Stone chip repair (lots of pictures)

[AR-CoolC]

This weekend, it was time to tackle the stone chips on the front of my Leon. As it’s a daily driver with 15000 miles on the clock after less than 5 months, and black, you can guess the state the leading edges were in. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a good picture of the chips.

So I gathered up the tools required.
1 x pot of paint
1 x pot of lacquer (BMW touch up)
1 x sanding block
Sanding petals – self adhesive ultra fine grade
Some ketchup pots from a local fast food restaurant

I washed the car, and clayed the front end with Chemical Guy’s clay. Then used acetone to make sure all wax etc was removed from the chips.
Then using a cocktail stick set about filling the chips.

You can just make out the filled in chips. It was spitting with rain at this point which made finding the chips to fill them very difficult, so using a bit of improvisation I erected the garden parasol over the front right corner of the car and decided to concentrate on that part.

So it time to sand down the paint blobs. Scary stuff.

Time to crack out the PC, and after taping off the area with Tesa 4308 tape, I set too with Chemical guy’s Laser Buff on a 4” light cut pad (Wolfgang).
Speed 2 to spread, speed 4 using light pressure to try and work the Laser Buff as long as possible, and then a final pass on speed 6. Working and area about 30cm square at a time.

The results.

Then a quick waz over with Chemical Guy’s top sealant with 3 x carnauba

Lessons of the day.
Don’t attempt a wet sanding job on rainy days unless you have cover
Let the wet and dry do all the work, I found it worked best using the coarser grade petals and just use the weight of the block.
Laser Buff is ace stuff!

 

[MK8]

That looks great, wish i had the skill and tools to do that on my Red mk4!

 

[Simsy]

Well done a very brave man indeed, your guide has made the process very easy to understand. I've got to have a go at this at some point. The front of my car gets peppered on a daily basis.

Good work!

 

[Scotty_b]

I want to sand my stone chips down but im worried i wont be able to polish them out using th PC. Any bits to read on wet and dry sanding the paint?

 

[gazjones]

what a great finish that is and all done by yourself weldone

 

[acidstrato]

that looks amazing? fair play. is this wot someone dent/stone chip companies would do?

i have a tonne of marks on my bonnet and bumper but i thought the only option was to get a respray

 

[YIN]

I want to sand my stone chips down but im worried i wont be able to polish them out using th PC. Any bits to read on wet and dry sanding the paint?

there is a guide on detailing world

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/showthread.php?t=407

 

[FinerDetails]

well done Ali, car looks tonnes better

 

[AR-CoolC]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I'm really pleased with how it came out.

Just got the rest of the front to do now

Cheers

 

[CH1]

What a great job! Black is really the worst colour for chips and scratches. My car (black) has picked up quite a few especially front bumper.

How long did that take you?

Its really great to see the results. Hey, maybe this should be made a sticky ...as stone chips is everyones problem.

 

[MK8]

Out of intrest, how much do you think it would cost to have that done from ChipsAway, or even on of the detaillers on here?

 

[AR-CoolC]

Out of intrest, how much do you think it would cost to have that done from ChipsAway, or even on of the detaillers on here?

I don't know to be honest, I think most would just go down the route of blowing in the whole front end.
The detailers on here would need to post up how much they'd charge, I suppose if I was doing this for someone else (after a lot more practice) I would look at something like £7 - £10 per hour plus materials.

CH1. It took me around 4 hours over two days, day one clean the area and fill the chips. Day two sanding and polishing. Bear in mind though that that was just half the bonnet, one wing top and half the front bumper. When I do the other half I would expect it to take about the same amount of time.

Cheers
Ali