stone chips - and the things they make me do

Dakeyras · Post by **Dakeyras** » Mon 31 Jan, 2011 22:03

so ever since I first got the z3 there were a number of cosmetic things I wanted to do, high on the list was addressing the measle like bonnet which has attracted a rather large amount of stone chips. (Apologies for not great quality pics, camera phone was all I had) It looked thus:

Here follows is a tale of stone chips, joy, sorrow and some lessons learnt which may help any of you embarking on the same stone chip journey.

so after much researching and reading and after 6 months of procrastination I purchased these:

http://www.paints4u.com/ProductDetails. ... uctID=6912

http://www.detailer.ie/store/index.php/ ... r-kit.html

and armed myself with these guides:

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/s ... hp?t=20127

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/s ... hp?t=63859

so after a wash and clay i set about cleaning each of the chips with the scratch cleaner from the paints4u kit followed by applying a small blob of paint to the stone chips and there were a lot of them! once i got up close and personal with the stone chips i kept increasing the amount i tried to cover. so all is well and good so far, i just have a blue spotted bonnet instead of white spotted. pictures thus:

bit hard to see properly

so left that overnight and off the next morning to sand. I used the wet & dry sandpaper that's with the paints4u kit and the supplied rubbing block. After going over each bump here's the sight that was before me:

and it is at this stage that we come to the sad part of the tale, while nearing the end of the sanding I noticed that next to a few of the bumps I'd sanded down not just the bump but through the lacquer and base coat

due to attempting to get so many chips and then sanding a larger area that covered a few bumps with too heavy a hand I'd made the one mistake that needs to be avoided in this task. looking back on it, it's now clear that i was applying too much pressure over too big an area. also, using the rubbing block from paints4u was a mistake, i should have been using something much smaller.

all in all i just dont take enough care with the sanding, I didn't think i'd come close to applying enough pressure to go through the lacquer and paint but i was wrong indeed

so in the end there were about 5 small spots where this occurred. i didn't take any close ups as i just wanted to get on with attempting to rectify!

so after slapping myself in the head a few times and feeling appropriately idiotic it was onwards with the task at hand:

i applied a thin layer of paint to the areas burnt through, sanded and followed with a layer of lacquer and sanded again.

some rubbing compound from the paints4u kit was quickly applied to the sanding marks and then the polisher was brought out followed by a few coats of Autoglym HD. Here's the results:

it's more difficult to see my **** ups in pictures than standing next to it but here's a close up where you can see the discolouration:

2 marks just below the halfway mark

so all in all my bonnet has no more stone chips but has instead some blemishes I inflicted on it.

the stone chips that are filled you can see if you get up close to the bonnet as slightly darker colour but this isn't visible if your nose isn't right up against it.

if anyone is attempting this try and avoid the mistakes I made which I believe were pretty easily avoidable:

- I tried to sand close together spots in one go
- I used a rubbing block that was too big
- I applied too much pressure

tbh I made schoolboy errors that were easily avoidable. I had tested out a few spots previously before attempting the whole thing and they came off without a hitch so i became a little to carefree about the sanding. I guess the moral of the story is never to get carefree when taking sandpaper to your paintwork.

overall it's a big improvement from where it was, with slightly more care it would have been perfect.

since my heavy handed sanding has removed more than one bonnet should bear by the time I gather the same amount of stone chips it'll be of for a respray!

whether the above will encourage or discourage anyone from tackling stone chips I hope it's been informative at least.

Buz007 · Post by **Buz007** » Mon 31 Jan, 2011 22:09

brilliant post, this was on my list for this summer. looks a job well done from here!

snoops · Post by **snoops** » Mon 31 Jan, 2011 22:18

Well I have to say considering how many stone chips you had on your bonnet I think you were a very brave man to attempt that in the first place.

I think it is also admirable for you to put your "mistakes" up here for all to see and learn from and I find that commendable, not everyone would be willing to do that.

I also think that your bonnet looks a thousand times better than it did and you have also covered up the exposed bodywork from the elements.

Are you happier with the overall look of the car now? because if you are then that was the whole point wasn't it? You were never going to achieve a professional paint shop finish and from the pictures I think what you've achieved is very acceptable.

Jonttt · Post by **Jonttt** » Mon 31 Jan, 2011 22:22

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I've done this in the past on cars I've had with some bad stone chips and with plenty of care it can give good results but I think with the amount you had I'd be taking the easy solution and get a "blow over"

Dakeyras · Post by **Dakeyras** » Mon 31 Jan, 2011 22:26

we live and learn, if someone can learn from my mistakes then that'll save someone from doing the stupid things I've done for them!

The bonnet looks a lot better than before so I'm happy. I'd have been even happier if I hadn't ****** some of it up. But those bits are only ever really going to be noticed by me and other paintwork obsessed people like myself.

Dakeyras · Post by **Dakeyras** » Mon 31 Jan, 2011 22:30

Jonttt wrote:Thanks for sharing your experience.

I've done this in the past on cars I've had with some bad stone chips and with plenty of care it can give good results but I think with the amount you had I'd be taking the easy solution and get a "blow over"

ah but then i'd never have had the chance to learn how not to do it for when I do it in the future.

I always thought my two options were do it myself or a respray, my thinking was if I messed it up I can still get the respray. But i'm happy with it for the moment so i'll put the respray off until sometime down the line when i've gathered another healthy dose of chips.

Jonttt · Post by **Jonttt** » Mon 31 Jan, 2011 22:43

I know where your coming from and I guess I'm showing my age, 20 year ago I would be exactly the same but now I'm all for an easy life

Ferdinand · Post by **Ferdinand** » Tue 01 Feb, 2011 07:28

Looks great compared to what you started with and

for sharing!!

Keep up the good work!

TJS · Post by **TJS** » Wed 09 Feb, 2011 11:19

If its any consolation I have been there and done that with my TVR. It was very time consuming and frustrating. I may have got away with a white or pale colour but dark metallic blue, no chance. The problem I had was the marks polished out ok but re appeared as the polish wore off.

In the end I had the front of the car repainted.

My Z1 has a few stone chips which need to rectified. I may just unbolt the nose and send if off to be painted. A truly invisible stone chip repair is a skilled or very time consuming task, especially on a dark colour.

TJS

MickJ · Post by **MickJ** » Fri 25 Mar, 2011 19:19

To get rid of the blobs after touching up try using 'Langka' it's available from 'Frosts' the restoration people it's expensive and only a small bottle but it goes a long way!

http://www.frost.co.uk/item_Detail.asp? ... ame=Langka Chip Repair (2 oz)

I've used it successfully for sometime now

BimBeema · Post by **BimBeema** » Fri 25 Mar, 2011 21:04

Excellent post - your bonnet looks much better than before so its a good job, however for something like that I'd be inclined to get it resprayed but a good effort nonetheless