I bought a Dr. Colorchip kit for my car and spent part of today treating my front end.
My overall impressions with the kit is that it is pretty good - as long as your expectations are realistic.
I had seen the website and their "testimonial" before/after photos - which I took with a grain of salt. some of their before/after photos are amazing looking. I did a fair amount of other reseaarch online and found a lot of reviews on various car forums - some with great results (and photos to back up their claims) as well as some unhappy customers who said "it sucks".
With any painting projects - YMMV, and expectations have a lot to do with people's opinions.
if you are expecting a 10 year old car that is plastered with rock chips to look like it suddenly rolled off the showroom floor with brand new paint - you will not be happy. If you buy it and expect it to be "snake oil" and do nothing - you will be pleased.
I was expecting *some* improvement, but not expecting magic. that's pretty much what I got.
I've used touch up paint before - it's works well for very small spots and things not in areas that are "high visibility". I've used them down low on front end splitters that hit a curb, but wouldn't try it on a hood.
the dr colorchip system uses two bottles. one is paint. the other is some kind of thinner that makes the excess paint wipe away - theoretically leaving only the paint "in" the chip behind. if your chip is microscopic, it would probably make it totally disappear. but for "real" rockchips, that are all the way through the paint - one or two treatments will NOT make it totally flush. you'd need to work it over and over and over....if you have ONE chip, i'm sure you could pull it off. on a car like mine with hundreds of them, you might as well repaint if you want it perfect.
before I did the Dr. Colorchip treatment, my car had a lot of rockchips. even from 10' away you could see them. in certain light conditions it was REALLY obvious, in dark light they didn't stand out too bad, but overall...if you looked at the hood and front bumper, you could obviously see them.
NOW, I would say it's much better. the chips are still there, but they have a well matched layer of paint inside them. from 10' away, the chips and rash is much much harder to see, and you get the illusion that the paint is perfect. get up close, and you can see that there are chips - as the paint is not 100% flush.
the color match seemed pretty good - it's just not easy to get the rock chips totally filled in. if they do fill in when you apply the product, when you are wiping off the excess you manage to remove some of hte paint in the chip, leaving it not totally filled. maybe if I was a professional detailer, I'd be better at it - but for your average person - this is an easy DIY project - but I doubt you will get the "amazing" results the website claims. maybe car color makes a big difference too.
Overall - for the price - this is a decent kit. If you are dying for a "perfect" paint job, and have the money - get a full blown paint job - otherwise, for $50-70 - depending on how big of a kit you buy - this is not a bad "bang for the buck" mod.
on an older car like my 986, where the price of a new paint job is out of the question given the value of the car - this is a great way to make it LOOK like it has a new paint job from 10' away.
I may post photos tomorrow. I took some "before" shots, but by the time I was done, the sun was down, an dhte "after" photos didn't have enough light to really make a fair comparison.
Okay - I took some nice after photos...here you go.
the kit
close up before
Overall Before
Overall After
chips around the crest BEFORE
chips by crest after - see the ones just to the right..still there but really hard to see
more AFTER
I have to admit...after I finished it last night, I was less impressed with it than I was today! Once I got out int eh sunlight and looked at the end result...from 5' away, I was pretty happy. Especially when I looked at the before/ after pictures. I think I may have honestly been expecting "too" much and was slightly let down. now that I've had a chance to see the results...and to truly look at the before / after - it reallly does look a lot better.
As I said..in some of these photos, you can't see ANY chips.. but I took most of my "after" shots from at least a few feet away. like I said earlier, get up next to the car..even from 2-3' and the naked eye will pick them out - especially if you are "looking" for them...but to a casual observer, or glancing at the car from 5' away, it now looks a lot nicer. rather than seeing all those little pin prick spots...you just see glossy ocean blue.
If you are looking for a lot of "bang for your buck" and want to improve the look of your car and get rid of rock chips, this is not a bad investment. it's not magic, but it's not snake oil either. for what I paid, I'd give it a thumbs up.