Gelcoat repairs
Discussion
All a 'chipsaway' type company will do is fill the chips with paint. That's not a problem and perfectly normal but you could do it yourself.
Clean the surface with thinners to get rid of all the polish etc. I doubt a repair company would do this but I would go round all the larger chips and dig any polish/muck out with a scalpel blade.
They would then apply the paint with an air brush but a fine artists brush will do just as well. Leave it to just flash off the thinners then wipe away the paint with a thinners soaked cloth. Paint will be left in the chip hole but probably not enough yet. Leave that area to harden a bit more and work somewhere else. Come back and repeat the process as many time as it takes to fill the chips.
I had a car of mine done and it didn't seem to matter that the paint colour was not a perfect match as the amount of paint left in the chip was tiny and did not show against the base colour.
Time consuming but not difficult.
(I've got my flameproof coat on for when all the 'Chips_with_everything' franchise holders tell me how wrong I am and it is an art learned only after a 4 year apprenticeship)
Steve
Clean the surface with thinners to get rid of all the polish etc. I doubt a repair company would do this but I would go round all the larger chips and dig any polish/muck out with a scalpel blade.
They would then apply the paint with an air brush but a fine artists brush will do just as well. Leave it to just flash off the thinners then wipe away the paint with a thinners soaked cloth. Paint will be left in the chip hole but probably not enough yet. Leave that area to harden a bit more and work somewhere else. Come back and repeat the process as many time as it takes to fill the chips.
I had a car of mine done and it didn't seem to matter that the paint colour was not a perfect match as the amount of paint left in the chip was tiny and did not show against the base colour.
Time consuming but not difficult.
(I've got my flameproof coat on for when all the 'Chips_with_everything' franchise holders tell me how wrong I am and it is an art learned only after a 4 year apprenticeship)
Steve
I'm only reporting what the guy did to my car. No wet-n-dry, no cutting compounds just filled the holes as described then applied some polish. As I said the paint colour match was way off but it worked fine.
How much damage can you do if your not taking abrasives to it? Even if you put the paint on then had to leave it unfinished you would still be able use cutting compound to take it back to gel.
Steve
How much damage can you do if your not taking abrasives to it? Even if you put the paint on then had to leave it unfinished you would still be able use cutting compound to take it back to gel.
Steve
When I bought my Impreza I got a chipsaway franchisee (in the Bracknell area) to fill a dozen or more fairly large stone chips on the bonnet.
I don't know exactly what they did, as I left them to it in the company car park. I do know however that it only cost me £45, they were working on it for two hours and when they had finished I honestly couldn't see where the chips had been. The paint is metalic silver so I was very impressed when I couldn't see the repairs at all.
Some of the chips had some mild rust in and I am pleased to say that two years later the rust hasn't reappeared.
I don't know exactly what they did, as I left them to it in the company car park. I do know however that it only cost me £45, they were working on it for two hours and when they had finished I honestly couldn't see where the chips had been. The paint is metalic silver so I was very impressed when I couldn't see the repairs at all.
Some of the chips had some mild rust in and I am pleased to say that two years later the rust hasn't reappeared.
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