Paint chip repair.

[JimX]

I've got one big stone chip on my bonnet, plus lots of driveway damage on my front bar. The final straw was from a rock, which someone had moved from its usual location on the grass in one of my fairly regular parking spots to be in the path of my front bar, resulting in some sizeable scratches through to the plastic on it.

It will cost me around $300 to get the front bar resprayed, but that still leaves the bonnet and a couple of other stone chips here and there still to be fixed. I'd rather not fork out that much money to have this all fixed up, because that's $300+ I could be putting to a new dump pipe.

I know that there are some paint chip repairers out there that specialise in fixing this sort of thing, but I was wondering (a) how much they cost roughly, and (B) how good the end result is?

One of the shops I've heard of that do this is called "Chips Away" I think, are there any alternatives that are better or worse?

[Guest Boxhead]

first of all, as a general japanese rule from the cars i have seen, if you use touch up paint, it cant be the same color as the car, it has to be slightly off....

secondly, if your paying $300 + just for dump pipe, your mad.

and thirdly if you respray, youw ill be pissed off next time you get a stone chip, i say use touch up paint to stop rusting etc, or make it look better from distances

[JimX]

Firstly, I was actually talking about the dump pipe with split waste gate plus front pipe, plus fitting. And I was actually quoted over $300 for that. It wasn't meant to be the focus of my message.

Secondly, the car has new paint (as of October last year) anyway. I can get new paint matched exactly by the workshop that did the respray, and I even have a little left over.

Thirdly, I'm not concerned about the underside damage of the bar which I know will happen regardless. I'm mostly concerned about the big scrapes on the front/side from the miniature boulder I nudged. Fixing up the 4 or 5 other stone chips in the front/upper part is just a bonus. And I don't know how you think a front bar rusts, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and presume you didn't read my message properly (I didn't say anything at all about respraying the bonnet, just the front bar).

Ok, so what you're saying is you don't have any information at all on my questions. Thanks.

[predator]

I think if you tried a few experiments on out of the way chips, you could work your way up the visible areas and get good result. What boxsaid was useful.. while you definitely will notice it because u know its there, as long as its covered well with some touchup paint...from a distance (and photos) nobody is going to know at all. I have done a small bit on my car.. hardly right colour and pretty rough job (just because that grill is going soon).. close up it looks dodge.. but from about 2m nobody is going to know except you

I think those places are around $50-$100 per decent sized chip depending on size. Just ring them and ask..best way to do it.

[nismoman18]

where can u get factory colours and how much would they cost per litre or so on the gold coast? I just use burgundy red touch up paint on my car, does the job well unless u look at it from closer then a metre. i dont trust sprayers they did a dodge job on my car last time for an outrageous price so yeah

[predator]

u can go to a autopaints wholesaler place..they will mix up whatever you need.

They general deal with the panel shops directly, but i am sure you will be able to get them to mix u something you're after.

Let me know how it goes..