Paint Chip Repair

[Victorofhavoc]

As it turns out, the paint on the edge of the doors wasn't just over layered, it's super soft. I've chipped one of my doors by just opening it in the garage and knocking against the fender emblem on my 370z racecar. It chipped off a good amount, so now that weather has cooperated I took the time to touch up the chip. I also chipped another door by bumping into a piece of laquered wood, so it's not just one door. I've never had door edge guards on doors because I find them unnecessary, but the paint quality on this car is changing my mind.

This was a minor touchup because I didn't want to spend the time taping everything up and pulling out my paint sprayer for multiple proper layers. Instead I chose to go the minor chip repair route. For anyone interested, I bought the paint from scratches happen and it's a modestly close match. If you want better, I would recommend going to a paint shop and asking them to mix up a three stage paint and primer for you.

Here are the steps:
Sand with 2000grit
Primer
Light sand
Base pearl for 2 to 3 coats
Midcoat for 2 to 3 coats
Clear coat for 2 to 3 coats

You must wait about 30 mins between coats to allow time to set.

Prior to sanding:

After primer:

After initial base pearl coat:

After pearl layer was totally done:

After the midcoat was done:

After the clear was done:

And standing back once the clear had totally dried:

All in all, it turned out 98% okay. Most people will never be able to tell where it is once I'm done polishing it. Unfortunately it takes about 30 days for full clear set to be ready for polish and then another 30 days after that until ppf can be applied, but that's fairly typical for clear coats.

Sponsored

 

[optronix]

I don't know how much can be attributed to paint quality, honestly... you open your door into stuff and bad things are gonna happen.

I mean, from my perspective the paint held up pretty well to a fire extinguisher at ~40 mph.

That said, I agree that the repair looks great. No one will be able to tell it ever happened unless you tell them.

Also, my PPF installers did the door edges gratis, and I'm grateful for it!

 

[Victorofhavoc]

I don't know how much can be attributed to paint quality, honestly... you open your door into stuff and bad things are gonna happen.

I mean, from my perspective the paint held up pretty well to a fire extinguisher at ~40 mph.

That said, I agree that the repair looks great. No one will be able to tell it ever happened unless you tell them.

Also, my PPF installers did the door edges gratis, and I'm grateful for it!

If you look closely at the door edges you'll see the paint looks thicker in that area. That's part of why it chips so easily. Typically you reduce the paint thickness at the edges to reduce likelihood of chipping.

On my other cars I've banged into things in the garage all the time and never had paint chipping issues. I have kids, they bang doors left and right. The Q7 takes a lot of punishment and has no chips on any doors. This car also had 400 miles on it when it went to ppf and we found a few areas of chips. When they had to pull some ppf there was paint coming off too. I will 100% sell this car before the ppf needs to be pulled because I don't want to deal with it.

Thanks! The goal here was easy small repair. I'm hoping for others it gives them the steps to follow and an option of simple at home garage repair. A proper respray for a fix like this would run you 5-700$ at a shop. I could do it myself for about 60$ in paint, but it's 5x the effort and downtime.

 

[optronix]

Removing PPF is not something I ever want to think about. Xpel offers a "lifetime guarantee" or something like that (maybe it's 10 years)... as much as I'd like to think I'll keep the car forever, I think after 10 years and thinking about pulling the PPF off, I'll come to the conclusion that it's been a good run......

Also yes, I had a nice fat chip on the bumper, likely picked up on the way to getting the PPF installed at ~200 miles. I can't imagine what it would look like if I didn't have it... probably like the STI I had that looked like it had been sandblasted after only 8k miles.

PPF absolutely worth it on this car, and I was on the fence initially.

 

[Victorofhavoc]

Removing PPF is not something I ever want to think about. Xpel offers a "lifetime guarantee" or something like that (maybe it's 10 years)... as much as I'd like to think I'll keep the car forever, I think after 10 years and thinking about pulling the PPF off, I'll come to the conclusion that it's been a good run......

Also yes, I had a nice fat chip on the bumper, likely picked up on the way to getting the PPF installed at ~200 miles. I can't imagine what it would look like if I didn't have it... probably like the STI I had that looked like it had been sandblasted after only 8k miles.

PPF absolutely worth it on this car, and I was on the fence initially.

Agreed!

The hood scoop on my sti was an absolute disaster of chips, lol. After 4 years it was peeling and flaking by the square inch.

Oddly my wife's old crosstrek (which I regularly ceramic coated) was spectacular when I sold it. It had 40k miles over 4 years and only 3 minor chips. Absolutely zero swirls. Whoever got that car got phenomenal paint work on a used car because of our hand-wash only efforts and ceramic, lol. They probably didn't appreciate it.

 

[DukeFrisbee]

I mean, from my perspective the paint held up pretty well to a fire extinguisher at ~40 mph.

I feel like there's a story here.........

 

[cqrrlm]

As it turns out, the paint on the edge of the doors wasn't just over layered, it's super soft. I've chipped one of my doors by just opening it in the garage and knocking against the fender emblem on my 370z racecar. It chipped off a good amount, so now that weather has cooperated I took the time to touch up the chip. I also chipped another door by bumping into a piece of laquered wood, so it's not just one door. I've never had door edge guards on doors because I find them unnecessary, but the paint quality on this car is changing my mind.

This was a minor touchup because I didn't want to spend the time taping everything up and pulling out my paint sprayer for multiple proper layers. Instead I chose to go the minor chip repair route. For anyone interested, I bought the paint from scratches happen and it's a modestly close match. If you want better, I would recommend going to a paint shop and asking them to mix up a three stage paint and primer for you.

Here are the steps:
Sand with 2000grit
Primer
Light sand
Base pearl for 2 to 3 coats
Midcoat for 2 to 3 coats
Clear coat for 2 to 3 coats

You must wait about 30 mins between coats to allow time to set.

Prior to sanding:

After primer:

After initial base pearl coat:

After pearl layer was totally done:

After the midcoat was done:

After the clear was done:

And standing back once the clear had totally dried:

All in all, it turned out 98% okay. Most people will never be able to tell where it is once I'm done polishing it. Unfortunately it takes about 30 days for full clear set to be ready for polish and then another 30 days after that until ppf can be applied, but that's fairly typical for clear coats.

Great work! .. paint quality pathetic on my type-s….roof had to be repainted so bad from factory and other issues….. screw it I think just drive and enjoy it

 

[optronix]

I feel like there's a story here.........

Lol yes, indeed there is.

I have told it on here before, but TL;DR, I had a tank slapper during a fast slalom at an autocross school last year and all would have been fine had there not been a fire extinguisher on the ground right in the path of where I went off sideways. Left a nasty dent in the door but surprisingly very little paint damage. It's virtually unnoticeable now after PDR and a bit of touch up paint. Mostly due to where it's at, just above the rocker panel on the door just behind the front passenger side fender. There is some trace evidence, but you really have to look for it, and it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I also didn't go to extremes with the touch up paint like our guy @Victorofhavoc here... just laid down on the ground and tried not to slather it all over the place. A wetsand and polish would probably make it invisible.

Apparently though, spectators at the event said the extinguisher "exploded" on impact and made quite the scene. I really wish I had it on video.

Sponsored