Stone chips

[thepony]

I have a few stone chips though not too many on the car (M3 CS).

I was just wondering what is the best way to get rid of these if I want the car to be in CONCOURS condition:

Touch up stick with Cure rust applied before touch up
SMART repair
Any other suggestions ?

BMW Dealer (BMW Park Lane) was saying today with a touch up stick would be noticeable well the Service Advisor said that over the telephone. He was recommending SMART repair .... But said to come in and have a chat about it when I get my MOT soon done.

I took my car for a PPI to Munich Legends a well-known BMW specialist and they were saying to use a touch up stick along with cure rust (SMART repair never occurred to me and they did not mention it).

I want to keep the car as ORIGINAL and get it to CONCOURS condition but clearly want to remove them and achieve excellent finish.

Any advice would be very highly appreciated :-).

Thanks very much :-)

[sutts]

If you want it genuinely concours i.e. as good as new, or better, and would be happy to have the quality of the paintwork judged by a man with a clipboard and a scoresheet who will knock a mark off for the slightest imperfection or spec of dirt then I would suggest your only option is a top quality respray of the whole front end and have it nicely blended into the wings/doors. If there are stone chips elsewhere as well you will need to do the whole car, windows out.

If on the other hand you want to just sort out the stone chips, then a smart repair will be the considerably cheaper option. It will never be 'concours' though.

Edited by sutts on Friday 14th September 19:31

[greygoose]

A respray of the front end by a good paintshop would be the only way to get a perfect finish imo.

[Mermaid]

This thread may help
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

[Al K]

As others have said - proper body shop respray is the only way you'll get "concours" results (I just had my bonnet done).

SMART repairs can be a lottery as they're usually franchise operations and the difference between good guys and bad is huge - so get a trusted recommendation first.

Touch up pens can get good results but only after quite a bit of practise IMHO

Alternatively you can try systems like Dr. Colorchip (sorry can't remember the name of the UK version) or Lanka which are more idiot-proof and get passable results although they don't tend to last as there is no lacquer.

HTH

[ady702]

Respray is the only way with a decent bodyshop. Smart repairs are mainly for quick easy fixes without a fully respray job. If you want a decent BMW resprayer I know someone who can do it as hes cars are usually on the front cover of PBMW/Total BMW mags

[thepony]

Thanks everyone for their replies so far :-). Keep them coming in :-).

Btw does having a respray not devalue the car as some of the originality will be lost .... And would it make it harder to sell ? As others would wonder why it is resprayed.

Does respraying lose points on concours ?

Do the SMART repairs offered by BMW Dealers are they outsourced in general ? Is there big inconsistency by BMW Dealers in the quality of their SMART work ?

Btw can a good detailer rectify the stone chips ?

I do not think I have that many. Was thinking of using 'All That Gleams' as I have seen the work done on a thread on another M3 CS.

See
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

Thank you :-)

[greygoose]

Detailers can't really get rid of stone chips unless they do respray work too, I think KDS Keltec do painting as well as detailing from what they said when I had my car detailed there.

Not sure if respraying would lose points on concours or not, if it was done well would they even know it had been done? People replace windscreens etc if they are chipped so is there any difference?

[darreni]

I've just had the front of my CSL done, bumpers F & R, bonnet, both wings & mirrors £1300 at my local BMW approved bodyshop.

It's the only way you'll get it 100%.

[thepony]

greygoose said:

Detailers can't really get rid of stone chips unless they do respray work too, I think KDS Keltec do painting as well as detailing from what they said when I had my car detailed there.

Not sure if respraying would lose points on concours or not, if it was done well would they even know it had been done? People replace windscreens etc if they are chipped so is there any difference?

I have to do a little more research but a detailer on a M3 Forum pointed me towards this thread .... Which may strike a good balance between preserving the original paint (whilst also reducing costs) .... After all stone chips are very small

What do you think :-) ?

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...