Porsche 911UK Forum

Welcome to the @Porsche911UK website. Register a free account today to become a member! Sign up is quick and easy, then you can view, participate in topics and posts across the site that covers all things Porsche.

Already registered and looking to recovery your account, select 'login in' and then the 'forget your password' option.

Paint chips - is a repaint the ONLY option ?

997man

Well-known member
Joined
14 May 2015
Messages
166
There are a couple paint chips on my partners new A4.

Is paint the ONLY solution ?
 
Chippex .. May be if carefully done.
 
997man said:
There are a couple paint chips on my partners new A4.

Is paint the ONLY solution ?

They can be fixed quite well but it is a long and laborious process, you have to build a few layers of clear coat above the paint surface and rub down to flat. Not easy without rubbing the surrounding area down too much.
 
For the best final finish and look, repaint. In practical terms, if that isn't an option or the chip are few, you can use touch-up but you'll always see the touch-ins (even if you give it to a Bodyshop to do the touch-ups).

If they cannot be lived with, then touch-up. Otherwise wait till its peppered and then have a professional respray would be my recommendation.
 
cheshire911 said:
For the best final finish and look, repaint. In practical terms, if that isn't an option or the chip are few, you can use touch-up but you'll always see the touch-ins (even if you give it to a Bodyshop to do the touch-ups).

If they cannot be lived with, then touch-up. Otherwise wait till its peppered and then have a professional respray would be my recommendation.

Agree with this! However if like me you have a particularly nasty chip that, on its own, doesn't justify a panel resprayed the good results can be had by following the instructions below:

1. Thoroughly clean panel and chip, wash and degrease
2. Mask off area around chip
3. Carefully abrade chip and clear coat around it with 800 grade wet & dry, try not to go below surface of primer
4. Clean and degrease again
5. Apply base coat with fine paint brush, apply as thinly as possible and do not cover the edges of the clear coat
6. Apply another coat of base coat if necessary, leave at least an hour before coats
7. Note the base coat must still be below the surface level of the clear coat
8. Apply 2 to 3 coats (or more) of clear coat, leaving at least 6 hours between coats, maybe apply some gentle heat too with a hair dryer
9. You should now have a bubble of clear coat well proud of the original finish, this needs to be thoroughly dry before the next step, leave for at least a few days or even a week!
10. This is the tricky bit! Using wet and dry paper, 800 grade, on a firm backing, a piece of rigid plastic is good for this, carefully rub down the clear coat bubble trying not to abrade the original finish around it. A good trick here is to first apply some very fine body filler to an area around the repair roughly the size of the rubbing down pad you are using. The filler should be the same depth as the bubble is proud of the surface. Once the filler is set hard, rub down with 800 grade following the contour of the panel, this prevents you rubbing down the original finish around the repair. As the filler and bubble is worn worn down, switch to a finer grade, 1500, when the filler is thin enough to show the colour underneath. When the filler is almost completely gone switch to 2500 or 3000 grade and wet to finish off!

All that should be left to do is polish by hand with a good cutting compound to restore the finish, a DA comes in handy here if you have access to one!

I repaired a really nasty chip in the fairing of my Ducati using this method and you need to look really close to see any evidence of s repair.

Will be using above method to fix a really nasty chip in my front bumper which is about 10mm in dia.
 
Probably not worth the hassle of the above if the chip is only a millimetre or so!
 
DucatiRob: Hats off to you if you attempt this on a Porsche.

Personally, I don't have the skills or confidence to attempt anything on my Turbo.
 
cheshire911 said:
DucatiRob: Hats off to you if you attempt this on a Porsche.

Personally, I don't have the skills or confidence to attempt anything on my Turbo.

Honestly, all you need is patience. Not something you can rush, but the results are worthwhile. Having just one panel sprayed is expensive enough and unless it's done professionally and blended in properly, can look worse that the odd chip.
 

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
124,236
Messages
1,438,512
Members
48,619
Latest member
smiggles772
Back
Top