So, this morning I discovered that I have a small, about dime sized, dent near the passenger side headlight. I've done the paintless dent repair before, when I got a door ding the first week I owned the car, but will it work on a hood?

Also, I have a lot of paint chips on my hood. I drive on the highway every morning to work and you can't really avoid the 18-wheel trucks. You pass one and three more pop up. I see a lot of people talking about paint chips but, what's the best way about getting them out or at least less visible?

 

Can't avoid the stones. You might consider having a body shop repaint the hood and fix and issues like dents. Consider and do some research on the Clear Bra.

Glad I added it to my mini. Can't see it but it is tough. Machine cuts them to fit Mini. Covers whole hood and front of bumper, mirror backs, top line on roof, door edges, ledge by boot.

The only thing I know to protect if you drive on the highway. Would be glad to hear other comments.

The old fashioned leather bra but not leather, have to remove when it gets wet. Does not cover whole hood. Can scratch paint. Never put on dirty car. Must wash them but some can be washed in wash machine.

Would be nice to install lasers to the front that would take out debris like Star Wars shooting it before it hits the car. Sort of a James Bond option.

Want some nice James Bond options? Look on Netflix and watch making armored cars like a Benz. Yes, they really can add defensive things to cars.

But none appear to take care of flying rocks.

 

Haha, thanks for the reply. I don't really have any issues with the rest of the car getting dinged or scratched. It's mostly my hood, up to the hood scoop and the front bumper cover. I'm going to see if I can take it to the place I took it to before to get the dent popped out and see if they have any ideas or places to go to get the paint chips out.

If anyone else has any other ideas, I'd be grateful of them.

Also, kg4xg, if I can get most of the paint chips out, I would like to invest in the clear bra. However, with the current state of the paint, I feel it would just cover up paint chips, kind of defeating the purpose.

 

I hope others will have ideas. I am sure may are in your situation. They do what is called a re-spray of the hood.

I hear my Mini Body Shop is pretty good. If it was me I would have a re-spray and have the guy stop over to install the clear bra. Not sure how long you have to wait after a re-spray.

The guy that installed my clear bra mainly does Porsche only. Dealers keep him busy but I was very grateful he made time for me on a Saturday at his shop.

Not sure but it is possible to install maybe the clear bra yourself to the hood only.

As far as removing dings. Very impressive with what they can do today.

 

How much do you think a respray would cost me to do? I can't afford some crazy price to have it done but, I would really like it to shine again.

 

Maybe others can chime in here. I have never had to do the re-spray yet. But I can tell you the clear bra ran about $700 and I would say you could find that for between $500-$700 depending on location, type, installer, etc.

Now if that is too much you might look into Colgan Bras. Just another option and I have heard good things but not as good or the same as a clear bra.

http://www.colgancustom.com/index.html

Again, others can chime in but there is always a battle against stones. Almost wish I could clear bra the windshield!

 

Re-sprays can vary greatly depending on how deep the chips are and how much you want them to re-spray to blend the paint to match the rest of the car. It's also a bit more expensive if you have metallic paint.

You can look into Dr. Colorchip or Langka Blob if you are a diy'er to repair the chips.

The clear bra is really the only thing you can do to keep the front of the car safe. 3M also has a spray on clear bra sort of film that will protect the car but I have heard mixed reviews on how difficult it is to apply.

 

Thanks for the reply. I saw the stuff from 3M, I'm just kind of hesitant to use it. I will definitely check out the Dr. Colorchip and Langka Blob options, though. Thanks for the ideas. c:

 

I chatted recently with a couple local detailers. The issue with the 3M spray is that it looks wavy. It is great if you want to spray it on and do a cross country trip and then peel it off when you get back.

Like others have said, the clear bra is the best means of protecting your front end from chips. I had the first one applied prior to picking the car up and then added it to my aero bumper, again, prior to pickup. Unfortunately that doesn't help your situation.

I've had mixed results with Langka the Blob Eliminator. However I've seen some folks on You Tube accomplish way better than me. Might be worth a try.

Best!
~Matt

 

A couple of comments

like many things, LANGKA takes practice despite what their advertising says .... and if you have a LOT of chips it is probably not the way to go. I use it, and a took a while to get the hang of it....

How much would a front end respray cost? How much do you want to spend is the real question. You could get it done for $150 or pay $1000 . . .

A quart of ready to spray metallic base color can cost a couple of hundred dollars. Then you need the clear to come over the top of that. And some prep time, painter labor . . . or you can buy cheap paint/clear and skimp on the labor.

Back a few years I needed to repaint just the bonnet on my 79 and after paying $300 for just that (and single stage paint at that), I decided to learn how to apply automotive paints and now do my own work. (Nice to be retired with disposable income to take lessons then buy equipment)



I recently parked next to a Porsche that obviously had clear bra on it. The car was a couple of years old and looked good - but you could see every edge of the clear bra material very clearly. I didn't notice any rock nicks - the edges of the plastic were distracting enough.

Last place I lived and worked involved a bunch of trucks - good sized seaport with container truck traffic and raw materials (aka gravel) - and I had a fair interstate commute 5 days a week. I replaced an average of one windshield a year but found that my hits went down SIGNIFICANTLY when I increased my interval between vehicles. NOT PASSING was tough sometimes, but seeing the rocks loose their bounce b4 I got there was worth it in the end.

On the weekends I'd take one of the kids ( MINI Cooper-S, my 79 Mini, and a Miata) out into the country for spirited country runs where there was little to no traffic and roads that were a bunch more fun than the interstate to work was. Few rock hits out there . . . (greater Norfolk/Portsmouth VA area if wondering. Rural VA just minutes away)

 

Depends on the quality of job I guess. I have a 40 hour a week job and not much time on my hands to learn a lot of it myself. I also don't have the income to support it.

Anyhow, I've taken the approach of taking my time on the highway now when I drive. Not going too crazy with my driving tactics and just trying to stay around 70MPH in a 65MPH road. Limit my distance from vehicles and just try to be a little more cautious about it.