fixing big paint spot

[Lobo1186]

I removed a previous owners badge he put on the rear hood and once i removed it i noticed that he screwed something up and there is a quarter size paint (chip) which was under the cement he used to put his badge on. so maybe it got ripped off once saw the damage and slapped it back on? idk... either way will the touchup paint match? if so with a spot that big do i need to clear coat on top of that? any info would be much appreciated

[d18mike]

Ouch. That's a big spot. What color is your car? That's an important issue. If you car is very dark or flat, you might be able to do a somewhat passable job with a superb touch-up job. If it is light/metallic (espc. arctic silver) you will have a much harder time. Metallic silver is notoriously hard to touch up.

Frankly in such a visible place, I think you may just need to repaint. But if you do touch-up, you might want to try the Dr. Colorchip system, which I've found to work great for small areas on dark surfaces.

Also try your local paintless dent repair shop -- they can often do touch up to an acceptable level.

[Lobo1186]

haha that sucks... its artic silver... is repainting something like that spensive? the whole read hood i mean :ah:

[AUDIOGUY]

Well, you could try touch up, but even the best touch up job in an area that large will look like nail polish has been applied. Silver is a tough color to paint and not have to blend into the adjacent panels for color matching. If the repair area is in the middle of the panel, a good body shop will be able to fix the spot and blend within the panel as to not need to blend into the quarter panels.

With repair time and paint etc. you would probably be in the $400 to $450 range done right.

Best of luck!

[d18mike]

This from the Dr. Color Chip Q&A section. I agree. I think you'll need to repaint.


Does it work well on all colors?

Chips on most car colors are dramatically reduced or eliminated. Light silver and gold metallic colors generally look much better after inital application, though sometimes are still more visible because the edge of the chip is slightly darker and will catch your eye if large enough. Sometimes with these colors and on larger chips, it's better to use the small-tipped brush and apply a small amount of paint and leave it as is.
One other point on light metallics: Some of our light metallics are made with domestically produced metallic flake, which is polished only on one side. When the paint is applied in a small blob, the flake will turn over and appear darker in color. This darker effect is apparent in the bottle and cap lid after shaking. Once smeared, the flake will re-align itself and appear bright again.

[yellowboxster01]

Any metallic color is near impossible to touch up and especially with a chip that large. The metallic flake will never look uniform, you'll be able to see it easily. I suggest having the whole decklid painted, not just a spot paint.

Originally Posted by Lobo1186

I removed a previous owners badge he put on the rear hood and once i removed it i noticed that he screwed something up and there is a quarter size paint (chip) which was under the cement he used to put his badge on. so maybe it got ripped off once saw the damage and slapped it back on? idk... either way will the touchup paint match? if so with a spot that big do i need to clear coat on top of that? any info would be much appreciated

I've tried touching up spots on my Box that are smaller than an eraser head and am not having fun or luck in doing it. My suggestion is to let an expert do it and yes it will need to be clearcoated, very likely the entire panel. It is very hard to match paint as there are so many factors that affect the original color.

[princyjoshu]

Thanks for sharing with us but it really sucks man......

[jhandy]

You will need to sand , prime and respray the trunk, and both rear fenders and maybe the top cover. Artic silver is hard to match and it must be blended to look right. I have been through this a few times.
If you dont do this, in the sun you will notice that the trunk lid is not the same color as the fenders or the top cover.

est. 800$.

[Lobo1186]

hmmm in light of all this im at a crossroads. i really do not have the cash for repainting much of anything. regardless of whether its a porsche or a civic getting a good paint job is never cheap.

i may sound like a heretic but the other day i was surfing and a buddy of mine found the boxster PDE1 with its tri stripe effects... with the location and size of the chip he said if i were to get the vinyls which the PDE1 uses it would cover my scar and cost a mere fraction of a new paint job.

what do you all think of that solution? i have the measurements of the stripes lying around somewhere and i would do something just a shade darker than the arctic silver. obviously the strip would read PORSCHE only and not PORSCHE DESIGN but is this a really bad idea?

[Brucelee]

If it were me, I would cover the spot with another emblem before I put stripes on it. Clearly, we would have to come and take your Box away from you if you did such a horrific thing!

:chicken:

Originally Posted by Brucelee

If it were me, I would cover the spot with another emblem before I put stripes on it. Clearly, we would have to come and take your Box away from you if you did such a horrific thing!

:chicken:

I agree with Brucelee (except the part about taking your Boxster) either put an emblem back on or let an expert deal with it. I've got an arctic silver box that had some smaller than eraser head chips in it and I got lured in by paint pens and tried to fix it myself. Most paint pens are a poor design and having someone in another state trying to match your paint is near impossible. I'm going to pay a pro to fix it when I can afford it as it looks worse now than if I left it alone and I'm $40 poorer.