Hey guys. I have a bit of a problem. Back in May of 2012 I had an "incident" where I was driving down the highway and someone in front of my kicked up a piece of metal (or it fell off their car, the car wasn't in good shape) and it hit my bonnet and nicked it pretty good and created a dent near the bottom by the grille trim. I have let it slide because I'm getting quotes from auto body places around 600-800 bucks to repaint the hood and that's money I really don't have right now, I could scrounge up the money, but don't really want to if I don't have to.

Anyway, attached is a photo of the area in question. Let me know what you all think.. The color of my Cooper is Hot Chocolate Metallic.

 

Sure you can. It may not be as close to new as a repaint, but if it helps your MINI look better than it does now, then why not? Using touch up paint now won't affect things if you decide later to get it repainted. Meanwhile, you may be able to find a paintless dent repair guy who can take out or reduce the size of the dent too - and that normally is reasonably affordable. Good luck!

 

Like said, no harm done to use a little touch up just to prevent any issues from having exposed metal. Other than that I cant provide any other advice. I do however have to compliment you on your color choice. At first when I was looking, i thought, why would anyone want a brown car? Then I saw the color in the showroom and it was a beauty.

 

recommend you dig back in the forum and read some about t/up paint options and procedures

bottomline - people who try this the first time often and up with a bigger mess than they had b4. It's not rocket science, but it isn't paint by numbers either. Or ask around - you may have a friend who HAS experience .... I've done similar repairs for folks many times out of my garage.

btw have you discussed this with your insurance - sounds like a comprehensive issue to me and not collision. If your comp' dedectable is so high as to say no way - ask about zero deductible comp' b4 next time. It doesn't cost near what it does on the collision side. I went from $250 deduc' on 4 cars with a teen male driver in the house, to 0 for a few dollars a year.

Every insurance situation is different but it doesn't cost to ask . .