Hello, All,
"Wow. This 'stuff' really works!"---The Jerk, 1980.

I ordered the big kit for my bumper road rash, and some bigger chips that I've accumulated in 3 years of living in the desert. Having used touch-up paint from the dealer, complete with blobs, I was cautiously optimistic about Dr. ColorChip.

Followed all of the directions to a tee, and the results are fairly impressive. No blobs, very smooth. I think their idea of dabbing, then gently smearing, then using the very mild solvent they provide is a unique one and quite effective in getting a noticeable improvement in blendability. Seems the key is in the smearing.

After smearing, you let the paint dabs dry for at least 2 minutes (I let mine set for about 10 to be sure they stuck), and then gently wipe the area down with the solvent, then polish it with the cloth they include. And they include everything in the larger kit. I've got PLENTY of paint and solvent, and three perfect dabbers to do a LOT more of the car if need be.

I tried to take before and afters, but the befores just didn't do the situation justice as rash is such a fine speckling of chips. The photos on their website actually seem pretty realistic. My bonnet is very shiny and much smoother now.

After you get the hang of the smear technique (very forgiving), it is just a matter of how many chips you have. I even tried it on the edge of my driver-side door--an easy area for wear. Now, it looks almost like new. You'd have to know what was done to know what was done.

Anyway, I don't know what it would be like for flat colors. I think having a metallic color helps the blending effect. Like using any touch-up product for large, rashy areas, this all takes a little patience. But I figure it's a LOT cheaper than having the bumper and bonnet repainted. I'm very happy with the product and system.

Check it out if you like, Dr.ColorChip.com.

Paula

 

Since your paint is silver, I assume it is a metallic paint job. When looking at it in the light, do you notice the area where you touched up the paint?

I am pretty **** retentive with my car so I was wondering if you see all of the areas that you touched up.

 

Hi, John,
Yes, it's metallic.

And even in bright sunlight, I don't noticed the spots. They just seem to fade into the background visually. Obviously, nothing short of a professional paint job is going to look exactly like the original paint. Not possible. BUT, this is darn close. Just my opinion.

I tried it on a hidden area first to see what would happen, then I used it on more visible areas. I think for the deeper chips, I will try doing it a few times to build up natural layers so they will look even better.

Paula

 

I've used the product on my wife's black car and am impressed with the results, but nothing short of repainting will satisfy the true retentive. I'd say it was a 5 ft product. From 5 feet away it looks great. Closer than that, it looks way better than chips or blobs but you can see where the chips were.

 

Good to know about flat colors! I would agree with you on the distance. Like I said, nothing but a complete, new paint job is going to be perfect. NO touch-up product can match that.

BUT, this is awefully close! I'm going to work on the tiniest of the rash chips again this weekend now that I know what I'm doing.

 

Dr. ColorChip is for those that want to reduce the visibility of chips due to primer showing through. It doesn't do anything for smoothing or filling in the surface. What it DOES do is fill in small chips with paint so that they are less visible. I met the Dr. ColorChip guys in Florida a few months ago and talked to them about their demos, and they showed me first hand what it does.

First off, it does not fill in scratches, and second, an important key is using their own paints, not the factory touchup. Another thing is that if you look at the repaired areas up close, you still see the chips, but because they are colored in, they are less visible. Before having seen this product first hand, I had hoped that the filled in chips would be similar to touching up a chip with a blob and smoothing it out so that the repaired area would be less visible with light reflecting off the surface as well as color. It's similar to the effect of putting a water color on an imperfect surface. The broken areas are colored in, but the surface is still imperfect.

I think it's great on surfaces that are sand blasted and impossible to do with touchup or would require a respray, but not great on surfaces that have only a few chips in them.