Learning About Auto Services

The front and sides of your vehicle are often exposed to road debris, gravel, sand, and other materials that can damage the paint on the car. Stone chips typically appear in these areas and can cause enough damage over time. Read on to learn more about stone chip repairs.

Inspect the Damage

If you start to see small chips on the front or sides of your car, it is essential to look closely at the damage to determine the extent and how best to repair it. On most vehicles, the chips are small enough to be fixed quickly, but if they are deep and penetrate the paint and the primer underneath, you may need some professional stone chip repair help.

Taking the car to a body shop for stone chip repair can be the best solution if there are a lot of chips or the damage to the paint is severe. The auto body technician can inspect the damage for you and make a recommendation for repair. The tech can fix small areas individually in some cases, but the deeper the chips and the larger the area they cover, the more work is required to repair the area.

Get Stone Chip Repairs

Small single stone chips are easily dealt with, and often all that is required is a bottle of touch-up paint and some fine sandpaper. If the chip is small enough, you can sand the edges of the stone chip with very fine sandpaper to smooth the transition between the chip and the paint.

Once it blends smoothly, wash the area to remove the dust, and then cover the stone chip with some touch-up paint that is the same color as the factory paint. Once the paint is dry, you can wax over it to bring back the shine in that area.

If the damage is severe, the body shop tech working on your stone chip repair will use a similar process but on a larger scale. The entire area is sanded and smoothed, so there are no sharp edges, and then a self-leveling primer is applied over the area to seal the sheet metal and help the tech see any high or low spots in the sheet metal.

If any spots are wavy or high, the tech will sand them further to ensure the panel is perfectly straight before painting. Once the final sanding is complete, a final coat of primer is applied and allowed to cure for a few hours. 

Once the primer is dry, the panel can be painted using matching paint that the painter can adjust to match the original paint color and blend in perfectly on your car.