993James993

At a recent DE event another owner asked how many miles my car had on it. When I told him 108,000 he asked what year it was. After I told him that it was a '95 he said that he had assumend that my car was brand new.

Apart from making my day it got me thinking about the poorly repaired stone chips on the front and sides. The previous owner attended to them with touch up paint but his technique was terrible. Now every time I wash the car, which is about once a week, they bug me.

Does anyone have experience repairing poorly repaired stone chips?

Would you worry about this or just let it go and enjoy the car. I used to have a theory that any minor scratches or chips that were on the car when one purchased it didn't count, but now that seems to be going out the door.

My car is a '95 with polar silver metallic paint. Is this a single stage paint or is there a clear coat?

Thanks!

993Brendan

I have the same problem on my car. It is also a polar silver 95 and people often think it is new, but there are alot of rock chips in the front. I planned on having the whole front redone, but now I've just learned to live with it. Your car will get rock chips no matter what, and I'll be alot less stressed about it happening to the car now than after shelling out a few grand for a respray.

Monique

Get some pencils. With a paper hole puncher, punch holes in a sheet of 1800 or higher wet sanding paper.

Keep the small circles and glue these with Crazy glue to the top of the pencil erasers. Wet the sand paper thoroughly and gently rub out the raised area of the repair. After the spot is smooth to the touch, wash the area and polish with a good quality product. I use Meguiar FWIW.

Wax after. Count on 15 minutes per spot. Work SLOWLY with gentle pressure. KEEP sandpaper thoroughly wet.

Good luck

g_murray

Hi,
I've personally used (and have had great results with) the "Langka" method.

See: http://www.langka.com/

Now, mind u, you DO have to be 'patient' with this method of repair because you _have_ to let each layer set/dry thoroughly/properly before you should/can apply the 'next' layer. However, believe me, after about 10 mins of working with this product ...you'll get the drift.

I like this method because it does NOT involve **spraying paint**. Thus, the amount of 'preparation' (i.e. masking, finding an area without a breeze, etc. etc. etc.) is essentially nil. Fixing paint chips becomes, essentially, a VERY **localized** exercise in patience and paint repair.

G.
(not affiliated with langka ...I just use their products and have found them to be fab).

autobonrun

Using the exact technique Monique describes, I've been repairing individual chips on my black BMW. I was concerned using sandpaper on the paint but I'm wet sanding using the pencil technique with 1500 grit. The dullness from the sandpaper does polish right out. I bought a Orbital sander last week that is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I plan to practice with it on the BMW as I don't have anything to speak of on the Porsche. I will use it for light polishing and waxing on the Porsche however.

I have one section underneath my BMW that has several small chips all together; really too many to do one at a time. After seeing how easily the paint returns to a shine after polishing, I'm going to experiment by painting them all at once using an air brush then polish the paint back down to the same level. The air brush doesn't apply much paint and its easy to control. I'll post back once I see the results.

There are several good articles on paint repair on the Autopia website.

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/how-to.html

993James993

Thanks everyone! I've been out of town and my car is in the shop but I plan to attempt to clean these up.

Brett - 1996 C4

One note on Langka: I don't think it produces particularly good results with metallic paint. Unfortunately with my paint, I think I need to use the "build-it-up" method and then sand back down flush as described above.

g_murray

Hi Brett,
The 'touch up paint' -- (official Porsche Iris Blue color) -- that I got ALSO came with a small container of laquer. When I got the 'paint' to match -- in the scratch -- I waited about a week to let it REALLY dry out / get flex'd etc. -- then put a little dab of the laquer to 'seal' the sucker up. I did this to not one, not two, but to three 'rather largish' and 'obvious' dints in the front rhs panel and hood (yeah! ...right beside the badge!).
After waiting about another week for THAT to cure ...THEN I went to work with the wax/polish fandango ...and the results were fab.
G.

Brett - 1996 C4

G:
So did you use Langka on it or do the sandpaper method? I followed the Langka directions (that you could work on it a day after applying the paint), but perhaps you are onto something with letting it really cure. I'll have to give that a test run.

g_murray

Yep, yep, yep. It'll get 'sorta solid' after about an hour. Sure you can 'smooth' it down (after an hour) by merely dabbing just an iota of the white 'blob removal stuff'.... but I've found that you're fooling yourself doing this. You REALLY need to wait a good 24 hrs before you can start to do the blob-removal-fandango.

Just when you 'think' you've gotten it down to a state that you sorta can't see the scratch/indentation -- well, that's when you need to prepare the surface AGAIN and put yet another blob there ...and, yep, wait another 24 hrs ..than do the blob-removal-fandango yet again.

ONLY until you've gotten it to the point where you are hard pressed to see the 'edge' of where the scratch begins/ends and your blob begins/ends -- THAT's when, my friend, you can sit back and admire your work.

A 'stone chip' -- on my hood(bonnet) -- about the size of a 'push pin' (there's probably some holding up some paperwork right there in your office!) and about as deep as it was 'just close to the primer' -- well THAT sucker took about 8 dabs of paint and as many blob-removals before I was happy. Yes, that ONE paint chip/rock chip 'alone' took over a week to fix.

The langka method works because, if you have MANY such rock chips -- you simply do them ALL _at the same time_ ("in parallel" - not 'in sequence') and THIS is how you can turn a crappy looking zit-ridden panel (or panels) -- in about a week's "time" -- into something that you can polish/wax and make it/them look practically new.

The white-blob-removal-stuff almost works too well. This is why you MUST let the paint dry+harden. When it's hard+dry then the blob-removal requires "a little elbow effort' on YOUR part - which basically means that YOU have control over how much of the excess surface is actually removed. Whereas, if the paint is still somewhat 'soft' then you do NOT have ultimate control coz as soon as the blob-chemical hits the soft paint then it's only a matter of (a short) time before it sinks in and dissolves ALL of it. (READ: game over start again.)

Trust me, be patient, apply MANY blobs and wait until it sets. Then do the blob removal. Apply MORE paint and let THAT set. Then do more blob removal.
"Build up" the amount of paint over several days ...that's the ticket!

Cordially,

G.