Small chips w/ rust
 

Hey all,
I am new to this forum. Anyway, I noticed the other day that there are 4 small (pebble sized) chips in the paint above my windshield on my 02 disco. I am not sure how long they have been there but they appear to be rusted. Does anyone have any quick fix recommendations. I am not a paint expert but I would hate to have to pay for a paint job to clean this up. Thanks.

-Mark

RE: Small chips w/ rust
 

You don't need to be a paint expert... use some wet and dry emery paper to remove the rust back to nice shiny metal (including under the edges of the pain around the chip) and to smooth the existing paint a little around the chip. Mask off everything within a couple of feet (yes feet and no I ain't kidding) with newpaper and masking tape then spray prime the chip the bare metal. Let it dry for an hour or two then very gently using very fine wet and dry flat the primer back without going back to metal. Then spray on two coats of colour coat, flatting it back with the very fine wet and dry in between coats. Clear coat over the top coat will make it look nicer... use T-cut to flat the clear coat and polish it. Job done.

RE: Small chips w/ rust
 

You might also get in touch with Atlantic British, they are selling paint pens that make touch up work a breeze.
I would also consider using something like Naval Jelly to remove your rust as opposed to sanding since you are just touching up such small areas.
Good luck.

RE: Small chips w/ rust
 

My personal recomendation would be to very carefully sand the rusty areas without enlarging the chip any more than necessary. In fact, if it's just light surface rust, I'd just leave it or maybe clean lightly with steel wool. Then,I would spray some primer on a rag or onto a small modeling brush and brush it onto the clean metal. Do that a couple times, then build up with some touch-up paint, like you might find in Walmart. For touching up chips, the match doesn't need to be exact. For the primer, I would suggest Dupli-color Self-etching primer. This is truely a primer that is way above other primers. Body shops have been using self-etching primer for years. Only recently has it been available in spray cans. I can tell you it really keeps metal from rusting back. Don't spray it on or you'll have overspray all over the place. Just daub it on with a brush not going past the chip. Do the same with the touch-up paint. If you're careful, you can get a good looking repair. Now, if you look closely, you'll be able to tell there was a chip repaired, but it'll be a lot less obvious in the long run than unsightly overspray and faded spray-can paint.

ADZ has the right idea if you were going to do pro-quality paint repair and have access to spray equipment and all the automotive paint, hardeners and reducers and know how to properly blend paint (which is hard to do correctly). Just the right materials in the smallest quantities would cost you in the range of $100.Automotive paint, clears, hardeners, etc are stunningly expensive. I've personally paid over $130 for a quart of red urethane basecoat. Then, a gal of clearcoat is about $175 and then you need separate thinners and activators for each paint and clearcoat. I just bought paint for a car I'm restoring and just the liquid paint materials ran about $700! That's one of the reasons it's so expensive to take your vehicle to the bodyshop.

Doing your repair with spray can paint will give you lousy results that, in myopinion, would beworse than leaving the chips. That's why I suggest just touching up the chips with a brush. If you go to sand down andrepair the entire area, you're going to make the area to be repaired much larger, which is ok, and how you'd approach it if the whole top area was chipped up really bad and you were going to fix it the right way. Also, with spray can paint, you're going to have unsightly overspray thatyou can't really blend inso it's unobvious...and on top of all that, the spray can paint is really awful and doesn't hold up in terms of shine or chip resistance. Trust me, spray can paint is really cheap stuff,ok for a flower stand maybe, but not for quality automotive refinishing. Automotive paint is much more engineered. It is typically urethane based, builds much thicker and has UV inhibitors in it and that's why it can maintain a shine for 10+ years, whereas the spray can paint will start to fain whithin 2 weeks! Auto paint alsouses special hardeners too - that's what gives it it's chip-resistant toughness. The spray can paint will chip very easily and you'll have more chips and rust to deal with.Trust me, I have done many automotive paint jobs, crash repair and currently have a couple restorations going on right now. I've seen all sorts of cheapie back-yard repairs that look ok at best for the first couple days (to an untrained eye) and then go downhill fast and look like crap.I'd hate to see you butcher yourdisco.

If you have access to a decent air compressor, have a spray gun (even a cheap $15 Harbor Freight spray gun will work), and don't mind investing about$75-$100 in materials ...and want to learn how to do paint and bodywork, I say go for it. It's a really rewarding past-time ...kind of like woodworking. Here is a goodwebsite www.repairnation.com that has all sorts of pro paint tips and how-to's.

RE: Small chips w/ rust
 

Thanks for the feedback guys. Because these chips are so minor, I think I will try to remove the rust with the recommended Naval Jelly or steel wool. I have seen those touch up pens at Atlantic British and will look into getting one of these.

RE: Small chips w/ rust
 

Personally, I'd take off a small exterior part (if you can easily) and just go to walmart, or a local parts store and get a touch-up bottle for $2.99 that's close in color. If anything, go a little darker. You won't notice the difference ,and anyway, exterior paint fades after time, those mixed colors aren't always that exact. They also make a fiberglass pen that is a perfect sanding tool you can use on chips. The problem with steel wool is you'll end up scratching the paint immediately around the chip. Once fixed, it'll look "scuffed" and unshiny except for the chip. Most guys don't worry about a small amount of surface rust and just use the touch-up over it. Unless it's super rusty you won't have a problem. Good luck

RE: Small chips w/ rust
 

I would like to not worry about these but I am anal and I guess I fear that the rust may spread. Should I not worry about any spread? If there is no possibility of the rust spreading I may just paint over it so that my eyes arent constantly drawn to these small chips.

RE: Small chips w/ rust
 

That's a valid concern. If the rust is minor or majorsurface rust, it IS better to remove as much of the rust as possible, especially if you live in the northern states (like I do) where salt is applied to the road to melt snow. But even so, once you cover with paint, oxygen won't be able to get to the metal and the rust won't really spread. Manufacturers use a lot better anti-corrosion surface preperation than in the past. For instance, if you apply the self-etching primer (like I mentioned above) to bare metal and scratch an area and leave outside or in a bucket of water, you'll note that the bare area will rust, but not the adjacent areas.

So, yeah, it's better to try to eliminate the rust, but ya need to use something that will get into the chip area, and not scuff/sand the surrounding areas. Maybe a piece of steel wool on a pencil eraser or sandpaper on the tip of a screwdriver ...something like that will work better. Even if you did it over the rust, any spreading will be very slow and by that time you'll have plenty of other things to worry about (if you even still own it). The main thing is to do like you are thinking and cover it up.

Here's another tip: I didn't want to mention this before because it seems so wierd to non-autobodyfolks ...but what works better for applying the touch-up paint than a touch-up brush is the back end of a match (the part that was attached to the book[of matches]). A lot of detail shops do it this way. Give it a try. Way better than using a small brush on small chips or scratches.

RE: Small chips w/ rust
 

Thanks again. I really appreciate the input. I was thinking of attaching steel wool to a pen tip for precision. I like the match idea for a paint brush.