How To Repair Paint Chips

Understandably, some car owners are skeptical about doing any DIY work on their car body. Even small paint chips can be a little intimidating to work on because some car owners have no experience working with metal surfaces.

What You Need

If the rust is so bad that the metal actually has a hole in it, your paint chip will need to be repaired using auto body filler. This is a separate job and one that is far more difficult and technical. This article really only focuses on how to repair paint chips without using auto body filler.

Small paint chips can be easily repaired by owners who want to save some money and prevent small problems from becoming big and expensive to repair. The key to paint chip repair is to find and fix your problems as soon as you notice them. You also want to make sure you have the right materials for the job. Most importantly, you need the auto body touch up paint. You can find touch up paint at auto body stores, but you usually have the best results if you use factory paint directly from the dealership. This way, your colors are more likely to match perfectly, and you won't have any issues with third-party paints. You will also need some auto body sandpaper and painters tape for most jobs.

Sanding and Painting the Chip

You just need to use a quarter of sandpaper to rub away any rust and lightly scuff up the area around the paint chip. That is, the sandpaper will actually make the surface rougher. But, this is necessary for the paint to stick well to it. It is of the utmost importance that the surface you are painting is uniformly smooth. If certain parts are rougher than others, the paint will dry unevenly. Often, small paint chips will only take a few seconds to sand.

When applying the touch-up paint, you want to use a very minimal amount of paint. It is kind of like painting fingernails when you use the brush that is included with the touch-up paint. Most touch-up paints have a brush built directly into the lid. After the paint dries, you can use some smoother auto sandpaper to even out the paint and make it flat.

As you can see, it isn't that difficult to repair small paint chips on your car. Contact a company like High Point Body & Paint for more information and assistance. 

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