Hi All,

I have had my 05 525i now for a month. I had the car washed today and much to my dismay I have noticed 2 paint chips on the hood :'( > Does anyone have any recomendations on repairing. No dents, just the paint damage. The areas are about the size of nail head. My color is jet black so it really shows on the edges of the damages (white).

I am stringly considering the $700+ for the 3m claer bra. Any recomendations or experience with the clear bra is appreciated.

 

Had the same issue in my MB and currently have a few chips in my E6o from trailing a rock throw snow salt truck in Colorado. My front bumper was basically sandblasted. I can deal with it for year or so before painting.

Advice: A Bentley bodywork guy next to the MB dealer I have my car serviced gave me this advice a few years and it worked great...

Get the paint repair bottle from the dealer in your respective color (the one that looks like fingernail polish). Shack the hell out of it to mix the chemicals! Wash the car and dry out the chip spots very well. I was so anal I used a hair dryer. Then use a toothpick to apply the paint. Little tiny dot, by little tiny dot, until you fill in the chip mark. When you're done, let it dry and then use a REALLY fine sandpaper, I think it was 650 girts or something crazy like that, to smooth it out. Then wax.

Up close, you could see it barely, but just glancing at the car, it was not visible. My MB is a wine burgundy, but the darker the car the better.

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks i will try that on my car too..

 

check out

http://www.langka.com/

I've not used this but I've seen it referenced in other postings

 

Or, you can just use a black permanant market to color in the spots. It takes 3 or so coats to blend with the black paint. Easy to do though. Sharpie's work great. That's one of the nice things about Jet Black. Nowhere near as good a fix as what is described above, but takes about 30 seconds, and if you don't like it, you can always go for the more involved fix.

 

just wanted to mention my experience with the Langka on my titanium grey:

well, the process works as promised, but the white sanding fluid significantly lightened the factory paint so that even though the surface is pretty smooth, the color doesn't match at all. the pseudo-wet sanding process changed the applied touchup paint way too much. so, it seems to me that the toothpick process is more sound because at least the color matches. ultimately, it's better for the colors to match than for the chip to be smooth.

just my own experience. it's a pity really.

 

I suggest this

http://www.autovisuals.com/

 

I highly recommend it. well worth the money. I drive on a freeway where theres 1000s of trucks a day, Long Beach Freeway. They go back and forth from the port and MAN they kick up A LOT of rocks I can hear them bounce off the car. So Far I have 1 small chip a little larger than the tip of a pen above the Clear bra. But I assure you that w.out the clear bra I would have hundreds by now.

For pics of the bra

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?act=module...album&album=108

 

Buy the factory touch up paint. Clean the chip area to remove all wax. Using the tip of a toothpick, apply a VERY small amount, let dry an hour, apply another small amount, let dry, repeat until repair is flush with surface.

I wouldn't mess around with any sand paper unless you really know what you're doing, otherwise you could easily sand through the clear coat and have a bigger problem than you started with.

Langka (mentioned above) does not work well with metallic colors because the smoothing process removes a disproportionate amount of the metallic flakes so the repair doesn't match the original paint, but on non-metallic colors it works well.

 

I agree. Don't use the sandpaper unless you know what you're doing. The 650 or so grit felt like newpaper and is very soft when you wet sand with your fingertip. But I the first one or two chips I did, I had to buff out because I did go through the clear coat. YOU HAVE TO BE VERY GENTLE if you wet sand it. Good luck.