Trying Paint Chip Repair… I’m bad at this…

The front edge of my car’s bonnet – hood for the Americans – looks like the surface of the moon, chock full of craters made by rocks flying into it at high speed. Sadly, some of those chips have not only gone down to the bare metal, but have also been there for long enough that the metal has started to actively rust – something I would really like to avoid. So, in this video I’m going to give paint chip repair a go and walk you through how I went about it, partially so you don’t have to make the same mistakes as me…

The paint chip repair kit I have is from Halfords. It’s a 2 pen kit composing of a white primer and Audi Ibis White paint, plus a small scraper tool and a foam pad. Some paint colours will require a 3 pen kit, which will also include a clear coat or lacquer. It’s important to note that the style, colour and condition of your paint will vary just how difficult it will be to hide your chips or scratches, with metallic paints being the most difficult to colour match and blend nicely.

You will need the right colour paint for your car, which can be more difficult to find than you’d think. First thing’s first though, find your paint code. This is often on a sticker or plaque in your door jams, in your engine bay, in your spare wheel well, behind boot trim panels (that’s where mine was) or even in your glovebox. Search your model of car and “paint code location” to find where you look on your vehicle.

When it comes to the actual process, personally I’d start by washing the area well so you won’t contaminate your new paint, nor damage your existing paint with grit when sanding. Then the dangerous bit (for your paint, not you), you’ll need to use the scraper tool and/or 800 grit wet and dry sandpaper to clean out the area leaving no traces of rust. You will also want to smooth over the edges so instead of straight cliff walls you’ll end up with a smooth valley so you can blend your new paint in well.

Once you are happy with the shape, use an isopropyl wipe (like a glasses wipe) to clean the area thoroughly. You don’t want any contaminants in your brand new paint! Then shake the primer paint pen well and lightly apply a thin coat. You don’t want to completely fill your chip as you’ll need to leave space for the colour and (possibly) clear coats to rest on top, but you do want to make sure it’s filled enough to be an even surface for the rest of your paint to rest on.

You’ll need to leave the primer to dry for 24 hours before you can come back to sand it back a little – ideally this will be done in an enclosed space like a garage, but failing that you will want to protect your wet paint from the elements as much as possible. Once dry, you can gently sand it back so it’s nicely even, and again wipe it clean before adding paint.

Next is the top coat – your colour. You’ll want this to be thin layers where possible, leaving anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour between coats, although for this style of pretty thick paint I only needed one coat for most of my chips. Again you’ll want to leave this to harden overnight before adding clear coat, if your car needs it. It’s the same process for the clear coat too, make sure it’s clean and level, apply gently, allow time to dry before driving.

My results were… average at best. Luckily, my main objective was to protect the metal and make the marks slightly less visible, and I think I’ve achieved that just fine so I’m pretty happy with it. I’ll likely be respraying the whole thing later this year anyway, so this is perfectly adequate for me.