip damage to the car's paintwork. It looks like it's gone down to bare metal, because there's signs of rusting. We're talking about spots less than 5mm across.

I've never tackled bodywork or paintwork before. What are the options for DIY or professional repair of such minor chips before they become more major?

The vehicle is a 2006 LR Discovery 3, plain black paint ( not metalic or anything fancy ).

I'm guessing I need to rub down the rust spot to clean metal, and 'feather' the rubbing-down into the good paintwork around it. Then do I use a primer, followed by paint? Or do you get single-application self-priming paint solutions? I'm guessing that a LR dealer will sell me touch-up pots of correct colour paint, is that right?

Or is there a stonechips-R-us service that will just do it for me much more betterer than I could?

Reply to
Ron Lowe
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Hi Ron,

There are usually mobile repairers that sometime pitch for business outside off Halfords in out of town retail parks,

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come to mind, I have never actually used them but maybe others have.

Your post has prompted me to think about the stone chips and light bumper damage on my wife's Golf, it would be good to hear if anyone has used them or any other offering similar services.

Tom

Reply to
Tom

You can feather & spray, but for a 5mm chip I think that would be overkill, and make it look worse rather than better. Just put a drop of paint into the hollow. When doing that, do carefully avoid any overspill, if your new paint rides up over the edge of the old it looks bad.

Any car paint seller can supply matching paint.

NT

Reply to
Tabby

Your standards are probably higher than mine (it wouldn't be hard) but here's what I did on a car I bought used some years ago. The car had clearly been driven a lot on unsealed roads, and there were many tiny chips in paint on the bonnet. I just bought a can of spray-paint, and touched them up with no preparation beyond making sure the surface was clean. A piece of newspaper with a little hole in it stopped the paint from going too far, and I was careful not use too much. That was about 10 years ago, and the bonnet still looks OK. As far as I'm concerned a vehicle is just transport, but I understand that most people have a different attitude.

Reply to
Gib Bogle

Here is a guide on how to get it looking perfect again.

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't worry about taking sandpaper to your car. You just have to have the balls to do it like this guy
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Reply to
RoundSquare

Disco 3's are steel not ali? Bah annother reason for sticking with a Disco 2 but some bits of them are steel. B-(

Depends how fussy you are, I'm firmly in the "it's transport, does it do that?" camp. The car gets washed as part of the dealer service and maybe after the winter if a service isn't going to be for a while. If the lights get really mucky in the winter they'll be cleaned but removing the snow normally keeps 'em clean enough.

Chip repair, gentle rub down with fine wet 'n dry used wet remove loose/soft rust. Splodge of kurust followed by blob of matching paint from a brush based touch up can rather than spray.

I also appreciate but completly fail to understand how some people insist ona whole panel respray and polsih for a hardly visible pin prick mark and spend all Sunday out washing and polishing what is nothing but a machine to get you from A to B.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

What is this washing and polishing of cars that you mention?

Reply to
ARWadsworth

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "ARWadsworth" saying something like:

Feck nose. Next time the stonechips get too much, I'm out with the Dulux and brush. I made the happy discovery that a particular shade of red garden gate paint is damn near identical to the ShiteOldJapCar red.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

As a guess I'd say the colour is Narvik Black straight single colour for that particular year, you'll be lucky to find a colour code as LR tend not to apply this for some reason on many vehicles.

I would treat the bare metal chip/s (unlikely to be rust as its aluminium unless very old) and apply a dab of primer then a spot or two of colour with a tiny brush or cocktail stick, then leave to fully harden after a few days, (that should be little high spots at this stage) Then by using a rubber rubbing block carefully wet flat the high spots with 800 or 1000 grade wet-or-dry paper level with the panel.

After flatting polish it back to reveal a perfect colour match and repair providing you don't rub-through of course.

Reply to
stephen.hull

A mate who is not in the least technical had some chips done at his dealer who used one of those specialists. He saw them working on another car, and said they appeared to be 'planing' the paint flat after touching up - rather than sanding. His repair is pretty good - far better than I've ever managed.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

In message , Ron Lowe wrote

What ever you do don't use the brushes that come with come with any of the "sticks" of touch-up paint. Even the small artist brushes that you can buy 10 for a pound at pound-stretcher type shops are 1000x better. With a fine tip brush you can build up the paint in the hole made by the stone chip without going over the existing paint.

Reply to
Alan

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