Lacquer chips

[pantscat]

Hello all,

I've got a few lacquer chips on my Mk3 Golf GTi and I was wondering whether, as a cack-handed amateur, I should attempt to try and fix them myself?

There's one on the bonnet, and one on either side of the car - looks like the previous owner was a little relaxed when it came to removing tree sap/bird poo - each one no bigger than a 5p coin.

Will I make a mess of it? - Any good hints or tips? Am I better off getting it done by someone like ChipsAway? (Cost?...)

Cheers,

Ant

[Anatol]

There's a minimal amount that can be done that will result in any guaranteeed cosmetic improvement. That's amateur or professional localised repair.

Full respray of the affected panels will sort the issue, of course, but probably sledgehammer/nut.

If there's a risk of the lacquer delaminating from the paint skin, gentle touching-in with clearcoat, by brush/toothpick/airbrush should bind the edges down and prevent the next jetwash or frosty morning flicking the lacquer edge back. Do a search on this forum for 'stone chip' - there are some good FAQ's on the neatest way to do this - it'll make little difference that you're just using touch-in lacquer rather than paint. This will not necessarily make the chip LOOK any better, although it prevents it growing.

Cost for a ChipsAway-type operator to do the work will vary on your location and the extent of the chipping - we'd charge about £45 per hour (incl pro rata) for that sort of work given that materials costs will be negligible. Minimum time it'd take would be about a half hour, but even with a couple of dozen chips it wouldn't take more than one hour in total. If the car has been peppered, you might run to a couple of hours, but that sort of chipping tends to be right through the paint layer rather than just 'lacquer chips'

HTH

Tol

[pantscat]

Cheers for the info Anatol! I've had a search and I can see that you're a wealth of very useful information.

At the end of the day, and being a bit of a tart - it was a cosmetic fix that I was after - would a chipsaway chap be able to make it look better? or would the lacquer coat still look 'odd'?

Thanks,

A

[Anatol]

Some ChipsAway operations have a system on board called 'chip-n-clear' which involves an airbrushed 2-pack lacquer - the chip is filled in to just shallow of the surface with the lacquer, a clever chemical removes any overspray off the original surface, and it's then baked and polished... it's not 100% but it's probably the best non-full-respray option I'm aware of...

The base colour makes quite a difference though - what colour is the paintwork you've got ths chips on?

Tol

[pantscat]

That sounds like a good option...

It's a colour called "Dragon Green" - mid colour green metallic.

[Anatol]

Would have been better if it was a flat colour - you could have just filled the chip with paint and wet-sanded/polished it back... airbrush touch-ins are probably your best option then - talk through how much of an improvement is likely with your local service providers...

HTH

Tol

[pantscat]

Cheers Tol - many thanks for the advice!