Fixing ski chips on car paint?

[Mendieta]

Ok. So, early season I was using a cargo box and I dropped some skis on the car door in the middle of a storm.

I was a little lazy, it is starting to rust, and it seems like a body shop will charge a lot to repair it.

This is a 2010 that I will keep forever. I just want to fix it, not to look perfect. How hard would it be to remove the rust and cover it with touch up paint? 2010 rav4 Toyota.

Many thanks for any pointers!

 

[John O]

I just want to fix it, not to look perfect. How hard would it be to remove the rust and cover it with touch up paint?

If that's all you really want, it's incredibly easy to do. But it will be noticeable that you used touchup paint. The only DIY touchup results that I've seen that really looked good involved an airbrush, a lot of wet sanding, and a lot of time.

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

My hubby touches up our land cruiser all the time. He says you can get the paint from Toyota. Just take it in to the dealership and they will tell you what color. It will match perfectly except for whatever fading you have currently. You can get either a little spray can or a bottle type that looks kind of like nail polish. He says just sand the rust off and touch it up. It won't look perfect but it will look good enough and stop it from rusting. He likes the "fingernail polish" applicator. Ours is not noticeable unless you are looking for it.

 

[cantunamunch]

120 and 220 grit to get the rust off to bare metal and feather the edge. 400 and 600 grit to color-sand the first few coats and blend them into the existing finish. When you get to where you can almost be happy with it, and the built up paint is about level with the existing paint, hit it with 800 and (optional) 1200 grit. After 1200 grit you're in liquid polish territory.

Almost all problems that can happen can generally be traced to either not starting with a cleaned (degreased, dewaxed) or badly sanded surface, or to trying to rush things and glopping the paint in.

 

[oldschoolskier]

/\ This.

 

[Snowfan]

https://www.drcolorchip.com/

 

[PinnacleJim]

I have used stuff form these guys. Good products.
http://www.automotivetouchup.com/

 

[Mendieta]

I have used stuff form these guys. Good products.
http://www.automotivetouchup.com/

Thank you. Which of their kits have you used?

 

[Mendieta]

120 and 220 grit to get the rust off to bare metal and feather the edge. 400 and 600 grit to color-sand the first few coats and blend them into the existing finish. When you get to where you can almost be happy with it, and the built up paint is about level with the existing paint, hit it with 800 and (optional) 1200 grit. After 1200 grit you're in liquid polish territory.

Almost all problems that can happen can generally be traced to either not starting with a cleaned (degreased, dewaxed) or badly sanded surface, or to trying to rush things and glopping the paint in.

Thank you. I never do stuff like this, so excuse the stupid question. But, you do need to apply a clear coat on top of the color, right?

Incidentally, I would happily pay 100's to have it done. But my wife was at the body shop for something else (with another car) and they ball-parked it in the thousands. No way.

 

[Snowfan]

Yes, clear after final color coat. That looks like a 2 hour job. A little quick dry bondo, adhesion promoter primer, color and clear. Apply coats 5 minutes apart. First light dusting, then heavy final coat. Keep the work area confined to 1/2" beyond repair area. It is hard to tell from the pictures what is scuffed and what is down through the clear and/or color. The scuffs will buff out, the low areas need to be filled and feathered in like cantunamunch wrote. . I did this repair to my bumper... https://www.benzworld.org/forums/w210-e-class/2987763-need-help-getting-rear-bumper-off.html Starts a little slow but lots of pics

 

[Snowfan]

I saw this mentioned somewhere recently...YouTube is your friend on this sort of repair. Lots and lots of videos. The Russians are best at fixing cars quick and cheap. Masking tape makes lines....skip it. Clear over your work and a few inches into surrounding original clearcoat.

 

[Muleski]

I have used stuff form these guys. Good products.
http://www.automotivetouchup.com/

I have as well on all of our vehicles. Very pleased with the products and the color matches, on a number of touch ups.

These types of projects take time, but they are not rocket surgery. Lots of information and product on this ^^^^^ site.

 

[Scruffy]

120 and 220 grit to get the rust off to bare metal and feather the edge. 400 and 600 grit to color-sand the first few coats and blend them into the existing finish. When you get to where you can almost be happy with it, and the built up paint is about level with the existing paint, hit it with 800 and (optional) 1200 grit. After 1200 grit you're in liquid polish territory.

Almost all problems that can happen can generally be traced to either not starting with a cleaned (degreased, dewaxed) or badly sanded surface, or to trying to rush things and glopping the paint in.

Yup, but that's prolly way more than he wants to do. Alternatively:simply use non-wax base rubbing compound to remove that white stuff, clean it with dregreaser / wax remover, 120 and 220 grit to get the rust off to bare metal only on the rusted spot, keeping the repair area as small as you can and touch up with touch up paint from tube with brush and call it a day. Won't look pro but will keep it from rusting further and be a remembrance badge of the ski outing. Rav 4s are meant to be beat up if you use em for sport and not mall shopping.

I put myself through college painting cars, doing body repairs, and restoring classic sports cars--back in the 70s. Use to blend spot repairs all the time, brown metallic was the worse to match. Had a system that would fake the eye out so you could basically blend a color on a repair that was a shade off and still "sell it". Me and my uncle ( gee that sounds like a song ) had a small shop. We started out restoring corvettes, triumphs, MGs and porches but needed other work to fill in the void between those big money jobs. A chevy dealer down the road asked us to do work on "New Cars". What type of work would be needed on a new car we asked. "Oh, dings and stuff like that from transit." Okay, sure we'll do it. Well, this was the mid 70's. Most of the "New Car" work was to fix rust. That's right--Rust on a brand new car just off the delivery truck. This was the day of the Vega and Chevette mind you; chevy had fallen very far from their 50's and 60's hay day by then. Designed obsolescence was in full swing by then. I remember one year old cars with rusted through quarter panels.

 

[scott43]

Pet peeve..why do people think it's a good plan to lean skis up against your car???

 

[oldschoolskier]

I looked at your photo again. You’ll find that’s it’s not hard to do, though color matched paint is harder to get even from the dealer (environmentally safer paints). There are several rust neutralizing paint (or applications) out the use carefully with a cue-tip (ear swab). Fill in carefully with touch up paint, sand/polish/buff flat and smooth. Patience and stick to the finer grits to start (360, 400) sanding in smallest area.

Results can be near perfect, if you luck into a good color match.

 

[PinnacleJim]

Thank you. Which of their kits have you used?

I have used their spray paint, spray clearcoat and the touchup paint.

 

[cantunamunch]

Pet peeve..why do people think it's a good plan to lean skis up against your car???

@nay actually did something I've been kicking around the backbrain - make it OK by rubber coating or wrapping. I was thinking about a zoned system (front fenders/wings seem extremely likely, side doors maybe - as we see above- then on to a strip at the trunk) but he just did the whole vehicle.

 

[nay]

@nay actually did something I've been kicking around the backbrain - make it OK by rubber coating or wrapping. I was thinking about a zoned system (front fenders/wings seem extremely likely, side doors maybe - as we see above- then on to a strip at the trunk) but he just did the whole vehicle.

Best thing I ever did. Just a flesh wound.

Skis drying off from closing day while repair work not from closing day begins.

You can roll it on yourself and the entire project is about $500. Swipe on some new if you manage to damage it. This is 10 year old Durabak. It was prettier then, but my pretty standard is “from 20 feet”. For trucks.

It’s great in the garage, too. You can just toss those pesky Amazon boxes on the hood until you have time to get out and break them down for recycling.

Monstaliner has texture without the rubber and some pretty cool colors, although somebody has to explain why “sans panties” looks uncomfortably like baby poop.

HMU if you want some prep tips. A quart of this stuff would make a great clear bra. That’s what I’m going to do on the Sequoia to deal with all the stone chips.

Also serves well as a dog nail filer.

 

[nay]

Pet peeve..why do people think it's a good plan to lean skis up against your car???

They look pretty just standing there?

 

[nay]

Thank you. Which of their kits have you used?

I let the kids do all the stone chips on the Sequoia with their friends. They did a horrible job. Nobody notices, because you don’t stand around staring at your paint.

I’d use a dremmel with a little wire brush wheel attachment to scale off the rust, then prep, paint, and coat. Super simple job.

I used them for my minivan before I sold it to cover all the door dings my kids caused getting out of the Cruiser in the garage. Perfect color match for a charcoal color and the Toyota black was perfect, too.