Suffer from stone chips?

[RobinA3]

Does your car suffer from stone chips like mine?

After only 5mths of ownership and 7k miles with more than half those miles in the outside lane of the M6/M42/M40 the number of stone chips i got increased from 'some' to 'LOADS'.

As its a black car (btw is still the best colour lol) the stone chips showed up really badly so i decided to go to halfords and bought one of their touch up kits which contained a pen of primer and a pen of paint.

After washing, clay bar'ing and waxing the car on Sunday i spent 15mins using the touch up pen to try sort the stone chips out and using the 'nib' part of the pen i touched up all the stone chips and it has made a massive difference.

Yes it will never be as good as a respray but from about a foot away from the car you can't notice the touch ups and as the colour match is spot on its quite difficult to notice when up close.

So if any of you are suffering from the dreaded stones chips then give halfords touch up pens a shot.

 

[cliveywolves]

hi,,, yeah i got two stone chips on the bonnet of my a3 its only 3 months old i am not happy......

so the touch up kit from halfords is ok ??? i have brilliany black also .. how much was it ???

cheers

 

[Sinny71]

If the colour match is right, a decent cutting polish should do enough to make them invisible. On smaller chips you can use a pin to get the paint in to the chip. Never use the brushes that come with it.

Sadly my high miler has to many chips to go down that route

 

[cliveywolves]

If the colour match is right, a decent cutting polish should do enough to make them invisible. On smaller chips you can use a pin to get the paint in to the chip. Never use the brushes that come with it.

Sadly my high miler has to many chips to go down that route

hi..

got two big chips about a 3 mm circular in size and down to white/cream prime colour , what ya reckon ???

 

[PAUL.P]

Sinny , If you have a lot of chips mate, my brother-in-law has his own mobile repair buisness, he touched up all my stone chips & machine polished the lot, and in a red car the marks can be seen in dark glasses on a dark night.

It really is worth doing.

 

[rich1068]

Funny you should mention that Robin, I did exactly the same at the weekend.

The Halfords kits are good. I had one left over from my Octavia (same colour) that I hadn't used before and I was really impressed with the applicator. If no one is familiar with them you get primer, paint and lacquer and each has either a regular small brush and a tiny, tiny pen/pin thing. The paint feeds from the centre of the pen/pin thing. Real precision stuff.

 

[Sinny71]

hi..

got two big chips about a 3 mm circular in size and down to white/cream prime colour , what ya reckon ???

Because the bonnet is a big expanse its hard to for any area to be sprayed and blended in (even by professionals).

Get the touch up kit and put a little of the paint in the lid. I'd personally use a pin and I'd dip that in the paint and takecare putting it into the chipped area. Using the pin means you can put all the paint inside the chip. You'd need to do it a few times to build up the depth. If there is a clear caot put that on last the same way. I've done this many times before and patience is the key.

My car has so many chips you couldn't even count them though so its a spray gun for me when I get round to it. Got a quote from Audi approved bodyshop last week of about 450 for the bonnet and 250 for the bumper. For now I'll just keep it shiny so people cant tell.

 

[PAUL.P]

Because the bonnet is a big expanse its hard to for any area to be sprayed and blended in (even by professionals).

Get the touch up kit and put a little of the paint in the lid. I'd personally use a pin and I'd dip that in the paint and takecare putting it into the chipped area. Using the pin means you can put all the paint inside the chip. You'd need to do it a few times to build up the depth. If there is a clear caot put that on last the same way. I've done this many times before and patience is the key.

My car has so many chips you couldn't even count them though so its a spray gun for me when I get round to it. Got a quote from Audi approved bodyshop last week of about 450 for the bonnet and 250 for the bumper. For now I'll just keep it shiny so people cant tell.

Let me know if you want me to get this done cheaper, brother-in-law does most of wearside audi resprays and dents on site.

 

[Sinny71]

Chears Paul, I will do. Best get myself a job first though.

On a similar note, I have to take my car back to Colebrook and Burgess as I'm not over the moon with the work they have done recently. They are the Audi approved bodyshop but the deepest scratch on my car can still be seen after the respray. Its only a few cm long but it was down to bare metal when someone threw a bottle at the car.

On top of that there are quite a few hazy marks which I thought were just unbuffed polish when I collected it. I have used some AG super resin polish on one small area and its almost cleared it. But i dont see why I should have to, the repair was paid for and its not repaired in my mind.

 

[Boydie]

ive always used the touch up pens from halfrauds - they are quite good

still to get one for my a3 which i should do this week since the weather is fantastic and my chips are terrible!

i dont think i would but has anyone used or got the audi bumper proctecion kit??

 

[rich1068]

i dont think i would but has anyone used or got the audi bumper proctecion kit??

I'd be interested in seeing one of those too. I was browsing Nelson's site and spotted them.

 

[Sinny71]

I've sen them on a car before and it was difficult to tell unless you looked for it. The car wasn't particularly clean though and I'd be interested in knowing if the film stood out more after a proper detail, will the film hold the wax etc and give the same sort of shine/reflection..??

 

[cdb2]

Also have a number of chips, seems to chip more easily than my previous cars.

Also found the alloys seem prone to stone chips - anyone found a colour match for the 5 star alloys? The Audi silver you get at Halfords is not a good match for the alloys.

 

[Boydie]

ive never owned a car that gets so covered in tar and dust as easily!

the back end is constantly dirty!!

 

[Amchlolor]

the back end is constantly dirty!!

You've evidently never had a Golf.
They're terrible.
The aerodynamics make the air 'swirl' around the tailgate,making it get dirty so much quicker than any other part of the car.
The tailgate used to get washed twice as often as the rest of the car.

I got my local chipsaway boy to make me up some Akoya touch-up paint when he was in doing some other cars here.
Didn't cost me a dime.

 

[cliveywolves]

just bought the audi touch up paint kit from the dealer , was only £5.15...:icon_thumright:
got pot of brilliant black and a pot of clear lacquer...

anybody know what the little red plastic thing with metal brushes in the top of lid of the black paint is for ???

 

[Boydie]

ive detailed my friends golf and it was terrible to do

the weather in NorthernIreland is amazing at the minute and im quite surprised how "dust free" the A3 is for a change!

 

[Amchlolor]

anybody know what the little red plastic thing with metal brushes in the top of lid of the black paint is for ???

It's got to be some sort of preparation tool,innit ?