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Extreme stone chip removal


TheMacDaddy

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My car's over three years old now and, as a daily driver, has picked up her fair share of stone chips. The combination of soft paint, 42,000 miles and The Best Colour have unfortunately left her with a very bad case of Edward Olmos face.

 

So, armed with some paint, lacquer, wet and dry paper and a DA, I set about putting things right.

 

Here's the old girl at the start.

 

Step one: Full wash (foam x 2, 2BM wash, dry). I had so many chips to do I decided to mark them all out first using a liquid chalk pen:

 

75c59d399f2f45b2be9a5054c3f1e3f6.jpg

 

Step two: clean all of the chips using a cleaner provided by the paint supplier (see below) to remove any wax etc that was hiding out in there.

 

Step three: paint all of the chips using the supplied base coat with a no 2 brush (2 coats, 30 minutes between)

 

Step four: wait 4 hours for the base coat to dry, then apply the lacquer, again with a no 2 brush, (4-6 coats, 30 minutes between), ensuring that the finished lacquer was proud of the main surface.

 

Step five: allow the lacquer 24 hours to cure. Alas in my case it was a week as I ran out of weekend, so I had to drive around with the pink circle paint-job for five days. Got some interesting looks, I can tell you.

 

"What's that noise? Sounds exotic. Better turn around and see... oh, dear Christ what has that idiot done to his car!"

 

Yep, there's a specific look for that. I'm sure you can imagine!

 

I actually had one guy compliment me on the custom finish I was rocking. After I stopped laughing (at least 30 seconds) I had to explain to him that it wasn't deliberate.

 

He looked very disappointed. :)

 

Anyway, I digest.

 

Step six: clean the car again (same method), removing the awesome "ballet shoe bubble" finish...

 

Step seven: Wet sand. Here's the point where you really have to nut-up. Taking sand paper to your car (albeit 2500 grade) separates the men from the boys. I had at least three distinct "what the &*%£ was I thinking?!" moments, but push on I did. You need to keep the paper nice and wet and take your time.

 

Step eight: wash again, this time with a full clay all over.

 

Step nine: Time to mask the car up before polishing. All plastic parts that may be caught by the DA are masked-off. I used a flexible masking tape from Halfords that's really good on all those sexy curves.

 

And here we are:

 

 

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Step ten: Polish time. You need a good cutting pad and polish to remove the sanding marks (details below), and this really is a job where patience is key. No pressure on the polisher, just guide it and let the pad and polish to the work. Any force you apply will just stall the pad and lessen the effectiveness.

 

With the sanding marks removed I then gave the whole car a polish with a finishing pad and polish to remove any holograms and take care of the swirl marks.

 

Step eleven: Final clean (same method again), making sure to remove all of the polish residue. I the finished with a wax to protect all my hard work, and here's the results:

 

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Not bad, eh?

 

Matt

 

Here's the low-down on the products I used if you're keen:

 

Wash

 

Clean Your Car Super Snow Foam

Karcher pressure washer with Clean Your Car lance

Megs Gold Class Car Wash shampoo

Clay bar with Sonus Glide

 

Paint

 

Paints4U Scratch Master Kit (paint, lacquer, cleaner + bits)

http://www.paints4u.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=6912

 

2 x no 2 brush (eBay)

Nail polish remover to clean up (Mrs MacDaddy)

2500 grade wet and dry paper

 

Polish

 

DAS 6 Pro dual-action polisher

Menzerna Compounding Pad (white) with Menzerna Fast Gloss (FG500)

Menzerna Polishing Pad (yellow) with Menzerna Super Finish (SF4000)

 

Wax

 

Dodo Juice Hard Candy

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