stone chip

There are mobile businesses that do auto airbrush touch-up - they come to your home or work and the results can be pretty good. Look up "auto airbrush touch up" in your area.

Those mobile "fix a dent" vans... I think the "Dent Doctor" is one of them, for example (I assume it doesn't literally have to be a dent). Check the Yellow Pages, or a local dealership since they use them, too, for the name(s) of the ones around you.

Cathy

On Mar 9, 12:26=A0pm, "pacca" wrote:

Dunno. I'd learn how to do it yourself, unless you want to keep the body shop on a permanent retainer. :/ It's going to happen a lot. But up to you I guess. I've had several chips on mine that I've had to touch up. Most are real small though. In fact, I've got one on my front left side fender that I just discovered today. I'll be tweaking it tomorrow. It's about the size of an eye of a large fly.. But you see it cuz the primer is black. It's hard to get a perfectly smooth surface with just touch up paint, but you can get it fairly decent with a little practice. Once the color is blended in, the chip won't stand out much, except when the light is the right angle to make it stick out. With a deep chip, I would carefully apply a small dot of paint to the chip, and let it settle into place. You want pretty fluid paint so it melts into the chip and seals the sides up. If it's too dry, it makes it sticky, and more prone to an irregular surface, or little pull off strings, etc.. If it looks ok. Let it dry. If I don't like the way it looks, I'll quickly wipe the paint off, and start again until I like the way it fills the chip. If it's deep, it's better to layer it up a bit at a time, rather than trying to do it in one shot. One thing I don't like.. Paint bumps where the paint is higher than the surface. I'd prefer a shallow place rather than a raised one. I think a dip stands out less, and it's easier to build up a dip, than sand or buff down a high spot. I also never apply paint to anywhere except the chip. If it bleeds over to undamaged paint, I wipe it off and do it again. That will always result in a high spot. I make sure the paint only goes inside the chip area. I want it to fill in and touch and seal the edges of the chip, but no farther. Also.. it depends on the chip, but often with a bigger one, I'll mix a bit of clear coat with the color paint. That can make it blend better as far as the gloss. I never use the brush in a painting type motion like some do. I just use the very tip as a dropper of sorts, or I use the "ball point" end. I think the ball point end is the best for small chips. Anyway, you can get someone to do it, but you are bound to see this fairly often, and it could get expensive. :/ I get almost all mine on the freeways where cars in front of me kick up tiny rock debris. Also some can come off trucks. BTW, expect a few tiny glass chips too before it's over.. I even had a truck kick a tiny chip into my right passenger window on the side.. And some of my chips, like the one I saw today, are on the sides. But I get some on the hood and front bumpers too. But after I paint em, you hardly notice them at all unless the light is just right, and you see the little chip dips in the finish. At some angles you don't see them at all. The way the Corolla sits with it's low sloping hood makes it a chip magnet.. :/ Heck, I guess most of the cars are that way these days. BTW, you don't want to let it go without doing anything cuz water can leach under the edges of the chip and make it get worse.