First off, I'd like to give credit to the forum here, for turning me on to the Dr. Colorchip idea. I saw several members here say great things about it, so I thought I'd give it a try.
My Vista Blue 09 was very well cared for by the two previous owners, but it was still a 70k mile car with it's fair share of rock chips. And being dark blue, the underlying white primer is very noticeable when you get a rock chip. Ironically, I didn't really have much front bumper damaged, but I had quite a few rock chips on the front of the hood and both front fenders. They were quite noticeable and drove me crazy as my eye would go right to them every time I walked up to the front of my car.
I'm sure we've all tried to touch up paint chips at one time or another, using factory touch up paint. So we all know the results.... usually either a blob of paint, or a filled in chip with a raised edge of paint around it. Many times the touch up is more unsightly than the chip :frown:.
So how does the Dr. Colorchip system work? Pretty simple really. You order your specific color code from them, in a kit of your choice (The kits range from about $35 to $65, depending on how much paint you get and kit options). You take one of the supplied small brushes, and you DAB a drop of paint NEXT TO the chip. You then take your gloved finger, and swipe the paint across the chip. In the deluxe kit, you get a silicone squeegee that can be used to swipe instead. You wait 3-5 minutes for the paint to dry. Then, you take some of the SealAct solution on the supplied paper cloth, and you gently wipe back and forth over the area keeping the cloth very flat. What the SealAct does, is it activates the paint to soften, and then permanently seal/dry to the car. Moving the cloth over the area removes the excess paint from the smear, and just leaves the paint in the filled in chip, with no blob. The remaining paint in the chip will harden back up quickly after. Then you just buff the area off with the supplied microfiber cloth.
Things to note from doing it on my car....
This is not a replacement for having your car repainted. You will still see the chips to some extent. If you have big chips, you might need to repeat the process again to fill the chip in completely. I suggest starting with a chip in a less obvious area, because it takes a couple of chips to really get the hang of it. I tried the thumb smear method, and I felt that the squeegee worked better for smearing. Do not put pressure on the squeegee (or your thumb). You just want to lightly draw the paint across the chip. Do not put the paint dab directly ON the chip, because then you will draw the paint out of it when you smear across it. Try not to use more paint than you need for each chip... it dries pretty hard and if you have excess to remove, you risk the chance of removing paint from the chip while using the SealAct. Do not try to force the excess paint off. It takes a little time for the SealAct to work, just keep moving the cloth back and forth over the chip lightly until the excess paint is gone.
Also to mention - you MUST use their paint. You can't use regular touch up paint with this system. Their paint is designed to activate with the SealAct solution. Reading online, they seem to be very good at factory color matching. My kit even came with a note and an extra brush saying that my factory color has metal flake in it, and to use the supplied extra brush to mix the paint really well because the flake will settle in the bottle. You can also order JUST the paint, if you've already bought a kit, and want to do other cars. You get plenty of SealAct in one kit, so you can just buy the paint vials for other cars and use your original kit.
My impressions - while it's not a replacement for a paint job, let's face facts - nobody repaints their car just because of some road chips, especially when it's just going to get chipped up again. I've touched up chips on dozens of cars in the past, and I do agree this kit gives much better results. Standing a few feet from my car, I can't even see the chips anymore, and that was the whole point of doing it :grin:
Here's what you get in the $65 deluxe kit:
And here's some before and after pics (click to enlarge):
My Vista Blue 09 was very well cared for by the two previous owners, but it was still a 70k mile car with it's fair share of rock chips. And being dark blue, the underlying white primer is very noticeable when you get a rock chip. Ironically, I didn't really have much front bumper damaged, but I had quite a few rock chips on the front of the hood and both front fenders. They were quite noticeable and drove me crazy as my eye would go right to them every time I walked up to the front of my car.
I'm sure we've all tried to touch up paint chips at one time or another, using factory touch up paint. So we all know the results.... usually either a blob of paint, or a filled in chip with a raised edge of paint around it. Many times the touch up is more unsightly than the chip :frown:.
So how does the Dr. Colorchip system work? Pretty simple really. You order your specific color code from them, in a kit of your choice (The kits range from about $35 to $65, depending on how much paint you get and kit options). You take one of the supplied small brushes, and you DAB a drop of paint NEXT TO the chip. You then take your gloved finger, and swipe the paint across the chip. In the deluxe kit, you get a silicone squeegee that can be used to swipe instead. You wait 3-5 minutes for the paint to dry. Then, you take some of the SealAct solution on the supplied paper cloth, and you gently wipe back and forth over the area keeping the cloth very flat. What the SealAct does, is it activates the paint to soften, and then permanently seal/dry to the car. Moving the cloth over the area removes the excess paint from the smear, and just leaves the paint in the filled in chip, with no blob. The remaining paint in the chip will harden back up quickly after. Then you just buff the area off with the supplied microfiber cloth.
Things to note from doing it on my car....
This is not a replacement for having your car repainted. You will still see the chips to some extent. If you have big chips, you might need to repeat the process again to fill the chip in completely. I suggest starting with a chip in a less obvious area, because it takes a couple of chips to really get the hang of it. I tried the thumb smear method, and I felt that the squeegee worked better for smearing. Do not put pressure on the squeegee (or your thumb). You just want to lightly draw the paint across the chip. Do not put the paint dab directly ON the chip, because then you will draw the paint out of it when you smear across it. Try not to use more paint than you need for each chip... it dries pretty hard and if you have excess to remove, you risk the chance of removing paint from the chip while using the SealAct. Do not try to force the excess paint off. It takes a little time for the SealAct to work, just keep moving the cloth back and forth over the chip lightly until the excess paint is gone.
Also to mention - you MUST use their paint. You can't use regular touch up paint with this system. Their paint is designed to activate with the SealAct solution. Reading online, they seem to be very good at factory color matching. My kit even came with a note and an extra brush saying that my factory color has metal flake in it, and to use the supplied extra brush to mix the paint really well because the flake will settle in the bottle. You can also order JUST the paint, if you've already bought a kit, and want to do other cars. You get plenty of SealAct in one kit, so you can just buy the paint vials for other cars and use your original kit.
My impressions - while it's not a replacement for a paint job, let's face facts - nobody repaints their car just because of some road chips, especially when it's just going to get chipped up again. I've touched up chips on dozens of cars in the past, and I do agree this kit gives much better results. Standing a few feet from my car, I can't even see the chips anymore, and that was the whole point of doing it :grin:
Here's what you get in the $65 deluxe kit:
And here's some before and after pics (click to enlarge):
