CXTKRS1

Following behind an Armada last night on I-10 and the driver veered towards the middle of the road because a state trooper was in the break down lane and hit a 2X4 spraying my car with wood chips. I already have several chips on the car but I can add one more on my hood because of this. I need to get some touch up paint for my car but I hate the glob like effect it leaves behind on everything you use it on. I have heard of people using the http://www.drcolorchip.com/index.php system before and having decent results. I was wondering has anyone here used dr.color chip or a product similar to it?

ChelsDS

All you're doing with that is painting in the hole that the rock made with the same color paint as your car. It's the same as if you went to the dealer and got a paint pen with your color in it and applied it to the car with that.

If you want a permanent solution, get your bumper and hood repainted at a local shop then have them (or a mobile unit) put a clear bra on your car. The clear bra will help against most rocks and crap on the road but if it's a huge boulder you will see damage.

CXTKRS1

Yep the clear bra is something I wanted but at the time the dealer could not find anyone to install it for less than $800. They then said the kit did not even exist for a Scion and was gonna be custom. For that one reason I will never buy another car from Lake Charles Toyota/Scion. My car could be rock chip free right now if I had the bra installed...hell I was even willing to pay dealer mark up for this.

ChelsDS

That's insane. I would still get quotes from local paint + body shops for fixing the nicks in the paint then look for a clear bra. The clear bra I had on my xD (hood, fenders and side view mirrors) was ~$250. I didn't have money for the full front bumper ($300) so I kept putting it off... in retrospect I should've gone for the full front bumper first then the other pieces.

Doesn't matter now..

asurjc

I had a similar experience. I was actually dumb enough to order the 'scion paint protection film' listed on the website for $395. This is because I had been locally pricing full clear bras before I actually ordered my xD. All of the estimates were around $500. I thought 'Wow $395 is actually a good price...from a dealer no less...' What I of course didn't know was that it was only for the metal parts. (front 2/3 of the hood plus forward half of front side quarter panels) I actually ordered my car from a dealer up in Kingsport, TN (I didn't want to order from any southeast or gulf toyota dealer because of the silly packages they make you buy just to get a few of the add-ons you actually did want) where the salesman tells me he couldn't have the protection film installed at the port so he had the local 3M guy do it. 'and by doing it this way he even put on the side view mirror film' he proudly points out. So there I was driving home on the interstate thinking I got a super deal on this whole front end clear bra business. I was even smiling coyly as big rigs shot back the occasional pebble which ricocheted off the front of my car, of course knowing that there wouldn't even be a single scratch when I got home.

Fast forward to me getting out of my car at home about 4 hours later and setting to scrubbing some unfortunate smoky mountain bugs off my brand new super white bumper. I was amazed to find 3 small chips down to the black plastic of the bumper during this process. 'How could this happen?' I thought to myself, 'I don't even see where the film was pierced.' Needless to say I started peering REAL close around the edges of the bumper looking for where the edges of the film should be obvious and....'WTF! that !#*!@*##!! salesman! Who the F@#%* did he hire to put this thing on? There's no front bumper piece.' I promptly called him up and called him just about everything but white telling him that the 3M guy screwed him and me big time etc....that's when he points out that the scion film option only covers the metal parts....the bumper would have been extra so he figured that's how I wanted it. I went out the very next day and paid another $300 to my local 3M installer to put the bumper piece on.

The point of this whole story is that I did find out a couple of things later on. Most, if not all 3M film places don't even cut pieces for bumpers unless the front bumper takes up the entire front of the car (like in our case) because they're plastic and very easily repaint-able much more so than metal pieces where you have to re-prime, base coat, then clear coat. In fact, most car dealers who come across a trade-in that's good enough to put on the floor instead of giving it directly to a wholesaler, will have a guy re-gloss paint the plastic bumpers right out in back of the shop. This is because they can usually get by with a quick sanding job, and then apply the paint. A few quick cleaning/detailing hours later, that car is on the lot with a sticker in the window and ding free bumpers. (wow this person really took care of their car....)

To the OP: If most of your rock chips/dings are in the plastic bumper, then this should be a reasonably priced fix assuming you already know of a body shop you trust that does good work for fair prices. If you're not really willing to go that route, I understand that lots of touch-up jobs can be easily done if you have a roll of butcher paper, painters' tape, several sheets of finer grit sandpaper, a hobby air-brush, the right paint match, and access to a garage for the night. Either way, after you get all of this done, promptly get your car to the 3M man to prevent this sort of travesty from happening again.

EDIT: I'm of course taking for granted that you're not too fond of the 'filled crater' look of touched up chips. I have always found that the super expensive dealer pens do tend to work the best for this sort of thing as long as your paint is new enough to still be close to the same shade.

CXTKRS1

Well I actually maybe lucky, my front bumper is actually damage from a dog and needs to be replaced. When I replace the bumper I plan to have the hood repainted and a clear bra installed....or use this as an excuse buy a carbon fiber hood lol.

Aseries

Thanks for the tip. I bumped my nephew's SUV back in January and caved in the plastic fascia on the right side of the rear bumper. By dumb luck it missed both lights. I used a radiant space heater to heat up the plastic and pushed it back into shape but now I have two cracks I intend to repair with epoxy. Then comes the paint touch up. Wish me luck.