# Neil's Stone Chip Repair Guide



## Neil_M (Apr 5, 2007)

I hope this guide is of help for people wanting to touch in stone chips/marks/scores on their car.

In short this mark appeared on the side of my door one Saturday. I was parked in a busy public car park, and im 90% sure it appeared from parking there. Thanks to the person that done it.

My aim was to take the bad look off the mark and make it less noticeable.

I had a few stone chips on my car and was hoping to find a good solution to repairing them. A few weeks ago I bought some Car-Lack 69 Scratch Remover, which is also for removing excess paint repairs. I had all I needed, time to get stuck in!

The mark itself...

































Using an OE Ford touch-up pen with a more appropriately sized brush, the mark has been filled.

























A few random beauty shots.

































A close up of the touched up mark. Taken outside.









The tools for the job. Car-Lack 68 Scratch Remover and a Foam Pad.









A gentle bit of buffing later reveals this.... Just a tiny little mark left. I didn't fill this part of the mark well enough.









An outdoor shot from the passenger side.









I am overjoyed with the results. I didn't think I needed to spend £40+ on the "special" chip repair systems.

It was a little time consuming and I spread the work out over two weekends. Weekend one was touching in the mark and leaving to dry. The next weekend, after washing the car of course, I worked at removing the excess paint.

I also felt quite confident about what I was doing. Especially as I wasn't taking any sand paper to the paint.


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## RenoSport182 (Apr 1, 2006)

Neil_M said:


> I hope this guide is of help for people wanting to touch in stone chips/marks/scores on their car.
> 
> In short this mark appeared on the side of my door one Saturday. I was parked in a busy public car park, and im 90% sure it appeared from parking there. Thanks to the person that done it.
> 
> ...


Looks good that mate. Do you think i could use Megs Scratch X or Megs #83/ Menzerna IP instead of Carlack to do what you did?


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## Neil_M (Apr 5, 2007)

Cheers batman!

I'm not sure how abrasive those polishes are to give an honest opinion. Ultimately I don't see why not though. The theory would be exactly the same.

You see a great improvement from simply filling in the scratches or scores.


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## [email protected] (Jun 12, 2010)

Good write up Mate,

Most of the Blemishes came out with a compound tho, Jus a need for one bit of touch in,

You had a result,

Cheers,

Jason


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## Neil_M (Apr 5, 2007)

Cheers Jason!

I will sort the other mark out sometime .

I was very pleased with the result though.


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## [email protected] (Jun 12, 2010)

The will come out with a machine & Product dude ;0)


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## Neil_M (Apr 5, 2007)

Its one part of the chip still left , it would need filled . I now know that its easy .


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## RenoSport182 (Apr 1, 2006)

Cheers guys, some top info there.

Got some similar marks on mine, going to give this a go then crank up my PC that's sitting in the shed :thumb:


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## jayr (Feb 5, 2007)

That shot of the car in the garage is great - really glossy finish. Great work overall.


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## [email protected] (Jun 12, 2010)

Neil_M said:


> Its one part of the chip still left , it would need filled . I now know that its easy .


My point exsactley:thumb:


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## Neil_M (Apr 5, 2007)

RenoSport182 said:


> Cheers guys, some top info there.
> 
> Got some similar marks on mine, going to give this a go then crank up my PC that's sitting in the shed :thumb:


Totally go for it. I found the finish achieved by hand was actually rather good. I will wait until I decided to do the whole car before I bring out the rotary.

Sure see how you find it and see what suits you.



jayr said:


> That shot of the car in the garage is great - really glossy finish. Great work overall.


Cheers mate. Its a strange colour for being a metallic almost pearlescent colour it gives a strange finish, could be described as glossy rather than deep.


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## TMM (Aug 30, 2008)

You can fill the chip a little higher then the area around it and wetsand it flat with 2000grit paper to achieve a completely invisible repair. 2000grit is pretty safe to use, just make sure you use a sanding block (i use a little square of balsa wood lol) otherwise you'll get wavy reflections.

I've had great success with removing the sanding marks with ScratchX 2.0 which leaves a perfect finish when worked properly by hand:


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## SootyNicko (Nov 11, 2006)

That looks great if its been done by hand. :thumb:

All the wet sanding shots I've seen have been done by machine, which is why I haven't tried it.

If the sanding marks can be removed by hand then it could be tempting to have a go. I'd still be worried about it though


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## Neil_M (Apr 5, 2007)

Sooty it has indeed be done by hand, using only what you see in the photos. No sanding at all.

I say give it a go .


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## ant_s (Jan 29, 2009)

im having a go at this at the moment, but i will be wet sanding it and polishing it by machine as im finsihing my detail tomorrow, will post pics if anyones interested


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## Neil_M (Apr 5, 2007)

Pics are always good!

I just didn't find I needed to wet sand. It may be quicker over a large area though.


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## Jai (Mar 16, 2010)

TMM said:


> You can fill the chip a little higher then the area around it and wetsand it flat with 2000grit paper to achieve a completely invisible repair. 2000grit is pretty safe to use, just make sure you use a sanding block (i use a little square of balsa wood lol) otherwise you'll get wavy reflections.
> 
> I've had great success with removing the sanding marks with ScratchX 2.0 which leaves a perfect finish when worked properly by hand:


Only question I have about this is, at what point do I apply the lacquer? I recently bought a set that included paint and lacquer...


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## Neil_M (Apr 5, 2007)

I havent applied any as of yet.

Some guys actually mix the lacquer with the paint.


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## Jeffers01 (Aug 12, 2010)

Some guides suggest you touch in the colour to just below level then build up the lacquer to be just proud and then sand and cut back as normal. This means you are only sanding back the clearcoat you applied. Gonna try it both ways soon to see which is best.


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## Neil_M (Apr 5, 2007)

Cool, let me know how you get on.

The method you suggested about filling the paint up just below the surface and adding the lacquer to fill the rest, sounds like the best way to do it.


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## Jai (Mar 16, 2010)

Jeffers01 said:


> Some guides suggest you touch in the colour to just below level then build up the lacquer to be just proud and then sand and cut back as normal. This means you are only sanding back the clearcoat you applied. Gonna try it both ways soon to see which is best.


The filling under the level and topping with lacquer is what I've read, but it seems pretty difficult, I put too much paint in everytime! But anyway, I'm ok to sand down the lacquer in that case? I wasn't sure if I could or not!


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## ant_s (Jan 29, 2009)

heres some pics of a scratch i've touched in on my car, i filled the scratch with paint that was pre-mixed with laquer, after lots of thin layers, allowed to dry, sanded with 2000 and 3000 grit sandpaper and polished using Menz 106fa




























all gone! like magic! lol


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## Neil_M (Apr 5, 2007)

Jai said:


> The filling under the level and topping with lacquer is what I've read, but it seems pretty difficult, I put too much paint in everytime! But anyway, I'm ok to sand down the lacquer in that case? I wasn't sure if I could or not!


Well I guess it would be difficult enough. I would aim to get enough of the colour in to hide the primer if its showing, then stop there. Easier said than done of course .



ant_s said:


> heres some pics of a scratch i've touched in on my car, i filled the scratch with paint that was pre-mixed with laquer, after lots of thin layers, allowed to dry, sanded with 2000 and 3000 grit sandpaper and polished using Menz 106fa
> 
> all gone! like magic! lol


Great results there . I might try the pre-mix for some stone chips.


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## ant_s (Jan 29, 2009)

thanks, well i wasn't sure about using pre-mixed but after looking at the price for a non mixed paint stick in halfords and the pre-mixed of the internet it made more sense to go with the pre-mixed and the colour match is spot on


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## Neil_M (Apr 5, 2007)

ant_s said:


> thanks, well i wasn't sure about using pre-mixed but after looking at the price for a non mixed paint stick in halfords and the pre-mixed of the internet it made more sense to go with the pre-mixed and the colour match is spot on


Ohh ok, so you didn't mix it yourself?? I was thinking that's what you had done??


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## Jeffers01 (Aug 12, 2010)

ant_s said:


> all gone! like magic! lol


That's superb! To be fair it didn't look like it would polish up so well based on the 'raw paint' pic :doublesho. Excellent!!


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## ant_s (Jan 29, 2009)

Neil_M said:


> Ohh ok, so you didn't mix it yourself?? I was thinking that's what you had done??


no mate i brought it pre-mixed from an internet site, i have saw a few people say to mix it yourself but i didn't want to get it wrong lol



Jeffers01 said:


> That's superb! To be fair it didn't look like it would polish up so well based on the 'raw paint' pic . Excellent!!


Thanks mate, i should of got a picture of it wet sanded but completely forgot. In some lights you can slightly see it but im very happy with it


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## C00li0 (Jun 17, 2010)

Paints4u I think is the main site used for the premix


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## RenoSport182 (Apr 1, 2006)

Well i finally got chance to try a bit of wetsanding today and it went quite well i think :thumb:

I used the Mrs's car as a guinea pig :lol:

Before's:










After's:










Pretty happy with that for a 1st timer, quite scary watching the clearcoat run away though!


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## Neil_M (Apr 5, 2007)

RenoSport182, great job


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## AFK_Matrix (Aug 27, 2010)

I too have corrected a scratched on my car and have a few more to do with the Planet Polish Paint Scratch Kit and I am very happy indeed. It has gotten rid of the light scratches and I didn't add enough paint to the deeper ones so still got them to do.


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