ARGH!!!! :impatient Sorry for the long rant but I need to get this off my chest

Not exactly a scratch but more like a stone chip

I was at a funeral this past evening. After the service, I went out to eat with a few friends. After I parked my car in front of the resturant, I noticed one of the front tires on my friend's car who parked behind me going flat. I told him not to get all worked up b/c I have a plug kit and a compressor and I'll take care of it after we eat.

So after dinner, I checked out the tire. Ruh oh! There was a gash in the sidewall. The edge of the sidewalk on this particular street is covered with a layer of steel. I guess as my friend was pulling into the spot, he managed to snag a stray piece of steel that was sticking out. So that means using the tire plug is out of the question. Time to lug out the spare.

As I was helping my friend empty the trunk so he can take the spare out, I heard him say "hey, where's jack?" It seems the jack is missing somehow. After scratching our heads for a sec, my friend asked me if he could use the one from my car. I told him that it was a bad idea. As most of you know, the jack in the MINI is commonly refered as the Widow Maker. I once used the same type of jack on my cousin's VW and it manged to slip out . Fortunately, the only damage done to the VW was a scratch on the black textured paint from the lower rocker area.

So, the only option was to drive back to my friend's place about 15 minutes away to get the jack from his Acura. Then as we were loading up my car, my friend managed to "bump" the tire iron into the side of the quarter panel . $*%&#&@^$ It's not that bad though. It's just like stone chip. I don't think it went all the way down to the metal. I think I can fix with some touch up paint and a little wet sanding and polishing.

When my friend saw the chip, he was apologizing profusely. He offered to buy me some touch up paint but I told him it's OK and not to worry about it. Besides, it would be just like touching up the stone chips on my bonnet.

As I was driving back home, I realized how worked up I got. I'm sure my friend has a lot more to worry about since he has to buy a brand new tire. Besides, there's more important things in life to worry about. Tomorrow, a friend of ours has to bury his father .

 

wow, its good to see that youve held your composure over the situation and kept a level head... i probably would have been slightly more upset. Hopefully the touch up paint will cover it completely!

 

it sounds like just an accident and stuff does happen.. hate to say, but I really do not think touch up will do the job right... call your local car dealers and find out who they use for "touch up" work. All car dealers use they guys,,, I was at a local Toyota dealer last month looking at a car for the wife.. way out back I saw a tent set up - went to look and saw a line of toyota's lined up getting worked on and this is exactyl what they were doing... there was a thread here about a door ding/chip = ask them about "touch up" will not work unless you only want a 'bandaid' effect... the area will have to be sanded/filled?/painted and the whole area cleared - this will make it go away.... or just live with it and count it as your first chip/ding.. I would much rather replace a tire than have a chip... either way, in the scope of life - it is just a chip..............

 

I'm sorry that happened It doesn't matter how many rock chips, dings, or scratches you get - it doesn't make "the next one" any easier to take.

Sounds to me like you're keeping the entire situation in perspective though...kudos to you. You're right, there are things in life that trump a small chip/scratch. That can easily be overcome.

My condolences on the loss of your friend's father.

 

You did much better than I would have. There would have been two funerals to attend to had it been me. Kidding.

Although a good tire iron bludgeoning would go a long way to remind the rest of your friends to be careful. Very careful, when around your Mini.

I salute your restraint.

 

Today I applied some touch up paint to the chip. So of course there's a small ugly blob. At first I was gonna wet sand it then polish it out with compound tomorrow.

But I had some very mixed results on a chip on the bonnet (and yes I have the clear bra ) and on the leading edge of the roof. So I just placed an order for the Langka blog remover. Even though there's some mixed opinions on Langka, I believe it'll be safer and get better results than if I wet sanded and polished the blob.

 

I just used Langka for the first time 2 weeks ago & that stuff is amazing. Does it make the chip look perfect... no, nothing will short of repainting the whole area. But after using the Langka (& I went wild on about 50+ dots) it is really hard to even notice where they once were. I was only able to use the blob eliminator on one side of the bonnet before dark so when I went out to finish up the next morning I was amazed to see the 1/2 of the bonnet I had used Langka on looked like nothing had been done to it & the other 1/2 had noticeable from a distance odd colored paint globs all over it. The only thing is after using the Langka the area had a slight dullness to it from all my rubbing but that was no biggie as I had planned to polish the MINI with the PC the next weekend. After using the PC all is shiney & dang near perfect looking.

So in case you didn't guess, I recommend Langka. It was the best $40 I have spent in a long time

 

Bummer about the chip. No doubt your friend was worried/distracted about his own ride and not quite as careful around yours as he should've been. Accidents happen, but yeah, it's not as bad as burying someone.

 

Glad to hear you've had great results with the Langka. I was looking at the products on their website and I just ordered the blob removal kit for $29. I looked at the full kit and it looks like it's mostly pretaining to the prep of the chip.

Before I applied the touch up paint, I cleaned the area with dentured alchohol. Then after the area dried, I applied the touch up paint with a fine brush.

Urgh, now I have to wait Lord know how long until the Langka shows up on my door step.

 

Mine came very quickly. Hec for $10 more I got the whole kit. The paint prep was nice just a quick wipe wipe wipe & I was prepped to paint then I also used the Langka paint sealant in lieu of the MINI supplied top coat because if I used the MINI topcoat I would have a clear blob & have to go thru all those steps again to get it level. The langka sealant was kinda like a wax, wipe on, haze, wipe off. It prolly would have been better to use the MINI top coat but I keep my MINI waxed regularly so I feel OK about it

 

The Langka arrived yesterday and I tried it out this afternoon. At first I was worried b/c the instructions specified that the touch up paint need to dry anywhere from two hours to 24 hours. On the website it says that old repairs might be an issue. Uh oh...I touched up the chip the next morning back on Wednesday.

But I tried anyways and it worked as advertised. The paint blob was smoothly leveled off. The only issue was the color of the touch up paint. Even though it was the factory paint, it was just slightly darker. There is another method specified by Langka for metallic paint. But since I already touched up the chip I had to follow the steps for non-metallic paint.

But overall, I'm very satisfied with the product