# Dealing with a poorly filled stone chip?



## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

I'm after some specific advice from anyone who has experience with this issue I have please.

I have a customer with a Candy White car which had some rather large stone chips. The dealer has 'kindly' filled the stone chips with what is a VERY different white leaving a load of cream blobs on a very sharp white otherwise.

I am happy and comfortable to 'flatten' these but of course the colour not being even close, there will always be an issue. 

So what's the best course of action in this scenario please? Will it need repainting? The chips have been filled for a few weeks now so will have cured fully so not easy to remove.

Thoughts and suggestions welcomed. I can't believe they have done what they have - its truly stunningly bad.

Russ.


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## Lewisredfern001 (Apr 21, 2011)

Not that I have experience in wet sanding or painting but it sounds as if the dealer could be liable for a paint job? U could make it look better with a wet sand I'm sure but it will never be right so is it worth your time and effort?


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## Mad Ad (Feb 7, 2011)

Can they take it back to the dealer and complain the colour don't match?


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

Lewisredfern001 said:


> Not that I have experience in wet sanding or painting but it sounds as if the dealer could be liable for a paint job? U could make it look better with a wet sand I'm sure but it will never be right so is it worth your time and effort?


I agree with you - I have said I can flat it no problem but of course I have to manage his expectations as the colour variation will always be there and I personally wouldn't ever be happy with it. I said had he had it with the chips I could have done them all for him, but now they have been filled it becomes a lot more difficult.

I assume there's no way to safely remove what they have done? I assume now it's fully cured it'd be too hard to remove in some way?


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## SimonBash (Jun 7, 2010)

Remove the blob carefully with a razor blade? Russ, speak to Nick.


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

Mad Ad said:


> Can they take it back to the dealer and complain the colour don't match?


No he's tried that already - it was discounted to allow for this.

He is keen to keep the original paint if possible but I see no way around this...


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

SimonBash said:


> Remove the blob carefully with a razor blade? Russ, speak to Nick.


I'll send him a PM, cheers Simon. I wondered if it could be 'picked out' in some way, or at least the top part of it so that we can then layer over a better colour match.


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## SimonBash (Jun 7, 2010)

MidlandsCarCare said:


> I'll send him a PM, cheers Simon. I wondered if it could be 'picked out' in some way, or at least the top part of it so that we can then layer over a better colour match.


I've seen it done in write ups masking all the surrounding areas, believe it was Dave at Street Dreams, could be wrong though.

Yeah PM him mate, he knows a thing or 2 about paint I hear


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## Mad Ad (Feb 7, 2011)

MidlandsCarCare said:


> I agree with you - I have said I can flat it no problem but of course *I have to manage his expectations as the colour variation will always be there and I personally wouldn't ever be happy with it.* I said had he had it with the chips I could have done them all for him, but now they have been filled it becomes a lot more difficult.
> 
> I assume there's no way to safely remove what they have done? I assume now it's fully cured it'd be too hard to remove in some way?


I fully understand Russ, it would play on my mind and you would just not be happy.



MidlandsCarCare said:


> No he's tried that already - it was discounted to allow for this.
> 
> He is keen to keep the original paint if possible but I see no way around this...


Fair do


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

SimonBash said:


> I've seen it done in write ups masking all the surrounding areas, believe it was Dave at Street Dreams, could be wrong though.
> 
> Yeah PM him mate, he knows a thing or 2 about paint I hear


Lol he certainly is the man!!


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## StephGTi (Nov 10, 2011)

I did my stone chips in August last year then clayed the car in October time and I noticed it was pulling bits of the blue touch up off my chips obviously I avoided that area but if you give it some elbow with some clay they may come out? I was using bilt hamber medium clay if that helps


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## Alzak (Aug 31, 2010)

StephXSi said:


> I did my stone chips in August last year then clayed the car in October time and I noticed it was pulling bits of the blue touch up off my chips obviously I avoided that area but if you give it some elbow with some clay they may come out? I was using bilt hamber medium clay if that helps


looks like You do not clean surface well this is why new paint do not stick to chip

I do have same problem on mine in few places looks like someone used different shade of red to fill some chips after certain time I don't think there is any way to remove this paint off chip ....


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## CraigQQ (Jan 20, 2011)

have you tried thinners or tardis russ?

the stone chips will never cure like proper paint without being baked so either of those worked in a little should remove it..


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## Jedi_Detailer (May 7, 2011)

How big are the stone chips? I did a red e36 BMW last year that had loads of little stones touched up with the wrong shade of red, I wet sanded the bonnet and polished it back up and I could not even tell where the touch ups were.


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## ianFRST (Sep 19, 2006)

festool do a paint shaving tool, and its perfect for this. ive recenlty only had the balls to try it, and it worked superbly

BUT, only on flat flat panels, do not try it on anything else :lol:


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## P.A.D (Jun 26, 2008)

CraigQQ said:


> have you tried thinners or tardis russ?
> 
> the stone chips will never cure like proper paint without being baked so either of those worked in a little should remove it..


I would try this too..................:thumb:


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

Ok cheers guys. 

Ian that's the other issue - the OEM paint is full of orange peel! I've explained about the flat bits but he's more concerned about the mismatched lumps.


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## ianFRST (Sep 19, 2006)

by flat paint, i meant flat panels, you cant really do it on curved panels. not sure if peel would effect it? cant see it myself

i did a mondeo bonnet, where a bodyshop touched in the stone chips FOC!! looked like he used a roller brush :lol: took me about half hour to shave all the excess paint off, an it looked really good

http://www.i4detailing.co.uk/cgi-bi...stool&PN=Festool.html#a1_21493069#a1_21493069


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## MidlandsCarCare (Feb 18, 2006)

I'll make a purchase - cheers 

You have to wonder what dealers must think when doing stuff like this.


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## ianFRST (Sep 19, 2006)

well, they think that the brush you get in a touch up, is what you use :lol: which = mess


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## MrCooper (Oct 21, 2008)

Ian. Dumb question obviously but what should one use? I always find it difficult to apply paint to stonechips due to this.

Sent from my E10i using Tapatalk


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## PaulTheo (Sep 26, 2010)

I use a really fine artist brush or a toothe pick different paints seem to work better with one or the other so try both and see which suits you.


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## J3FVW (Sep 28, 2009)

ianFRST said:


> festool do a paint shaving tool, and its perfect for this. ive recenlty only had the balls to try it, and it worked superbly
> 
> BUT, only on flat flat panels, do not try it on anything else :lol:


Is this the tool you mean?:

http://www.festool.co.uk/products/a...hesive-sanding-discs-and-paint-scraper-lzk-hm

Sounds like a handy thing to have (a bit pricey though)


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## Paddy_R (Jan 10, 2007)

Here it is about £7 cheaper. Thinking about getting one of these myself:

http://www.i4detailing.co.uk/acatalog/Festool.html


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## tfonseca (Jul 31, 2008)

Some white spirit usually can remove those smart repairs... 1Z Acrysol can do that, I think Tardis is also capable (I never used as it is not available in my country).


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## Chufster (Nov 21, 2010)

CraigQQ said:


> have you tried thinners or tardis russ?
> 
> the stone chips will never cure like proper paint without being baked so either of those worked in a little should remove it..


I bought a car with badly touched up stone chips. I washed the paint out of the chips with neat IPA over 6 months after I bought the car, so god knows how old the touch up paint was.

It looked a lot better with no paint than with badly touched up scratches. The scratches were tiny, but the paint blobs quite big!


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## Edstrung (Apr 6, 2009)

Guys the de-nibber will help to remove excess when filling in stone chip removals, it wont pull the paint out of what is under the flat surface! *It might be expensive, but it's the wrong tool for this particular job* 

I'm thinking cotton wool bud soaked in IPA/Tardis, squeeze out the majority of the excess and then slowly rotate the bud on the area. The bud should be flexible enough to enter the chip, but not so strong it will abrade the OEM paint as you rotate. Then it's up to you to re-fill properly with the correct paint. Long slow and tedious job, but I certainly don't know how to do spot re-repaint on a bulk basis 

Got any pics Russ?


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## ianFRST (Sep 19, 2006)

Edstrung said:


> Guys the de-nibber will help to remove excess when filling in stone chip removals, it wont pull the paint out of what is under the flat surface! *It might be expensive, but it's the wrong tool for this particular job*
> 
> I'm thinking cotton wool bud soaked in IPA/Tardis, squeeze out the majority of the excess and then slowly rotate the bud on the area. The bud should be flexible enough to enter the chip, but not so strong it will abrade the OEM paint as you rotate. Then it's up to you to re-fill properly with the correct paint. Long slow and tedious job, but I certainly don't know how to do spot re-repaint on a bulk basis
> 
> Got any pics Russ?


eh? its not the wrong tool AT ALL! you remove the excess paint from OVER the chip, then fill it with the right colour.

tardis / ipa will not remove paint from a touch up stick, and to be fair, if its properly dry, i dont think thinners will either


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## Edstrung (Apr 6, 2009)

ianFRST said:


> eh? its not the wrong tool AT ALL! you remove the excess paint from OVER the chip, then fill it with the right colour.
> 
> tardis / ipa will not remove paint from a touch up stick, and to be fair, if its properly dry, i dont think thinners will either


I will stand corrected :thumb:

However......

I still don't see why you would go to the expense of buying that, _to only remove half the paint_ and then repaint over?

If the wrong colour paint was to be removed, then repainted, then the denibber will come into it's own, no?

I guess I have realised a phobia of buying expensive shiny things when there is potentially another way.

edit - Look at this to see the train of thought...

current looks like - _________m_______ with the 'm' being a bad representation of the current filled chip

if you denib with the carbide blade it becomes AT BEST _________________________

the repaint new colour it looks like this ____________n____________ with 'n' being the better stone chip repair

then denib again to become ________________________ (again)

Where does the new paint color go?


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## ianFRST (Sep 19, 2006)

the stone chip will be below paint level

in your terms --------U---------- 

so you will need to fill the stone chip a fair few times to get it above the current clearcoat level. and then shave the top off, and polish!

or if you just want a quick fix, just fill the stone chip once, and leave it.

the situation we are on about here, is where a dealer has touched in a small stonechip, with something far larger. so the excess needs to be removed above clearcoat level

if you leave the wrong colour in the stone chip, it doesnt really matter, it can be a base layer to the correct colour. 

as i said earlier in my post, in the right situation, that tool is quite good. and i did a bonnet with it last weekend


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## Edstrung (Apr 6, 2009)

Thanks for reading my explanation and giving yours 



> if you leave the wrong colour in the stone chip, it doesnt really matter, it can be a base layer to the correct colour.


Thats pretty much the single line that cuts it


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## Ultra (Feb 25, 2006)

Paddy_R said:


> Here it is about £7 cheaper. Thinking about getting one of these myself:
> 
> http://www.i4detailing.co.uk/acatalog/Festool.html


It would be money well spent, mine has saved me shed loads of time when comes to de-nibbing and shaving off lacquer runs as there are no sanding marks to deal with :thumb:


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## ianFRST (Sep 19, 2006)

yup, got mine from i4d. im still a bit scared to use it tbh, used it in anger on a mondeo bonnet, that would have been repainted, so i had nothing to lose  saved it from being painted too


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## Ultra (Feb 25, 2006)

ianFRST said:


> yup, got mine from i4d. im still a bit scared to use it tbh, used it in anger on a mondeo bonnet, that would have been repainted, so i had nothing to lose  saved it from being painted too


Lay it flat so it is resting on the green cord then slide it with no pressure. [ with the festool logo facedown ]


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## 7MAT (Apr 14, 2006)

dennis said:


> Lay it flat so it is resting on the green cord then slide it with no pressure. [ with the festool logo facedown ]


That's correct :thumb:


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## agb123 (Dec 24, 2011)

you could try to use a "run razor" to gradually remove the amount of paint from the stone chip.
I saw one being used in this thread on big blobs of touch up paint. the finished result turned out well

Youl see it being used in the 10th pic down

link

run razor


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