Advice on how to fix "small" car paint chip


  #1  
Old 04-28-16, 11:26 PM
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Advice on how to fix "small" car paint chip

Hey Guys, I would appreciate advice on how to fix a small paint chip. I believe I can follow this youtube tutorial.

But any further advice is appreciated, especially on what i should do with the area where the paint has been disturbed or scuffed, but it hasn't flaked yet. How would I go about fixing that? I've attached a picture to show you my situation. The finger in the picture is to give you an idea of the scale of the chip.

FWIW, it's an Infiniti QX60. It's definitely the doing of someone's door. I was pretty nervous seeing how tight the parking spaces were. Sure enough, when we got out of the restaurant I checked the area most prone to door dings, and I found that chip. Thank you for your time.

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  #2  
Old 04-29-16, 03:22 AM
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I've only used a touch up pin once and didn't care much for it but it had a finer tip than the one in the video. I have used the touch up bottles with the little brush numerous times. To just touch up a chip I've always cleaned the area, made sure the surrounding paint was stuck [no further peeling] and then use the brush to paint just the chip using a rag if needed to remove any paint from the sound paint surrounding the chip. You want to make sure the touch up paint flows into the surrounding paint but not over top of it. That helps the touch up to be less noticeable.

I couldn't tell from the pic but generally scuffs can be buffed out. I'd do that after the touch up paint has dried/cured.
 
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Old 04-29-16, 05:03 AM
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For small areas of chipped paint, get a bottle of touch up paint. Clean chipped area. Mask off the area to be painted. I use two layers of tape as I want the new paint to be higher than the old. This usually takes many coats of touch up paint, especially on vertical surfaces, with drying time between the coats. Once done painting, remove the tape. Use rubbing compound to knock down the new paint edges and then polishing compound to blend in the patch. Good luck.
 
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Old 04-29-16, 07:21 AM
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The issue with chips is that there is a depression left by the missing chip and unless you fill it in, it will still be pretty visible. A touch of auto body spot putty, carefully sanded flush with the surrounding paint will do the trick. Then hit it with the touch up paint and it will look a lot better.

I've had my wife's car detailed a time or two and the shop has always filled and touched up any chips and scratches as part of the exterior detailing. For $150 bucks or so you get detailing and the chip fixed so might be worth going that route. Best to go to a body shop that does detailing and not a stand-alone detail shop.
 
 

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