About Private Car Insurance
Owning a car is a significant milestone in your life, and were here to help you celebrate it. In addition to the comprehensive car protection that your policy already provides, enjoy a wide variety of add-ons, including the Etiqa Package to extend your coverage as well as a No-Claims Discount Protector and a chance to choose workshops beyond our list of partners.
Private Car Insurance also provides on-demand windshield repairs and fast claims with E-CLEVA, a proprietary video-assisted claims approval system. You also enjoy a 5% discount on renewals for earning no demerit points in the year.
Cruise easy, knowing you have all bases covered. Read more about Private Car Insurance here.
Information is accurate as at 6 October 2020. This policy is underwritten by Etiqa Insurance Pte. Ltd. . Protected up to specified limits by SDIC.
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Paint Chip Repair Kits
Now that you have found your color code and determined which touch up product to use, there are just a couple other items to add to your car paint chip repair kit. These items will help clean and prepare the chipped paint for touch up, seal it, and help it blend with your cars paint.
Wax & Grease Remover for Chipped Paint
Before starting a car paint chip repair, you want to make sure the area is clean and clear of wax and grease. Clean with a gentle water and soap solution, and include grease and wax remover in your touch up paint order.
Priming an Auto Paint Chip
If the chip goes through all the layers of your auto paint, exposing the unpainted surface, auto paint primer is needed. Primer adheres to unpainted surfaces and will get the touch up paint to stick for your paint chip repair. If you need to fill deep scratches, use several coats of primer and gradually build the surface up. If you are priming a flexible surface like a plastic bumper, using spray paint, or touching up non-metallic paint, order SEM Adhesion Promoter to allow the primer to properly stick.
Clearcoat for Sealing Touched Up Chips
After applying touch up paint, use paint chip repair clearcoat to seal the repaired chip and so you can later polish the area. Apply several coats of clearcoat, allowing each to dry before applying the next.
Rubbing Compound to Polish a Repaired Chip
Automotive Lacquer Thinner
Prepping The Car For Paint
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How To Touch Up Paint On Car Surfaces
Know Types Of Car Paint Color
About 100,000 types of car paint colors are available in the market. First of all, you have to choose your desired color. You also need color tools for painting perfectly. After buying color, examine the quality of the color. You can test the color painting on the surface of metal or old pictures.
Test either the color matches with the previous color or not. It is difficult to find a perfect match of the color. If the color doesnt match, you have to wash it off again. Using a clear coat or primer with the color may cause a color mismatch.You can also lighten or darken the color paint by adjusting the position of the spray from the surface. You need to do frequent practice for this.
Car Paint Repair With Touch
A post shared by TouchUpDirect on Oct 16, 2019 at 11:05am PDT
Deeper scratches, ones that go past the clear coat, require additional repair steps. If the chip or scratch is fairly small, you can use touch-up paint pens or brush kits, The Drive reports.
RELATED: A Few Simple Changes Can Save Your Cars Paint
To start, youll have to check what your cars paint color code is. This is usually found on a sticker in one of your door jambs, Popular Mechanics reports. Once you have your touch-up pen or brush kit, the next step is thoroughly cleaning and de-greasing the damaged area. Then, simply apply the paint as directed, and let it dry.
There are some downsides to using touch-up paint pens for car paint repair, though. For one, many dont come with a sprayable clear coat. Youll have to purchase that separately to make sure your car paint repair is protected. Secondly, as Badells Collision explains, its really best-suited for temporary repairs, especially if you dont clear-coat it.
And, as stated previously, touch-up paint only works onrelatively small scratches. What happens if, say, you hit your bumper on abrick wall accidentally?
What Youll Need For Diy Paint Chip Repair
At an auto parts store, youll find a display of auto touch-up paints. Look up your cars year, make and model in the booklet at the display. Youll find a list of factory colours that cars like yours were painted that year. If you have a white vehicle and there is only one white listed for it, just buy that one. If you dont know the colour number for your car, youll have to find it on your vehicle identification plate. This can be challenging. The plate may be located under the hood on the cowl, near the radiator shield or on the jamb of the drivers door. Some owners manuals will tell you where to look, or a quick call to your dealer will help.
Once you find the number, buy a small bottle of touch-up paint. If you cant find the correct colour at the display, check with the dealer. Dealers often carry colours for the cars they sell. Also, buy a small can of auto primer. Now just follow our photo sequence to fix that chip, and remember, dont do this repair in the direct sun or if the temperature is below 10 degrees C.
Tip: If you can only find spray paint with the right colour number, you can use it by spraying a bit of paint into the cap and applying it with a fine artists brush.
Body Shop Respray And Mobile Spray Paint Services
A body shop or a mobile spray paint service are great options if youre looking for near-perfection. If you want no evidence of the paint damage left behind, youll need one of these more thorough and expensive approaches. A body shop will charge anywhere from $250-$600 to respray an entire panel of your car. This will give you the cleanest look with the biggest price tag.
You can also have a mobile service come out to your home and respray the damaged area. They will sand down the paint chips and scratches, spray paint the area, and then condition and protect it. It will cost $250-$350 for a small, centralized area. This is a good option if the paint damage is too extreme for simple touch-up.
Can Rock Chips Be Fixed
Rock chips are almost impossible to avoid, but thankfully they can be fixed Heres the step-by-step process for quickly repairing those chips, on this episode of Autoblog Details. Watch all our Autoblog Details videos for more quick car care tips from professional detailer Larry Kosilla. in the chip during use.
How Long Should Car Paint Dry Before Driving
Once the blending step is completed, it is safe to drive the car. Rain and even a quick hand wipe of the panel with a quick detail product will not impact the Dr. ColorChip repairs.
Paint manufacturers will typically tell you that automotive paint needs 30 days to fully cure. We do recommend allowing the paint this 30-day cure time before doing any aggressive compounding with a rotary buffer or application of a ceramic coating.
Is The Damage Suitable For A Touch
Before starting the process of touching up your car paintwork, it is important to understand how easy the scratch will be to repair yourself, and what the outcome will be or whether it is a better option to have a professional take a look. We dont recommend attempting to repair any large scratches yourself touch-ups are best kept to small areas, to reduce the chance of making the damage worse. That said, a professional repair will fill any deeper scratches and leave your car as new. If you just have a tiny blemish to repair, the next step is to:
Repairing Those Deep Scratches
Has someone keyed your car? You may be able to repair the damage yourself.
The determining factor is the depth of the scratches.
Its all about scratch penetration, or lack of, into the color coat or the primer.
Reality check: You cant fix everything.
Sometimes the best course of action is to visit your local paint and body shop.
Ill let you in on a cool technique
2 sheets of copy/laser printer paper can help you judge whether certain scratches can be repaired or not.
Put the paper on the body of your car next to the scratch.
Next, run your fingernail across the paper onto the paint surface. Do it a couple of times to feel the thickness.
Now run your fingernail over the edge of the paint scratch.
A complete repair will be difficult if the scratch feels deeper than the paper thickness.
On the other hand, if its not as deep, you can make the repair.
The bottom line is you can make the repair by wet sanding and polishing if the scratch feel less than a single sheet of paper.
The 3m Scratch Removal Kit
My last piece of advice is to get 3Ms Scratch Removal System.
This is your secret weapon against minor clearcoat scratches that havent penetrated the color coat layer.
You get a 3000-grit abrasive square, a compounding pad, a polishing pad, 1 oz rubbing compound, and 1 oz scratch remover to make a perfect repair.
Clean The Car Paint Chips
This is a typical rock chip that you can fix with this procedure. In fact, even if the chip is about one-fourth the size of a dime, you can still repair it. Clean the chip with soap and water and then dry it with a soft cotton cloth. Rub a dab of automotive polishing compound over the chip to gently soften any ragged edges. Just a dozen swirls or so will do the job. Too much rubbing could damage the clearcoat over the paint and make a cloudy mess.
Has your car suffered a scratch as opposed to a chip? Find out how to repair car paint scratches here.
Level The Paint Into The Chip Or Scratch
Level the car paint using either a squeegee or Ultrabrush, or by lightly swiping the paint across the chip using the flat side of your gloved thumb or finger.
Dont press down when swiping the paint over the chip as this could cause the paint to be forced out of the chip. Very light pressure works best to create a level fill.
Once the paint is leveled flat across the chip, allow a couple minutes for it to dry to the touch before attempting to blend away the excess paint. If you touch the paint and it sticks to your glove or is still tacky or wet, let it dry for another minute or two.
Do not try to fill the chip above the surface level of the cars original paint. With our process, the paint needs to be leveled flat to prevent pulling the paint from the chip when performing the final blending step of the process.
How To Protect Your Car From Stone Chips
There is no way to avoid ever getting a stone chip in your paintwork. But, you can use a paint protection film to minimise the risk of damage that could need repairing. A clear vinyl wrapping may be something you want to consider, to provide another level of protection. Its a good choice if you have a special colour or custom paintwork you want to protect.
For more information on how vinyl wrapping could help protect your vehicle from stone chips, read our post on how and why to use vinyl wrapping.
The Clear Coat Scratch
If you steam clean the scratch and it disappears, that means its a clear coat scratch. Steam cleaning is no longer limited to the engine housing. Its now available to maintain the car body. This scratch repair is fairly easy and requires only some light tools.
Heres howâ¦
Get some very fine grit sandpaper like 5000 grid
Spray steam on the surface of the scratch and spray water on the sandpaper
Then put on wax paste and rub it in and youre good to go
The Best Rubbing Compounds
The best compounds are from the Chemical Guys. This line of products is specifically engineered for a scratch-free finish which will help your polish last longer. These polishes are made without silicones or fillers, only providing you with the best product to apply to your vehicle. The compounds from this system will ensure that you are getting the best finish possible as youre figuring out how to smooth out touch up paint on car surfaces.
Stone Chip Repair: Tips To Fix Car Paint Chips
Stone chips are a common feature in car paintwork, usually on the bonnet. They create small, deep and very localised damage in the paint.
They are usually the result of gravel and road debris flicked from the tyres of vehicles in front of you onto your vehicle. Due to this, they are more common when motorway driving where debris is more likely to be flicked because of the higher speed of vehicles in front of you. Unfortunately, at these higher speeds, the little stones can leave a ding or small mark in your paintwork.
Stone chips are also more common in winter as salt-spreaders throw grit over the roads which is then either, flicked onto your vehicle directly by the salt-spreaders or by other vehicles more often because of the extra debris on the road. This damage can also be made worse by winter weather, as rainwater and ice from the lower temperatures settle and get into the chip and affect the metal underneath your cars paintwork.
Because of the common reasons above, stone chips are difficult to avoid, but they can be easily and usually inexpensively fixed. This makes stone chip repair easy for vehicle owners, which is an advantage as it is important to repair the damage as soon as possible, so it doesnt worsen in rainy or icy conditions.
Our latest blog can help you remove chips and scratches from your vehicle with its top tips on removing scratches from your car paintwork.
Using The Touchup Rx Paint Squeegee For Chip Repairs
A great tool for repairing multiple stone chips and road rash.
The TouchUp RX Automotive Paint Chip Repair Kit is designed around using the simple, pliable squeegee for fast, easy repairs. Once you know how to use it, youll love using the TouchUp RX Paint Squeegee to fix chips on your vehicle.
You could use your thumb to smear the paint over the chips, the side of your hand, or your forehead for that matter. Really, the point is to get the paint on the panel and into the chips, leaving as little residual paint as possible.
In our experience, using the squeegee is the best technique for common stone chip and road rash repairs.
The TouchUp RX squeegee is not designed for paint repair on door edges, light scratches, or bumper scrapes. Other tools work better on those repairs, which will be addressed in a future blog.
How to apply paint with the TouchUp RX squeegee.
There are two ways to get the paint from the bottle to the chip:
Once the paint is on the vehicle or the squeegee, simply hold the squeegee at a 45-degree angle to the vehicles panel, then pull it across and beyond the paint chip.
Using the paint squeegee on large paint chips.
If you dont get a smooth flat application of paint over the chip, or you disturb the paint resulting in a rippled effect , remove all the paint with The Pink Stuff blending solution and try again.