stone chips

[sonicbimmer19]

So it rained like crazy and my car basically got a car wash... lol and I noticed my front bumper is seriously messed up with visible stone chips which isn't all too visible unless my car is like really clean.

I've read people complain BMW paints are thin and weak. I
So is this just me or are your front bumpers full of stone chips too?
My previous car had stone chips as well but not like this

And how would you go about covering them up? I wouldn't think waxing products would cover stone chips up... has anyone gotten paint touch ups at the dealer? if so, how much was it?
I'd buy the paint from BMW and do it myself but I'm not sure if that's the best option; and honestly I don't know how to correctly paint

Thanks!

[MarkR171]

I bought the touch up paint from my dealer for 20$. It comes with a bottle of paint and a bottle of clear. My salesman, another salesman/friend, and the parts guy all recommended I use a broken in half tooth pick to apply the paint instead of the supplied brush because the brush holds too much paint and will just create globs of excess paint. I added the paint using the toothpick method then waited an hour (directions say 30 minutes) before adding a coat of clear the same way. Results aren't perfect obviously, but better than having no paint.

Before (Parking lot rash from another driver)


During (1 coat of paint, I added another coat before adding clear to match the depth, looks better now but I don't have a picture and my car is currently dirty)


I also followed up with a hand polish and reduced the minor scratches around the paint.

On my hood, stone chip... Before:


After (Paint was still wet, color is even more matched now):



you just need to be careful not to add too much paint or you will have unsightly globs that look worse than the chip itself.

[sonicbimmer19]

thanks a lot for pictures! I guess I'll get the touch up paint from my dealer too

[benrappaport]

i got the same issue

[BlackjackMulligan]

drcolorchip.com

I've used this system with good (not perfect!) results.

[Blue135i]

Originally Posted by BlackjackMulligan

drcolorchip.com

I've used this system with good (not perfect!) results.

Agree, I used this and it worked great. Hood looks 100% better now

[Xaeryan]

Another vote for Dr. Colorchip here. Easy enough to use (you really can't screw up like you can with normal touch-up paint), pretty decent results, matches paint well, and can handle pretty large road rash areas.
As others mention, it's not perfect, but it sure beats the road-rash look!

[Bimmer-Bob]

+1 for Dr. Colorchip.

I've tried the OEM touch-up "paint stick" as well, and found it difficult to use. To do it right, you really need to wet sand and finish with an orbital polisher or something. I think it's probably extremely difficult for a novice to do correctly.

By contrast, Dr. Colorchip is a breeze to use. It doesn't really matter if you apply too much, because it has a second step which removes excess paint. I have a deep stone chip on my hood (down to bare metal) and it filled it in well. Color matches good, and the only real problem is that it's not flush with the rest of the paintwork (that is, not totally filled in). Maybe a few more coats would do the trick, but as it is it's basically 90% invisible, so I can't really be bothered with it.

[bkochuk]

Another +1 for Dr. Colorchip. Did a test section on my wife's 2001 Maxima yesterday. Big section of road rash is virtually gone--which means you can still see it from 2 feet away, but not 10. Follow the directions and it's easy enough.