[r890]

On my hood, I don't have the regular paint chips, or chips out of the clear coat.. I have a few decent sized ones that go through layers of color.

Any ideas to fix this without paying for a new paint job?

[war1ock]

i saw something where its like a putty you fill the hole in with and then use touch up paint over that to blend it in.

[kyle2002stang!]

Originally Posted by war1ock i saw something where its like a putty you fill the hole in with and then use touch up paint over that to blend it in.

thats what was done to my car, it doesnt really do a good job.

[r890]

The body shop we use at my work said he could redo the entire hood (primer, color, clear) for $300, but I don't have $300. =(

I'm buying a new hood and front bumper when I get my military bonus, but that won't be for a long time..

[ajm]

^ thats the only right way to do it. Feather out the chips, prime it, block the primer, then respray it.

Edit: or if the chips are bad enough to where they dug into the fiberglass itll have to be filled with putty or spot putty.

[JerseyTrueBlue]

I have a bad chip on my trunk right by the window man, and I was told the same thing that the trunk has to be resprayed. The hood and trunk are fiberglass so atleast you don't have to worry about rusting! I'm waiting to find a good deal on a cobra trunk with the spoiler cause I love the 03/04 wings, then I will just have that trunk resprayed and ditch mine.

[r890]

Boo.

Fuck paintchips. Damn factory needs to make it indestructible.

[ajm]

If you want that look into dupon imron/immron/sp?. Shit is built like a tank for paint but horrid to spray w/o a respirator.

[dcook_14]

Call up your local vinyl shop and have them price out a vinyl wrap for the hood. Sometimes that is cheaper than painting. If not, you're going to have to either deal with the way it is or get it resprayed. Honestly $300 for the whole hood is a pretty damn good deal.

I'll tell you what I'd do if I were you... I would get a DA sander and feather out the chips. Start with 120 grit, then go to 220 then go to 320. Then I'd get some high fill primer and putty (I like this Piranah Finishing Putty), use the putty to fill the chips if they are deep and then spray the whole hood with the primer. You shouldn't need a primer/sealer or a self etching primer since it's composite material, so just regular high fill primer will work fine.

After that dried I'd go over it with the DA with 400 grit to knock down the high spots. Then I'd get a can of spraypaint that is kinda the opposite of the primer (eg. black paint on white primer) and spray a guide coat. A guide coat is kind of a splattering of paint on the primer. Then block out the whole hood with 400 grit. The purpose of the guide coat is to... well... give you a guide. You should continue to sand until there is no more guide coat left. If there is guide coat on the hood, then that's a low spot that you need to feather out.

After the guide coat is all sanded down you have a couple of options. You could take it to your body shop and have them spray it. Doing 90% of the prep work will save you a little money. They'll still do a little bit of prep work, but not nearly as much as they would have if you didn't do it first. This might save you $50-$100 depending on shop rates and how good of a job you do. If you're going to have this hood for while, then I think this might be the way to go. If you're not going to have it on for too long, I'd spray the hood myself. We have a paint gun at home so of course I'd use that along with some automotive paint. Single stage if you're on a budget, base/clear if you can afford it. If you don't have a paint gun and you want to still paint it yourself, I'd get a rattle can of flat black. A lot of people dog on rattle can painting but if you have decent experience spraypainting (hopefully not because you spraypainted the side of your school for a prank) you can make it look good.

Now I said to use FLAT black for a reason. If you use a glossy color, every little imperfection, wave, dimple, tiger stripe (if you spraypaint you know what I'm talking about) etc. is going to show, and show badly. It's hard to spray a glossy color on something that big and flat and have it look decent. Also with flat black, after you're done spraying it there is no other work to be done. With glossy paint I'd probably wetsand with 1000 and 2000 grit paper progressively and then hit it with rubbing compound and finally polishing compound. With flat you just spray and you're done. Try to get a can that has the tip that shoots paint in a line rather than a cone, that'll help a lot if you go this route.

Honestly I don't think a flat black hood on your car would look GOOD. And depending on where the chips are you might be able to get away with just painting part of it. If you're lucky you could just paint the middle or do some stripes that cover the chips. I don't know where yours are and how bad they are, so I don't know if you can get away with this

[zinc-vert02]

good job dcook, two thumbs up