# Stone Chip DIY



## Culainn

Hi all,

This is my first thread so hope it's ok. Here it goes.

My current car is an E46 saloon BMW 320d with 120k miles on the clock. 









There are a number of stone chips on the bonnet which have been bugging me for awhile so I've decided to try and repair them myself. The following is a step by step guide on what I did.


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## Culainn

*Wednesday 2nd September*

Firstly I assessed the damage to the bonnet.

The main issues are 2 side by side indentations to the right of the BMW logo on the bonnet and one circular chip further up in the centre. I'm not great with a camera so apologies in advance for the quality of the photos.

Side by Side Indentations









Circular Chip









Having assessed the damage I then rang my local BMW dealership to confirm the colour code for my particular car (just to be on the safe side). Luckily enough they didn't charge me for the call and to be fair were actually quite helpful in providing the colour and code of my car which is Orient Blue.

Next I took a trip to the local Halfords to get some supplies. Halfords are pretty expensive i find but living in the south of Ireland my choices are pretty limited. Anyway I went to the paint repair section where they do a three pen set which includes 30mls of primer, 30mls of lacquer and 30mls of colour. 
They didn't have my colour but were able to mix it up for me as I had the code. Was a bit dubious about getting it mixed but it seems a pretty good match so far. Price was €14.99 (£12.75)

Having cleaned the chips with a solution of alcohol and water i then set about applying the first coat of the grey primer. The pen set has both a brush and a needle like nib option for applying the product. I used the metal nib as i felt it gave me more control.

This is how they looked after the primer was applied.

Side by Side Indentations









Circular Chip


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## Culainn

*Thursday 3rd September*

Weathers not great today so just got a chance to apply one coat of colour to the areas which i primed yesterday. (Excuse the swirls, plan on dealing with them later)

Side by Side Indents coloured with Orient Blue









Circular Chip coloured with Orient Blue









Will assess tommorrow whether i need to give them a second coat before the lacquer.


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## Culainn

*Friday 4th September*

Got up early before work and assessed yesterdays colours. Was moderately happy with the turn out and gave them a coat of laquer. Unfortunatley the weather was pretty bad again so wasnt able to get a proper picture.

Ive just sanded down both chips and gave them a futher coat of lacquer to bring them up to the level of the paintwork and a bit over. I plan on giving them a further sand tommorrow with Meguiars 3000 grit wet and dry sanding paper.

This is how they looked after the lacquer, sand and subsequent lacquer.



















Again apologies for the quality of pictures and if any one has any advice or suggestions if im doing anything wrong please feel free to comment.

Thanks


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## Culainn

*Saturday and Sunday*

Ok due to the amount of rain falling here in Ireland i havent been able to get many pictures over the weekend but heres a run down of what i did.

On Saturday i used some 2000 grit paper to pare back some of the lacquer to bring the chip work back level with the paint surpace. Following this i gave the two areas i was working on a going over with my polisher and meguiars #84.

On Sunday (Yesterday) i scaled it back a bit and used megs #83 to do the entire bonnet as it has a lot of scratches. (Probably going into overkill here but im new at this so i wanted to try out the various compounds). Next i used AG SRP and gave the whole bonnet 2 coats to see how the areas i had been working on blended in. Heres the finshed pics. Hope there ok.



















Again all comments welcome

Thanks


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## Jock R26

Looks good enough to me buddy:thumb: very well done, next time your in Wales give me a shout and i will let you loose with my chips. I bet you are well chuffed!


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## Culainn

*Thanks Jock*



Jock R26 said:


> Looks good enough to me buddy:thumb: very well done, next time your in Wales give me a shout and i will let you loose with my chips. I bet you are well chuffed!


Will do Jock, Thanks for the comment. :thumb:


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## Leemack

nice work mate :thumb:


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## lpoolck

nice work mate, wish I had the confidence to do that!


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## R6 Smithy

good stuff! have seen those kits in halfrauds myself and thought about it. takes some balls doing it on your own car first time i think but your results look good! You would have a field day with my honda as the paint is so thin the wind blows it off lol.


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## dim

use a pro to do the work


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## Guest

the chipmaster!


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## The Beast

Nice work Culainn, I have e46 saloon with the same color with couple of small stone chips on the bonnet. I will also be trying to fix them myself.

Actually you can get OEM paint from you local bimmer dealer, I got mine with the matching color, it comes in a set with color + clear. Costs about 15Euro here in Holland.


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## ceepee777

Just a question as I intend to attempt stone chip repairs myself....

I've noticed you Lacquered twice, but in between stages you've sanded the first coat of Lacqeur... 

My thinking is, Would this sanded coat of lacquer, now trapped under the top coat of Lacquer leave a slightly haizy/imperfect finish, because unlike the top layer, it won't be polished to a shiny finish as it's trapped below....

I may be way of the mark but it just got me thinking....


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## desi115

ceepee777 said:


> Just a question as I intend to attempt stone chip repairs myself....
> 
> I've noticed you Lacquered twice, but in between stages you've sanded the first coat of Lacqeur...
> 
> My thinking is, *Would this sanded coat of lacquer, now trapped under the top coat of Lacquer leave a slightly haizy/imperfect finish, because unlike the top layer, it won't be polished to a shiny finish as it's trapped below*....
> 
> I may be way of the mark but it just got me thinking....


yeah, leave the sanding to the end surely?


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## Donnz

super job. Got a few chips myself, gonna give it a bash


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## Culainn

desi115 said:


> yeah, leave the sanding to the end surely?


Yes actually its probably best to leave the sanding until the end. My reasoning for sanding in between was to have a good surface for the lacquer to adhere evenly too.

Thanks for the comments guys. Theres another Stone Chip DIY on here which is really good. Cant find the link now but its defo worth a look. :thumb:


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## Stuno1

Sorry to drag this up but....

Can you do this effectively without a power polisher? Also I have T-cut, will this surfice to get rid of sanfing lines using the 2000 grade paper?

Stu


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## Culainn

Hey m8,

My honest answer is i dont know if its possible to do it by hand as ive never done it that way myself. The best thing to do imo would be to ask an expert like Dave KG or one of the other really experienced professionals on here who would probably be able to advise you far better than I could. Apologies i cant help more but dont want to give you poor advice. 

Best of luck m8


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## ets2k9

http://www.paints4u.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=6912

I've taken delivery off this today going to have a go over the weekend, if you click the link there is also a PDF guide no mention of polishers on there.

Hope that helps.


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## Stuno1

looks good, be interested to hear your view on the kit mate.


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## MrJT

I've read through the two really useful threads on this and I can't seem to find an answer to the question I've got...

Which touchup method/paint gives the best results (and is the other significantly easier/quicker!?)

- use basecoat layers then lacquer layers, or
- buy the paint with the lacquer mixed in and just apply the one product?

I can't see that the base-lacquer mix will be any quicker as I'll still have to do as many coats to make it slightly proud of the existing paintwork before flattening it down.

Also, are Paints4U recommended or should I use somewhere else?

Any thoughts/advice would be much appreciated. Cheers!


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## Stuno1

MrJT said:


> I've read through the two really useful threads on this and I can't seem to find an answer to the question I've got...
> 
> Which touchup method/paint gives the best results (and is the other significantly easier/quicker!?)
> 
> - use basecoat layers then lacquer layers, or
> - buy the paint with the lacquer mixed in and just apply the one product?
> 
> I can't see that the base-lacquer mix will be any quicker as I'll still have to do as many coats to make it slightly proud of the existing paintwork before flattening it down.
> 
> Also, are Paints4U recommended or should I use somewhere else?
> 
> Any thoughts/advice would be much appreciated. Cheers!


I have gone with paints 4 you and will be trying it soon. The kit is cheap and spot on imo. Very good value for money and seeing peoples results i figured i have nothing to loose.

Re base coat and paint with laquer in it. the way i see it is....if pros use base then laquer seperately, there must be a reason for that as if including laquer in the paint was quicker and provided a better finishe would they not just use that method.

HTH

Stu


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## paulr

A question. How thick is laquer normally on a car. Could you ever with 3000 wet and dry, and or cutting compound cut into the paint. This is BY HAND.


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