stone chip question

[wooders]

My poor 3 week old QQ has gained a nasty 4-5mm stone chip on the bonnet .It is the gun metal colour . Now if it was your car would you either seek a professional touch up or try it yourself ? ive got a touch up pen direct from Nissan on order so I might just try and do it myself . Anyone have any idea on how much it would cost to get it done properly . I was a bit gutted when I first saw it but I accept these things happen so no point getting to peed about it . PS ........... one of those bonnet protectors would not of helped on this occasion .

[jonceebee]

Sad to here of this happening and I feel a chip of this size will take some work and not look very good with a touch up. It may be worth contacting one of these mobile chip repairers and see what they think.The state of the UKs roads is disgraceful, not only pot holes throwing tarmac up everywhere, but the amount of stones etc. you see at the road edges is unbelievable and will only get worse.HGV's are ruining our roads which were not built to take the 44t vehicles that are everywhere these days.

[F1 Bob]

I doubt you will get an acceptable result with just using a touch up brush. I would probably go down the route of consulting an authorised Nissan paint shop. As a foot note, I have found that Halfords touch up paint is far superior to Nissans. If you go into Halfords with your paint code they will mix it for you.

[Moocow]

If tackling it yourself - don't use the brush applicators that come with most paint touchups - they are pretty useless and just leave something that looks worse covering the chip with a smear of paint.Either use a cocktail stick, paint spears or a fine artists brush. Dab the colour matched paint into the chip, if possible use a kit which comes with a separate lacquer to apply after the colour has dried.Best kit I have found is the Paints4U "ScratchMaster" - http://www.paints4u.com/ProductDetails. ... =6912Takes some confidence to do the fine sanding afterwards, but the results are very good indeed.

[Donkey]

Nice tip moocowim a cheap skate and the soft end of an old match is ideal as wellheres Moocows link http:// www.paints4u.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=6912

[Moocow]

Yeah a match will do the job Donkey. The trick is to fill the chip with paint really, bringing it slightly above the original paint surface, then you light (very, very fine grade wet n dry paper) sand it down using a flat block till it just starts to haze the surrounding area. Either an even more fine paper - Unigrit from Meguiars is preferable and then polish the remaining haze out with a cutting compound. Finish with protecting the car again with wax/sealant. You go from this (not my work, an example from DetailingWorld):To this - which is the point your heart stops LOLAnd finally to this when polished up properly

[DaveBerlin]

Wooders, that is bad luck but sh*t happens you cannot stop stones flying around however careful you are. Personally I would not even consider playing around with repairing scratches on a new car. When I bought my Note new in 2008 there was a scratch on the rear and I rejected the car Nissan tried to polish it out no go ! Next day the "Lack Doktor" (Mobile Paint Guy) turned up and resprayed it Bingo just like new. I also used them on my Audi A6 with a much bigger corner damage - result was perfect. These guys are not only mobile they are in Paint Shops also, normally use air brushes and computer matched paint mixes and are a lot cheaper - Dave

[Donkey]

In UK we got companies like Chips away etc these are talented guysOnce took out 3 little parking dinks in my Jag without even breaking the paintwork, no idea how they done it wasnt watching but the bill came to £200 and was done whilst I was at work in the car parkIf you look at price of your insurance excess often its not too much more and at end of day when reselling a dealer does mark the car down a lot more than these chips away guys

[wooders]

quick update ..... I decided to touch it up myself after speaking to the dealer .Basically im 99% sure it will happen again sometime in the future so no point worrying about it .Even the dealer said theres no guarantee a touch up guy will do a perfect job and I might not be happy with end result .My effort is far from perfect but looks better than it did .

[Donkey]

1st marks on a new car a pain mate but if you can live with it probably the right choice as once you do one another comes along lolIve got a chip in my Wscreen and got the same dilema