The appearance of chips on the paintwork of cars is a practical inevitable phenomenon. A random stone that has flown out from under the wheel of a car moving in the same or opposite direction most often has enough energy to chip off the paint on the body at the point of impact. The situation worsened in last years with transition automotive industry to more environmentally friendly water-soluble paints and varnishes, which are significantly inferior in their mechanical strength to traditional nitro or acrylic enamels.
As a result, after a certain period of operation, the car owner faces the question of how to paint over the chips that appeared on the paint of the car. After all, in addition to the loss of appearance, chips can become foci for the appearance and development of corrosion on the car body.
There is nothing difficult in painting chips. For minor repairs paintwork each car manufacturer produces special two-component repair kits, consisting of a base paint and a protective varnish. You can choose such a set to match the paint color of your car by its VIN code at official dealers, or independently in electronic catalogs provided by online stores of spare parts. After purchasing a touch-up kit, you can start painting over chips in the following order.
- Thoroughly wash and dry the car body so that chips and areas of paint damage are more visible on it.
- Degrease all areas that will be tinted.
- Shake the base paint bottle well. Gently apply the first coat of paint to the damaged areas. If the chipped area is small, then toothpicks can be used for tinting, placing a drop of paint on its tip and filling it with the place where the paint is damaged. For large damage, special thin brushes must be used.
- Wait for the first coat of paint to dry completely. temperature dependent environment it may be different. After the first layer, also carefully apply the second and let it dry.
- After two coats of paint, apply 1-2 coats of protective clear varnish from the second vial of the repair kit. Don't forget to give the layers time to dry.
- Complete drying and hardening of paint with varnish will occur within a month. After that, you can try to lightly polish the touch-up area to remove bumps. If everything was done carefully, then after polishing the painted areas will become almost invisible.
No matter how carefully the driver drives, he is not immune to various little troubles, when pebbles fly out from under the wheels of cars and leave chips on the hood and wings. The situation is not very pleasant - on a smooth paintwork appear small scratches, dents, the paint is cracking, exposing the factory primer, and sometimes the chips reach the metal itself.
All this threatens with the fact that over time the body will be subject to corrosion, unless, of course, measures are taken in time.
How to clean chips from the hood and other parts of the car body?
First of all, you need to figure out what chips are, they can be:
- shallow - only the top layer of the paintwork is affected, while the base paint and primer remain untouched;
- small scratches and cracks when the primer layer is visible;
- deep chips reaching the metal;
- chips, dents and old damage that has already been touched by corrosion.
If you go to a car service, then all these damages will be removed for you in a short time, that there will not even be a trace, but there is nothing to worry about if you try to remove them yourself.
Shallow scratches and cracks can be removed with a colored pencil, which is selected according to the paint number. The paint number of the car is located under the hood on the plate, but if it is not there, then you can remove the gas tank hatch and show it in the cabin. The scratch is simply painted over with a colored pencil, and then the entire affected area is covered protective polish, which in the future will protect against chips.
If the chips are deep, reaching to the ground or to the metal, then you have to make a little effort:
- completely wash the entire car or at least the place of damage and degrease it with acetone or solvent;
- if rust appears or paintwork begins to crack and crumble, you need to clean this place with sandpaper "zero";
- apply a layer of primer, dry, sand with sandpaper and repeat 2-3 times;
- paste over damaged place masking tape with a cutout slightly wider than the crack itself and paint over it with spray paint, trying to spray it in such a way that there are no streaks, for this you need to carefully read the instructions;
- paint must be applied in several layers, waiting for the previous layer to dry;
- at the end of the process, everything must be carefully rubbed with sandpaper so that the painted area does not stand out.
It is worth noting that different specialists offer their own methods of dealing with chips and cracks on the hood. So, if the chip touched base paint, but did not reach the primer, then you can pick up the enamel of the corresponding color and literally “impose” it into the recess with a match or a wooden toothpick. When the enamel dries, sand the damaged area and cover it with varnish, and then polish it so that the painted chip does not stand out on the body.
It will be much more difficult to remove damage caused by hail or large gravel, when not only cracks, but also dents form on the surface.
You can even out the dent by lightly tapping a rubber mallet on a wooden block attached from the opposite side. damaged item body - the work is very filigree and in the absence of experience, you can damage the hood even more.
- a layer of putty is applied and polished;
- soil layer;
- directly enamel;
- grinding and polishing.
It is almost impossible to avoid the appearance of chips, we can only advise polishing the car with special protective agents that will protect the paintwork from minor damage and corrosion.
Chips on the body from gravel and their repair
Be professional driver very hard! And even the pros make mistakes, let alone ordinary drivers. Usually a consequence of careless driving - damage to the car body - small and not very. In this article, attention will be paid only to minor defects in the car body. Elimination of chipped body paint - a description of this process and tips, you can find a photo of the repair with your own hands here, and then repair your car.
Classification of body damage
ATTENTION! Found a completely simple way to reduce fuel consumption! Don't believe? An auto mechanic with 15 years of experience also did not believe until he tried it. And now he saves 35,000 rubles a year on gasoline!
So, what can you encounter and what will we repair today? Here is a short list.
- Small and large car paint chips
- Small and large scratches
- paint blistering
Now let's move on to a more detailed consideration of each defect.
Body Damage Repair
Body paint chips
At first it may seem that a chip on the body of your car is nothing terrible for the body as a whole. However, if left for a while, it can grow much larger. In place of a small chip, a rust center is very easily and quickly formed, which can reach the metal of the car body. And then the repair will cost more.
Obviously, small chips are much easier, cheaper and faster to fix. But how to remove chips on the body? Modern technologies allow you to do this without much difficulty. A striking example of a remedy for dealing with small chipped paint is a wax pencil. It is enough for them to simply move correctly at the place of the chip and the car body will be protected from further destruction for a while.
Another remedy small defect- this is the application of a small layer of varnish or paint to the damaged area. In this case, you need to get some tools and prepare the body itself. You can also disguise small chip polish in the color of the car body. Let's start.
Body preparation looks something like this.
- First, wash the damaged area. Since it is washed anyway, it would be nice to wash the entire car as a whole.
- Then, after the body has dried, it is necessary to degrease the chip. This is done with gasoline or solvent.
- If, before the repair, a rust center has formed on the chip, then it must be removed with fine sandpaper. And then degrease again.
- Determine the degree of destruction of the coating. Depending on the degree of destruction, we decide required amount material.
And now let's move on to the repair.
Car body chip repair
- In the worst case, primer should be applied first, then a coat of paint, and then a coat of varnish. In the case when the primer is not damaged, it is not applied.
- The main thing is drying. After applying each layer, it takes time for it to dry. Otherwise, it will turn out ugly.
- You may need more than one coat of paint, as it tends to precipitate. And still after each layer - dry.
- After that, gently sand the area and you're done.
And now you can take a closer look at the elimination of chips on the car body using the example of a larger chip and with a rust center. Let's get started.
- After washing the car and drying, we proceed to repair the chip.
- Using a needle file, knife or sandpaper, remove rust. It is necessary to remove rust very carefully so that the fresh coating does not swell and do not have to repeat the repair.
- Next, the chips on the body must be treated with a solvent such as white spirit.
- A rough chip on the body will need to be puttied. Small ones do not need to be treated with putty.
- If required rough cleaning rust, and the metal of the car body is exposed, it is necessary to apply a small layer of soil. It is best to use a two-component primer.
- With a small brush or match, gently apply a couple of drops of primer to the bare area. After about 20 minutes, the primer should be applied again and dried with a hair dryer.
- After the priming process is completed, the next stage follows - the treatment of chips on the car body with paint.
A small digression about the choice of paint. Usually on the trunk lid you can find information about the color number in which your car is painted. If there is no such inscription, then you can look in the instructions or determine the color by the VIN code of the car.
Another option for correctly determining the color is the help of professionals. We take a small part from your car and go to a car service. There, professionals will determine the color. The simplest way- approximately. Unfortunately, this method is the least efficient.
The criterion for choosing a paint manufacturer is most often the price.
We continue to eliminate the chip on the car body.
Body chip repair
- The paint should also be applied in small layers with a brush. Each layer also needs to be given time to dry.
- At the end of the process, a small tubercle from fresh paint may turn out. It will need to be removed by grinding.
- In order not to damage the paint around former cleavage you can apply a little putty around the treated area.
- Next, with a small bar with sandpaper, we grind the paint on the chip, and then we clean off the remnants of the putty.
- If necessary, you can apply a small layer of varnish on top of the paint.
- Well, so that there is no difference at all, we will polish the car with a special polish and thus complete the removal of chips on the body with our own hands.
This completes the instructions for eliminating chips on the car body. Let's consider another defect.
Scratches on body
Scratches are much easier to remove than chips. This is so, since their dimensions are small, the depth also rarely reaches the metal.
Often, just a wax pencil is enough. For example, scratches on a plastic bumper are easily removed with a pencil. But if it does not help, then the usual painting comes into play.
Repair of body chips and scratches
For painting, the scratch must be washed, then degreased. The part must dry thoroughly, and only then can you start painting. It is necessary to apply several layers of paint.
If the scratch nevertheless got to the metal, then it will also be necessary to remove the rust (if it exists, of course), prime it so that the paint does not stand out from the general background, and only then can you start painting.
Remember, to fix defects in your repair, use car polish. It allows you to smooth out those "roughness" that remain after painting.
paint blistering
This phenomenon occurs after improper painting of a car body part. And it's not necessarily your fault. Even the factory could make such a mistake. An air bubble gets under the paint layer, and then just undermines the paint.
Under the swollen place, a corrosion center usually forms. So it is necessary to deal with such defects immediately. How to do it?
- First, open the paint bubble.
- Then you need to remove the paint near the swollen area.
- Remove enough paint so that the remaining paint adheres tightly to the metal. Otherwise, the paint will continue to undermine the air, and it will fall off.
- After removing rust, the damaged area should be treated with anti-corrosion primer.
- Only after treatment with soil can you start painting.
- Apply the paint in several layers until the layer is even with the rest of the paint in thickness.
- Then let dry and polish.
Well, here we have analyzed the main defects of the paintwork and methods of dealing with them. Finally, advice - after repairing chips, scratches, blisters, do not leave the garage for at least half a day, but let the paint dry thoroughly!
When driving a car, small scratches and chips appear on the surface of the body. They spoil appearance vehicle, and are the source of corrosion. Well, rust destroys the bodywork of the car. To solve problems, you need to know how to tint chips on a car yourself.
Small chips and scratches are fairly easy to fix. However, before carrying out the restoration of the paintwork in small areas, it is necessary to prepare:
- Drive the car to a heated and well-lit area.
- Wash and degrease the treated surface. At the same time, gasoline should not be used as a degreaser, as it can damage the paintwork of the body. For application, a fiber-free cloth is used.
- After degreasing, coloring compositions are applied to small defects (they are used to paint chips) or special pencil to remove scratches, but around major damage, grinding is performed, the place is treated with a primer. In some cases, putty is used to even out small dents.
Finishing preparatory work, proceed directly to the restoration of paint on the car.
Minor damage is easy enough to remove with your own hands at home.
Shading Options
When painting over chips on a car, you need to determine the nature of the damage. If these are shallow defects, then you can use a polishing agent or a pencil. After surface treatment, the damage is almost invisible. If the chips have a recess, then the recovery process is carried out as follows:
- A primer is applied to the prepared surface.
- The dried primer is applied with a paint identical to that with which the vehicle body is painted.
- After staining, a small layer of varnish is applied, it hides artistic defects, and makes the tinted area almost invisible. Well, processing the area with a layer of wax will give it a glossy sheen.
To choose the right shade of paint, turn to the services of a colorist. However, the shade code can be found in the technical documentation for the car.
Lots of chips on one piece
If there are many chips on one part, spot painting will not solve the problem. The dye applied with a brush will be quite noticeable. For more effective repair, carry out local painting of the body.
The part is dismantled, washed and degreased. After drying, it is completely polished polishing machine(First, coarse-grained discs are used, after which they are changed to fine grain). Some areas are treated with sandpaper. An acid primer is applied to the surface. After it dries, an acrylic primer is applied. If the part was damaged, an epoxy primer must be applied over the acrylic, it gives the surface mechanical strength.
After the primer dries, the part can be painted. The painted part of the body, after the paint has dried, varnish is applied. At the end of the restoration of the paintwork, the place of repair is polished.
If the body part cannot be dismantled, entire sections of the car body are pasted over with newspaper and masking tape.
Few chips without corrosion
If part of the car is covered with a small number of small chips, and there are no signs of corrosion, then you can tint the chips on the paintwork of the car with your own hands. It won't take much time and effort.
The chips are tinted with a soft artistic brush, then varnish or enamel is applied. So get rid of deep damage. If the chips have indentations, then the recovery algorithm looks like this:
- Prepare the surface for work.
- Apply a primer to the chip, let it dry. Grind.
- Paint the restored place, apply varnish.
Only wet grinding can perfectly level the surface to be treated. To do this, the area is sprayed with water.
The chip caused the rust
If for a long time don't pay attention to paintwork damage, metal corrosion occurs. It is impossible to remove rust from the body with a pencil. If corrosion occurs, it will need to be removed, and only after that, proceed to eliminate chips. The algorithm of work performed is as follows:
- The damaged area is cleaned to the metal. This applies to both large and small damage.
- The place affected by rust is treated with a corrosion neutralizer and degreased.
- The surface is primed, sanded, varnished, and polished.
If there are dents, they must be repaired. To do this, use special pulling devices and automotive putty.
Car color metallic or mother-of-pearl
In order for the shaded area not to be noticeable, you need to choose the right color. To do this, you need to know how to determine the shade:
- The first way is to study the car's documentation. IN technical passport vehicle, the painting code is indicated, it can be used to find the coloring material of the desired shade.
- If the documentation for the car is not available, you need to dismantle the gas tank cap and go to the store. There, the color is selected according to the desired paint.
- An alternative would be to use the services of a colorist. A specialist in special patterns will select the exact shade of color.
Painting the surface of the car is made from an airbrush or spray can. The paint is applied to a dried, fat-free surface in a dry closed room. If dust or moisture gets into the treated area during painting, the painting will be damaged. After touching up the bodies, with the type of metallic or mother-of-pearl color, polishing is performed, which almost completely masks the restored area.
How to bring the surface to the ideal
Tinted areas after drying are visible to the naked eye. To correct this defect, they need to be polished. This operation is performed using a grinding machine and special milk.
Ways to polish the car body after painting have a number of nuances:
- Grinding is carried out with sandpaper soaked in water with a grit P1000.
- The next step is to use a sandpaper with a finer P2000 abrasive.
- At the place of polishing, a matte and smooth surface is formed. To give shine, polish with a grinder with coarse abrasive paste.
- The result is fixed with a medium abrasive polish.
- At the end of the work, the surface is treated with polishing milk and a soft grinder.
minor damage body paintwork cars do not cause concern for many motorists, but they are the cause of more serious problems. To avoid costly repairs, small chips and scratches must be removed promptly. Major damage can be repaired at home, so you can save a lot.
Scratches and chips very often appear on the car - this can happen due to a number of different reasons. Stones flying out of your car or any vehicle passing by, bushes and tree branches that can be touched, careless motorists can scratch the car in the parking lot, or a bully, passing by, will hold a nail, as well as in the event of a traffic accident. Any damage to the paintwork must be removed in time. Otherwise, rust may appear, which will lead to corrosion of the metal.
Ways to remove chips on a car
There are several ways to remove chips on a car. The coating consists of several layers, which include primer, car enamel and lacquer coating. The depth of damage can affect both the top layer and extend to the ground cover. How to remove chips on the car body? Elimination of these damages is carried out in different ways. The very first thing to do with any method is using a special car shampoo to remove all dirt and dust from its surface.
When only the top layer of varnish is damaged on the body, you can remove the malfunction with your own hands using. Is only getting thinner protective layer to the depth of damage, and the defect will be impossible to notice. In order to quickly mask a scratch, you can use a corrector with wax or gel. When the damage is serious, but does not touch the ground, they can be repaired by painting the part on which the defect was found. If the damage has affected the metal, they can be corrected with a degreaser, primer and paint. As a degreaser, you can use white spirit, gasoline, or even dishwashing detergent. But it is better to clean such damage in a professional car service for the master to do the work.
Minor scratches and chips
How to repair chips on a car with your own hands? In order to remove small and not very deep scratches and chips on your own, you will need polishing pastes different types, sponges, microfiber cloths. To perform work, it is necessary to thoroughly wash the surface to be treated, then first apply a coarse-grained abrasive paste to the sponge and rub it into the damaged area, the surface becomes a little more matte, the damage on it will disappear, and remove the remaining paste with a dry cloth. With the help of a polish with our own hands, we achieve shine. Polishing can be done with polishing machine or by hand with a microfiber cloth. This method should not be used often, as it can damage the varnish layer after several times. You can also use correctors that contain wax or gel. The wax pencil allows you to repair the chip, and excess wax is removed with a microfiber cloth. The wax pencil will need to be used after each visit to the car wash. The corrector with gel looks like a felt-tip pen or a tube. It is filled with acrylic paint that fills in scratches and hardens and becomes invisible. If the damage to the body is deep, it is necessary to carefully carry out the operation several times. The gel hardens well and becomes more durable. There is a possibility that the coating does not adhere tightly to the chip and rust and corrosion form. The use of correctors for processing the body is not difficult.
Elimination of chips and scratches of moderate severity
When the soil layer is not damaged, car painting is used to eliminate scratches and chips. Defects can be quickly removed with your own hands using a marker with auto enamel. It is difficult to guarantee the color to be as close as possible to the shade of the original tone, which has changed during operation. For carrying out, there are palettes that are available in almost all stores selling auto paints. It is necessary to take any part of the car to the car dealership, it will be used as a sample for selecting the shade of enamel. Very often they take a cap from a gas tank with them, it is applied to the palette and this helps in choosing a shade of paint. You can also choose the color with computer program, which with almost one hundred percent accuracy will select the tone of the paint. After selecting the color, you can paint the body yourself or leave it for painting in the cabin.
Repair of deep damage to the metal
Repairing damage to the bodywork that has already reached the metal will take more time and require more effort. Work on the removal of chips on the car must be carried out in a dry, well-ventilated area. It is necessary to clean the chipped area from all dirt and rust, using sandpaper, then we degrease the cleaned area. The part must be leveled, the chipped area must be puttied and the surface leveled. We must apply a layer of anti-corrosion primer to the metal, especially if we carry out work in autumn and winter, and let it dry. If you try to dry the car artificially, the coating may swell. We cover the soil with several. At the end we apply a layer of varnish. But it is better to contact a car repair shop for such work and entrust the work to professionals. It will cost more than do-it-yourself work, but you can get a better result.
Prevention against the appearance of minor damage to the car body
If you carry out work to protect the car body from external damage in advance, then in the future the restoration of the coating will be cheaper. There are several protection options:
- polish that forms protective film over a layer of paint. They are Teflon, the protection period is three months. Epoxy polishes protect up to 12 months. Nanopolishing gives results within 36 months.
- Liquid glass (silicate glue). Adheres very well to paintwork and provides protection for approximately 36-38 months, it can be applied by hand and then polished with a soft cloth.
- A liquid cover, the cheapest way, turns out like a rubber film, which is easy to remove over time.
- The protective film is applied to a carefully and thoroughly cleaned surface, which is treated with a special solution. It lasts for several years, you can apply a drawing on it and it will cost less than airbrushing.
- Fabric cover. Mounted only on the hood, made to order for a particular car.
Write to us if the article was useful.
