[saalim]

After 8 months/22K miles [90% highway], my front bumper is riddled with with paint chips. There are a couple on the hood also. What options do I have to get rid of them? Someone told me that I might have to re-paint the entire car!!!!! Is that true? Please advise.

[Bimmerista]

Not the entire car, but for a perfect job, repaint the hood and bumper. If you can live with imperfection, use touch-up paint (which is what I do) to touch up the spots. You will still be able to see the touch ups no matter how carefull/good you are, but IMHO it is better than leaving the chips and cheaper than a full hood and bumper paint job.

BTW, I have the jet black - are the stories of soft paint urban legends ? It seems to me that I did not have as many paint chips on my A4

[saalim]

Originally Posted by Bimmerista

Not the entire car, but for a perfect job, repaint the hood and bumper. If you can live with imperfection, use touch-up paint (which is what I do) to touch up the spots. You will still be able to see the touch ups no matter how carefull/good you are, but IMHO it is better than leaving the chips and cheaper than a full hood and bumper paint job.

BTW, I have the jet black - are the stories of soft paint urban legends ? It seems to me that I did not have as many paint chips on my A4

If I get just the hood and bumper re-painted, would it look stand out with the rest of the car since its black sapphire metallic and not jet black?

Also, whats the deal with soft paints? First time I am hearing about this.

[Cloud9]

I'm not sure how severe your chips are but I used this on my 540: http://www.autosharppen.com/

It works great for small chips and it's really idiot proof...really easy!

[Bimmerista]

Originally Posted by saalim

If I get just the hood and bumper re-painted, would it look stand out with the rest of the car since its black sapphire metallic and not jet black?

Also, whats the deal with soft paints? First time I am hearing about this.

I don't think it would - the dealer/shop would have to get the paint code and use the same paint as the OEM (which is what the dealers do). It would be no different that an accident repair which does not involve repainting the whole car.

I know that that's how the dealer body shops work - they order the paint using a bar code.
I read in another thread that with the water-based paint, the paint is "softer" but I am not sure what to make of it, since the A4s paint was also water based.

[dejav0o]

I've heard some people say that if you get certain portions of the car repainted, those portions won't age as well with the car. Meaning a few years down the line, those portions will look a little off from the rest of the car since the paint they used isn't as nice as the factory paint... Is there any truth to this?

I was debating between repainting the bumper and hood for the same reasons of saalim, or just investing into a clear bra, but this "aging" thing is kinda making me worried since I do plan to keep this car for at least longer than 5 years..

[rics]

Hi,

In several automobile and detailing forums, there seems to be a lot of praise to the autosharppen and to langka.

They can be found here:
http://www.autovisuals.com
http://www.langka.com


I order them both for fixing a couple of chips. My idea is to use the autosharppen as a supply of touch up paint, according to the method suggested by langka in their website. That is, clean the area using Langka Prepaint, Fill the chip/scratch with touch up paint (with the Austosharp pen corresponding to my color code) and removing the blob of paint with the Langka Blob Eliminator. After I will top it with the Autovisual's Clear Coat Pen.


As I said, I ordered the supplies, but I am still waiting for them. As soon as they arrive and I have some spare time, I'll try them and post the results.

[saalim]

Originally Posted by dejav0o

I've heard some people say that if you get certain portions of the car repainted, those portions won't age as well with the car. Meaning a few years down the line, those portions will look a little off from the rest of the car since the paint they used isn't as nice as the factory paint... Is there any truth to this?

I was debating between repainting the bumper and hood for the same reasons of saalim, or just investing into a clear bra, but this "aging" thing is kinda making me worried since I do plan to keep this car for at least longer than 5 years..

Once I get the bumper and hood repaired - either by repainting the whole thing or by using the langka/autosharppen method - I am DEFINITELY going to invest in a clear bra.

Has anyone used the clear bra here? Some feedback will be great.

rics, please let us know how the process goes. If you can document the whole process with some pics, that will awesome. Thanks.

[330South]

I have the clear bra, so far-so good. Although it is very annoying because I have a paint chip in the middle of the hood where it is not protected by the bra. Sigh - I am thinking about ordering the autosharp pen to take care of it.

[1N54E92]

I just got two scratches on my hood this morning. Clear bra protected some but there was too many rocks and not enough clear bra. Damn!

[Ruff Rider]

I have used touch up paint and then wet sanded the spot and buffed out any scratched. You can't tell where the chip was. It is work but worth it to me.

I have a clear bra on my car. It has been on for 2 1/2 years. Looks as good today as when it was installed. A clear bra does need to be taken care of just like the rest of the car. I use Plexus to clean and recondition the clear bra. I have the whole front end and 24 inches of the hood done.

[LOW2000]

Originally Posted by Bimmerista

I don't think it would - the dealer/shop would have to get the paint code and use the same paint as the OEM (which is what the dealers do). It would be no different that an accident repair which does not involve repainting the whole car.

I know that that's how the dealer body shops work - they order the paint using a bar code.
I read in another thread that with the water-based paint, the paint is "softer" but I am not sure what to make of it, since the A4s paint was also water based.

The VAST majority of dealerships do not own a body shop. Even if they have one on site, it is just an independent shop that happens to share the location.

Body shops do not use the same paint as the Mfr. If they do happen to use the same supplier, it is just happenstance as body shops and Mfr.'s do change paint suppliers from time to time.

Body shops do not order paint according to a barcode. Whichever paint system they use (Sikkens/Akzo Nobel, DuPont, Sherman Williams, Etc.) has a computer database that they type the year, make, model and possibly the paint code if they can find it into the system, which gives them the base color with several different variations/shades of that color. They mix up small batches of each shade that they think will be the closest match, spray them onto a small card, then once its dry, they hold it up to the car to see which matches. Some shops do have camera systems that photo the paint in a few locations, then "decode" the make up of the paint to tell the painter what to mix, but they still have to spray a test panel to see if the paint is going to match.

They don't just order a can of "Arctic White" from BMW and spray it on the car. They use for instance 60 oz of 3m navajo white, 2 oz midnight black, 2oz flame yellow and 1oz super blue to match the particular shade of "Arctic white on your hood.

Also, on the vast majority of cars, the bumper color does not match the rest of the car due to the bumpers being painted separately from the vehicle. Off the top of my head, Nissan is one of the few manufacturers who is now painting the bumpers at the same time as the rest of the car in order to have a better match.

Sorry for the slight

[1N54E92]

Originally Posted by Ruff Rider

I have used touch up paint and then wet sanded the spot and buffed out any scratched. You can't tell where the chip was. It is work but worth it to me.

I have a clear bra on my car. It has been on for 2 1/2 years. Looks as good today as when it was installed. A clear bra does need to be taken care of just like the rest of the car. I use Plexus to clean and recondition the clear bra. I have the whole front end and 24 inches of the hood done.

Hey, I use the same stuff.Plexus is great for clear bra !