1st winter and only 2/16 paint chips are rusting!
 

Hi friends,


So after cleaning the white bitch and finding my many paint chips, I was happy to find only 2 are actually bad enough to start rusting.

I was going to buy touch up paint for the chips, is this a job I could do or should I bring it into a body shop or something? Est. cost?

The above the side marker is a bit of a doosy, and that other one is right above the passenger front windshield.

You stay classy ft86club

Hoping this is easily fixed just don't have any paint knowledge ..

I don't understand why people don't get paint protection film, especially when driving in our climate.

In order to protect all the places that can get chips in the winter you're looking at bumper, fenders, roof. That's about $1500-2000 of clear bra if you get the good stuff. Even cheap stuff at a shady shop it's still $1000 min. Some people don't have that lying around right after they buy a car. :iono:

If he just did the bumper he's looking at $500 and it wouldn't have protected against any of the chips.

OP go hit up a shop to get those taken care of. They are only gonna get worse and on white it's an eyesore.

I'm not sure what your point is. So it's better to have to pay to repair rust now, than get it protected at the beginning? If $1500 is going to make or break you after buying a car, perhaps the price of the car was too much.

I went to two different body shops for paint protection film and they both said they could do the hood and that's it, to many contours and little gaps for the bumper to turn out good, so I thought It was pointless if I couldn't get the bumper.

Anyhow, so this couldn't be a simple clean and touch up paint in my drive? Any guesses on how much this would cost at a body shop?

The roof one you could do if you had a fibreglass pen to rub the rust out. Then apply rust converter and touch up paint. I did that for a similar small chip on my car, it was just minor surface rust for me that came off easily.

A good auto detailer should be able to take care of those with no problem...$50-100. If you don't know one, ask your dealer/service department. They should be able to refer you to a good detailer.

how is the hood rusting? Its aluminum.

Really...you're not sure what my point was?

ok.

OP, I did some chip repair on my wife's car and it didn't turn out too bad. If you're afraid of paint matching you can at least sand off the rust (a dremel is your friend!) and apply some white primer until you can have a pro do it. There are also a lot of good videos out there that go through step by step chip repair, worth checking out.

I believe he said the 2nd one was on the top .... ;)


humfrz

you aren't looking at the right places. I got mine done at a local shop and my complete hood, fender, bumper, a pillar, 1/5 roof are all protected without a single flaw in the 3M. Not a single person saw that my car was 3Med before I pointed it out. Also, I just drive my beater Celica because of all the salt we see on the roads.

Anyways, this is what I would do personally:

1.Take some 400 grit sandpaper and wrap it around the eraser side of a pencil.

2. Carefully take the sandpaper and remove the rust without scratching adjacent paint as much as possible.

3. Apply self etching primer to bare metal with a FINE tipped brush from the hobby store or Micheal's. If paint is not very smooth after drying, hit it with either 400-600 grit really gently to level it out.

4. Apply touch up paint from a body shop or auto body shop supplies store (ask if it's a water based or solvent based paint). If the touch up isnt smooth, hit it with some 1500-2000 grit carefully without sanding the adjacent paint.

5. If it is water based, you need to paint it over with a clear coat. If not, you should be okay.

edit* actually kpr has a really good method. a mix of sandpaper to level it out and the fibreglass pen should really give a 95% fix. a detailing shop should be pretty good at doing it if you aren't to comfortable.

I have this too...

Another reason why I am considering plastidipping the entire car.

You can get the paint pens from toyota/subaru. Exact paint match with clear coat for under $10.

I know how you feel with this winter and rust, thankfully I was able to spot the bare metal chips before they rusted...for now

First picture is from the front fender.
Second is from the roof.

-alex

Soo quick update on this, went to a few different body/detail shops around my area and was appalled to learn that a proper fix for both those chips would be around 1,000 bucks!!! Because of the white being a 3 stage, they'd have to paint the entire fender and roof.

Obviously, that's steep but that's to get it back to perfect. I'm broke ass so I ordered the touch up paint and I'll see how I can manage. Might post pics of the finished result if I don't muck it up too bad.

Think twice before winter driving a pearl car with weak ass paint!!!

Or invest in paint protection film. For just about the same as they are quoting you to paint all of those panels, you could have had the full front bumper, full fenders, full hood, both mirrors, and half the roof done. I know you said you don't have the cash for it, but it maybe something you want to look into in the future. It really does help and work!

The following parts don't rust.

Hood (aluminum)
Bumper (plastic)

For some reason, I thought the roof was aluminum. It doesn't appear to be seeing the rust spot in pic 2.

You'll want to be proactive in finding paint chips as they'll eventually turn into rust. I'd suggest doing a complete paint inspection before and after each winter.

"White bitch."? You don't happen to own the Lakers?

It doesn't look like paint protection film would have covered the lip under the fender where it looks like the side marker pushed up into the fender (probably from hitting a snow bank - you guys have those in Canadia, right?). Besides, the force from the side marker pushing up looks to have caused the paint to crack/peel away from the surface of the fender, not something hitting the side of the car. How would clear bra have saved the paint from delaminating from the fender?

The 2nd spot looks to be at the leading edge of the roof. AFAIK, clear bra installers wouldn't extend the clear bra all the way to the very edge of the roof to butt up against the windshield. I could be wrong, but it just doesn't seem like clear bra would have helped in either of these cases.

Depending on the installer and how good they are at tucking and using a razor for their cuts, absolutely both areas could have been protected. Now if the OP did hit something, and it forced the side marker into the fender, perhaps PPF would not have helped. Although it still might have since there would be a bit of film to protect. In any case, he said they were stone chips. That being the case, it would have more than likely looked better than it does now.

I can't believe its rusting already! I don't have the film on mine, and I did just DD it through the gnarly Chicago winter we just had (bought my car in December of 2012); no rust other than surface on the exhaust. I garage keep it and my garage has a dehumidifier built in, plus I would rinse the salt off the car (including underbody) once a week. Is the white paint somehow more prone to damage than blue?

I did notice more swirlies in the paint lately, but that's nothing some quality time with the claybar or a good detail every couple years can't take care of.

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I had 3M paint film on 3 cars, S2000, Accord, and Lotus. And it was so expensive that after it was damaged, cut or holes poked through it wound up be cheaper to re-spray the bumpers, fenders and hood. When someone clipped the front of my accord not only did I have to pay to repaint the friggin bumper then had to have the film re applied. Total waste.

For this car forget it nothing exotic.

Take a look at your subframe braces and suspension by the summer, will have rust all over. I did one winter with the car and was done the salt mix they use is so caustic here now. My underbody looks like a 5 year old car.

I was under there the other day and it looked a little worn but normal, but I have the JDM undertray so maybe that's keeping some of the crap out. This will be my 2nd winter with it, but this last winter was much worse than 2012 so I'll keep at eye on it. Thanks for the tip!

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I visited a couple places and only managed to find partial hood, partial fenders, full bumper, headlights for $800. If I wanted roof, a pillars and full hood it was over $1200

I don't see spending $1200 for full protection as a significant amount to keep the car looking great, and not having to worry about repainting down the road. It was an amazing investment for me, seeing as I DD the car all winter (2nd winter now), and I still have a spotless front bumper, fenders, hood, etc.

I have the same issue - a paint chip on the roof that has rusted. Do you need to do anything before using the paint touch up pen? I was thinking of getting one of the 2 way pens where one side is the paint, the other is the clearcoat.

Do I just apply the paint over the rust spot, let it dry, then apply the clearcoat?

Thanks for your advice - I know nothing about paint/detailing.

Pick up a prep pen sanding stick and get rid of every trace of rust. Make sure you get all loose paint as well. Then use the touch up paint.
The roof panel is very obviously not treated for rust resistance the same as the lower body panels. I have a major chip on the front fender that after 4 years and salty winters has some minor surface discoloration on the steel. I have 5 chips along the front of my roof that look like a 20 year old car already.


https://repaintsupply.com/images/products/47569.jpg

I have some old IronX from when I used to work near a rail yard and was fighting fallout daily. If you can get some of that to knock out the rust before you apply, that's what I did. Then you can keep it around and detail a couple times a year with it. Much easier than claying. Also my method involves getting a dab of the paint on a piece of paper and applying with a toothpick. Once it dries too much make another small dab. Let it settle each time before you apply another layer. Unless you would rather over apply and then sand down with a circle of fine grit sand paper glued to the eraser tip of a pencil.