About a year ago, I got a pretty big rock chip on the leading edge of my white roof, going all the way to the primer.
I covered the chip with some touch up paint, but even though the black dot was not showing anymore, I was still annoyed by the appearance of the touch-up.

So, after reading many threads and articles (the best one being this one from Autopia) I decided to go ahead and wetsand.

I purchased the following products:
- Meguiars Unigrit Sanding Block (2000)
- 3M Rubbing Compound (fine cuts)
- 3M Swirl Mark Remover




Before wetsanding, I added more touch-up paint to make sure the chip was overfilled:



Wetsanding was very easy and very precise using the sanding block, I just took my time and went really slow:



This is how it looked when I was done:


After that, just apply some 3M rubbing compound and swirl remover and voila !!!
A few coats of Zaino to seal the deal, and that rock chip is gone !!!


It is still possible to see where the touch-up paint was applied if I look closely, but it looks a million times better, and it's flush and smooth at the touch.

As a side note, if you go slow and take your time it's very easy. HOWEVER, I would only wetsand on non-metallic paints, I think white is the easiest.
I've had some other rock chips on my Dark Silver paint, and even though they were never too bad (didn't go through the primer) I didn't want to touch them, I've always found metallic touch-up paint being almost impossible to look good, so I just bought a clear bra (a little late but oh well).
That's it. I thought I would share my experience for whoever is thinking about wetsanding.

[/size]

 

Good job

 

I've had this done (professionally) to a car in the past, but I have never seen such a complete explaination. Thanks for the write up.

By the way, I was amazed at the results... all the scratches (some very deep - in my case) were completely removed. The car looked as good as new.

 

This is a great example of why I like NAM so much .... Together we can build ( or in this case repair) a Cooper from the ground up !!!

Thanks for sharing the knowledge

 

very nice writeup! Thanks!

I've always had best results with wetsanding for a touch-up. I've also got Langka that does an OK job on chip touchups, but not as good a job as this. Very nice work.

 

wow.. good results..

one question: what kind of sanding block is that. Grit? where purchased?

i just found a pretty nasty chip on the corner of of the hood, not sure how to fill out, gotta do research.

 

The sanding block is Meguiars Unigrit Sanding Block, it works great and it's very precise. They have different grit (from 400 to 3000).
2000 or 3000 are the easiest to work with and to erase with rubbing compound.
I bought it online directly from Meguiars (I think it was like $20 after taxes and S&H)
Regarding the chip on your hood, check out this link and feel free to e-mail the author, he's very helpful and always answer the same day. Or better yet, if you can find a good professional who can do the work, go for it. I couldn't find anybody willing to work on my car in my area or maybe I just didn't look properly...

Good luck!

 

argh, I was hoping it was something i could get locally. I hate paying for shipping.

as for the link, yah, i browse the autopia forums quite often and post as well. However, the chip is sort of on the edge, have no idea how it got there. There was a post regarding this issue. The problem is that the chip encompasses more than one plane, making it really odd. I'll have to search it up when i get the chance.

thanks for the help though.

 

wow great job!!

thanks for the pictures!