Hi AZ,

I'm new to the whole TL scene and owning a car in general. I've had my TL for about a month now. The owner before myself must have lived in a rock quarry or sumthing because there is a somewhat noticeable chip in my hood. To the point where i can see it rusting. Any ideas what ill have to do here? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

Clean it up the best you can
Wipe it good with a solvent (wax/grease remover)
Touch up with Rust Bullet, POR 15, or something similar
Touch up with the color of your car
Some body shops will mix small touch up bottles per paint code, or you could order some online, or go the dealer. Your paint code is in the drivers door jam, on an information label. Nighthawk black pearl, (NBP) is B-92P, Anthracite metallic (AM) is NH-643M, for example.

If your not familiar w/ touching up, have someone do it, who is good at it, or just be careful and take your time.

 

get the hood, bumper, and both front fenders repainted....otherwise your stuck with a messed up hood, touch up paint isnt going to look good at all....

 

Yeah if your whole front end is beat up with chips and pits in the bumper, refinishing is obviously the way to go. However a few rock ships in the hood can be touched up to minimize the appearance. I touched up about 4 or so chips in my hood, another here/there and my front end overall looks clean as hell for an 05. Granted I can touch up as good as it gets, also I finesse with a little light wet sanding and poshing. If its a daily driver, I wouldn't sweat a couple rock chips, if the rest of the paint is in good shape. If the touch up is preformed skillfully, the results should be very good on most colors, if your doing a chip here or there.

 

Cool Cool... Thanks for the tips guys. Im thinking of going with your first suggestion powerflow. I'll post some pics once finished. Thanks again!

 

anybody know where to get touch up paint for my 2006 TL in silver? other than the dealer of course!

 

Repaint bumper, then install a 3m clear bra.

 

ebay - seller "paintpens"

 

www.paintscratch.com

 

I bought some touch up paint but my paint had too many imperfections and touch up was just not cutting it so I ended up having my whole front end repainted (bumpers, hood, mirrors fenders, blended into the door panels, rear bumper painted and blended and I decided to paint my roof black while at it hehe). Anyways it depends on how bad your front end is if you only have one or two chips you should be ok. But if your previous owner truly lived in a rock quarry like my previous owner did and you have more chips that you can count...time for repaint. I am somewhat of a perfectionist though, I thought it was not that bad when I bought the car, but it turned out to be more scrapes and chips than I wanted to have on my car.

 

pics if you dont mind???

 

You can purchase NBP and Anthracite at Autozone. Touch up paint that is for about 15 bux. That's what I use. And for the person that posted to get the bumper repainted, you have to way like 90 days after a paint job to get the clear bra put on, to most people thats enough time to get chips again, atleast thats what happened to me.

 

here's a way to make your touchup's look good:

Fill in the chip with touchup paint slowly (thin coats at a time). If you only have a bottle of it, dip a toothpick in it (lightly) and then put on the chip. The capillary action will suck the paint onto the chip.

Fill it up and make it so the touchup paint is ABOVE level with the rest of the car's paint (very slightly above). Then take some 3000 grit sand paper and put it in a bowl of water. Let soak for 10 minutes and then LIGHTLY sand the chip'ed area for a few seconds. Wipe and check your work, you will see ton's of little scratches, it's ok. Then use some scratch X or polish to get the scratches out. There's an excellent DIY with photos around here that the person used a G35 in black.