I was driving on the highway maybe a week before Christmas. This douchebag in a beater car drove past me on the left-hand lane, then cut right in front of me. As he did so, I heard a loud CRACK noise to my right and I was like "that mf'er just cracked my windshield." I looked over and saw nothing. Relieved, I figured that the windshield had just withstood the hit. I then proceeded to go around that guy and sharply cut him off, hoping that I could spray his crappy car with debris. Anyways, today I decided to do a quick car wash because it was cold but this is the warmest it will be for at least a week. After I finished and was drying the car, I saw that I had a gouge in my paint on the right side of my hood. It's deep and probably goes through the entire paint. It's not a huge area, probably less than a centimeter in length. I posted a terrible picture because I had to get close (like I said, it's not big) and so the phone camera kept trying to focus on the reflection of the sky in the hood, I think. The large circle is because there's the big ding and then there are smaller scratches behind it which probably aren't visible from when the object rolled up the hood.

So the question is do I have to get the entire hood repainted to fix this? Meaning, if I want it done properly. I know I can put touchup paint on it, too, but is that what you guys would do? Thanks.

If it were me, I’d just touch it up with a paint pen. It doesn’t look significant enough to have professionally done, and I guarantee you that if you do have it professionally done, you’ll get another chip the following week and you’ll regret spending more than you had to. We all love a perfect car, but nothing stays perfect forever.

it's down to the sheet metal. if you dont take care of it soon, it will rust.

One can have great results with touch up paint, but it involves polishing and perhaps a little wet sanding.


the story is kinda weird, if his car didnt touch your car...and the damage is on the hood...could have just left all road rage story out and just said some debris scratched/dinged my hood.

That's depressing, but I guess I'll go the touchup route. Do you order that through a dealer? Or directly from Acura? Or a third-party website?

You and other members of the forum may dislike my stories, but they're given for a purpose. Many people don't consider how their driving affects other people. I'll give you another story. Years ago, I was in New Jersey on the New Jersey Turnpike and some retards had literally stopped their car in the left-hand lane. It appeared that a large appliance or something that they were towing had fallen out of the tow behind their vehicle. Now, not only were they using an undersized vehicle to do the towing, they hadn't secured the object properly, and they had been driving in the left-hand lane. It's like a trifecta of inbred stupidity. Oh, yeah, it was also near sunrise (but still dark) and they didn't have rear lights on the tow trailer, so it wasn't very visible. I almost smashed into them. If I had done that and killed myself, they would have just been like "gee, that's terrible ...oh, well, let's go get our appliance!" and kept going.

i dont dislike your stories...it's just useless information.. "douchebag in beater car" "I then proceeded to cut him off!"

when "car went around me, I then heard a bang. after looking at my car, I came to the conclusion a piece of debris tagged my hood" would more than suffice.

more often than not, that kind of damage happens when following behind too closely, as the lead car will kick up stones and debris.
well, at least your story corroborates the damage. lol

I agree that this is often due to following too closely. That's why I was explaining that it wasn't my fault.

I purchased my touch-up paint from the "acuradeals" seller on Ebay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-OEM...53.m2749.l2649

OK, thanks for the link. It says he's away until Monday and I already put a request in to my dealer, so I'll see what the difference in price is. (I don't think the dealer will get back to me earlier than Monday, either.)

Just touch up that small scratch. Rust won't be an issue. Not worth $700 to repaint the whole hood.

I enjoyed your story btw

That sucks. I always try to keep a distance between me and the car in front specifically to prevent road rash. I can’t stand the jerks that have to just about clip me to get in front of me especially when no one else is around. I tell my wife this is why I like to drive faster than everyone else.

Anyway, I’ve had great luck with the OEM paint pens. My wife’s Accord had a bunch of nicks in the hood, and it is black. I’ve used the paint pen then a light polish with a da polisher. It isn’t perfect, but the car is 8 years old and still looks great.

I don't know, is the hood aluminum? If so, it will not rust.

Edit: Just tested it with a magnet. it did not stick, so it is aluminum...

Why don't you think rust will be an issue?

Ah, OK. I'll take your word for it. I was worried because it's been exposed for a couple of weeks now. I'm going to slap on some touchup paint, but I don't think it will look good.

FYI, the magnet DID stick to the fender of the RDX, and the hood of our 2020 CR-V which shares the garage with the RDX.

BTW, please don't "slap" it on. LOL

I mean to say that I doubt it will look good. I may actually just get it repainted, if it's only $700, as Ludepower said. Not right away, but maybe in the summer. I don't know. I keep my cars for a long time, so I'm trying to justify it to myself. *sigh*

I knew what you meant. I was only half joking! I am likely about as talented with touch ups as you are, and I have done SOME decent fixes! It just takes patience (which I rarely have) and putting the touch-up paint on in layers.

I've been looking around online and it appears like doing a "real" touchup would require resources that I don't have. Like I'm not planning on sanding my car beforehand to clean the chip edges or polishing it afterwards since I don't have an orbital appliance regardless. So I'm pretty sure this will look pretty terrible. If it's a real eyesore, I'll just wait until the summer and probably bring it in for paintwork. I figure I just want to get the paint over the metal to protect it to some degree at this point.

There are plenty of professionals that will do mobile paint touch up. Probably will take less than 10 minutes as your paint is relatively new and should be an easy match. I have seen people take pens or buy touchup paint from the dealer and blob it on and it looks terrible. Professionals have a technique and special paint additives that get it just right. Not perfect, but most wouldn't be able to tell unless you point it out.

Are they listed under any name in particular? Like if I wanted to find one in my area, what would I search for? The dealer I called said they would take care of small chips in house, but it sounded like they were just scratches. He said any significant chipping they would send to the bodyshop.

Paint correction, Paint repair, Chip repair, mobile scratch repair, mobile paint repair. Steer clear of body shops as most will tell you to repaint the whole panel and blend ones adjacently. I would check the online ratings to make sure you get someone with experience. Sometimes I call the local high end dealerships (ie Porsche, Ferrari, Mercedes) and ask them who they use to do touch ups.

Unfortunately, a quick search shows none of those in my area. I only have actual shops and if I went there I'd rather just go to the dealer. Thanks for the info, though.

Paint touch-up pens (the one I got anyway) usually have one end that's abrasive for roughing the surrounding area to better take the paint, then a paint brush, then a clear coat. If there's a gouge, a couple of layers might be needed to fill it in. It's hardly any work, and it looks decent. Do a few of these over the next few years and you might want to take it in for a pro finish but something like this I think you should be able to do yourself for $20 and a half hour of labor.

Wise to just touch it up, you will soon forget about it as the car ages. Your story is exciting, and reminds me what happened in front of me when my RDX was just one week new:

It was raining hard, and an old civic was obviously speeding on the ramp that would eventually merge into the lane I was in. I knew the road so slowed down to build some gaps, but soon I realized the car was trying to race past the big SUV before me. I thought myself it was not going to happen, but the reality was even wilder than I could have thought. The civic driver realized the two lanes were merging into one too late, and executed a hard brake plus sharp left turn to veer away from the SUV. It managed to escape the crash course, but spun for a few rounds and drifted to the left lane. Magically, the car ended up pointing the right way, then the strangest thing happened - as the car regained control and sped up again, the driver somehow swayed to the right lane and still caught the SUV! With one side of the bumper dragging on the ground, the die-hard civic still marched on and eventually the bumper got stripped away, and the civic disappeared into the distance leaving the injuried SUV parking on the shoulder. Unfortunately my car was too new to have dashcam installed, otherwise I am sure I would get trending video on YouTube!

Completely off topic, but I just want to share how crazy things can get ugly on the road.

Although I have been on some ramps where the merge is extremely (and perhaps you could say unexpectedly) short, I would say most on-ramps are designed relatively well so that people have enough time to either slow down or speed up. I'd give that driver more of the benefit of the doubt except it sounds like after he caused an accident he just sped off. That's not just an oopsie, it's more like "this is my fiftieth time doing this."

Hard to tell the size of it from the picture. If it's really small and you buy a paint pen don't use the pen as a brush. Use a toothpick and dab it on with that. If the tip is too small break (don't cut) the toothpick which will leave small grains of the wood and make a small brush.

We call these guys mobile hacks. Only bodyshops can get your car back to factory quality.

A reputable shop who polishes their job exceed factory quality. If you take a close look at most new cars including the RDX. The orange peel is barely acceptable cause of the cost on paint materials and environmental concerns.

I can feel the pain. We just had some low life bust our passenger side front window broken into and stealing my wife's purse. She forgot her purse that day in car and of course someone breaks in that day. Not only did she lose like 100 some dollars but cost us 400$ to fix the window. And to top that while he broke the window it must of hit the side of the door and made this 2 deep scratches. I fixed with a touch-up paint but you can see it in day light. Then this past month i was getting gas and i looked at my rear bumper and this nasty damage. Looks like someone backed in my car. Thats not the end... She was at work and when she got out to come home she found out her rear window was broken. We never found out what happened nothing was taken just broken window. She did not find any object or stone. WHYYYYYYY

Uh ...where do you live, so I can never go there? Sorry all that happened, you must live around some real garbage.

This was when we lived in apartment in Nashville TN while our house was under constitution. And the back window was at her work which is one of the nicest place in TN (Brentwood) which is why its strange that it happened there. We finally moved to our new house.

Thieves aren’t stupid; they go where the money is. As for the accident damage, someone’s income doesn’t stop them from being a bad driver or an asshole. In fact, studies have shown it’s actually the opposite.

I know that you had the glass repaired, of course, but did you ever get the paint scratches repaired? How much does that cost, out of curiosity?

paint pen or bodyshop. I have scratches in rear bumper, I get paid for the damage but havent fixed it and keep the money in my pocket. who know when next scratch will happen.

Any experience with Dr. ColorChip or ChipFixx kits?. Please, share your thoughts.

I am a car person so any damage is annoying and I will get it fixed. Some people look at their vehicle as just transportation. I have always taken care of my cars and trucks and have a difficult time not repairing any damage regardless of how small. Also maintenance and cleaning is important. If repairing makes me feel better, I make sure it happens. Does’t me right and others who chose not to repair wrong.

Reporting on touch-up paint progress. Not good. To put this in context, I'm more of a "hands off" guy when it comes to my car. So, I know everyone here is like "oh, well, I sanded down my paint, then I applied three coats of paint, then I used my orbital polisher, etc etc and now it looks fine!" But I'm a guy who has none of that stuff and this is the first time I've used touch-up paint before. I had enough sense to test out the paint before I tried applying it. The Acura pen consists of a number of parts. One one side is the paint and on the other side is the clear coat. The paint side has a handy abrasive tip that you can use to clean off any rust. Under that cap is a paint pen. Or, if you prefer, you can unscrew that side and there is a brush underneath. Now, the thing to know is that the pen is quite fine, but that's not really relevant because the paint does not come out of the tip like a ballpoint pen. It squirts out of, basically, the base of the pen tip, where the tip meets the rest of the pen. So what I tried to do was dispense some paint and then dab into that to pick up a small amount of paint. The problem I found was that the paint was too viscous for that. If I dabbed into the small paint pool, almost no paint would come off of that pool. So you would try dabbing it onto the car and nothing would transfer. Finally, I had to take a larger dab, which I knew was too much paint, and that transferred, but it sort of glopped onto the car and I couldn't do anything about it. I'm waiting for it to dry now, but I'm not very happy with it.

I think the paint pen tip unscrews to reveal a tiny little brush. At least that's what I remember.

Yes, it does. But the brush will dispense even more paint. I saw that you had a scratch on your side mirror and that's partly why I wrote the update, as a tip. If there's a huge chip in the paint, I might use the brush, but otherwise I would say to use the pen. But like I said, it's not like the paint comes from the pen tip. So keep that in mind.

As I said above use a wooden toothpick. Put some paint on a piece of cardboard and dab the toothpick in it, Break the toothpick if it's too small and the wood fibers will look like a brush..

clean the surface with alcohol so the paint sticks. I would not sand it at all. just fill in the scratch with paint.

I'm not sure how that's different than using the pen. The issue that I had was simply that the paint is too viscous. I'm probably describing it poorly, but if you make a pool of paint and then dab the pen tip into it (which is like a toothpick), it doesn't lift out any paint because the paint just stays in the pool. The pen tip is too fine to pick any of it up. That was my experience, at any rate.