[Dhruv25]

Good Evening Everyone,

Apologies if this topic has been touched before.

I have a 55k miles F10 which has now picked up a few stone chips on the bumper and bonnet. There are no massive or major ones but once the car has a good scrub and polish it is pretty visible as the colour is carbon black.

Can anyone please suggest if one has tried to touch up stone chips by themselves or can recommend a cheap repair?

Any suggestions/recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[Johnny Grabble]

I do these myself with the genuine BMW touch up paint, which includes the paint and the lacquer. Easy enough if you're patient and prep the job properly - been doing this for over 20 years on various cars I've had so I've got the hang of it by now. Takes a little practice, so if you're not confident with this, do not follow my advice! I will not be held responsible if you nause it up!

What I do is as follows. Clean the chip off with rubbing alcohol, apply the paint to the chip, let it dry, use more than 1 coat if required to fill the hole so the paint is a little proud of the surface. Flat it back with 2000 grit wet and dry, sanding as small an area as possible, I typically wrap the 2000 round a small piece of dowel, so I abrade no more than about 1 sq cm per chip. Apply the lacquer, let it dry, flat that back with the 2000, then use some 6000 grit wet and dry to prep the surface for polishing. This will leave a slightly matt surface but the key point is 6000 grit is so fine, the scratches it leaves are easily polished out. Polish that with a normal car polish, I use AutoGlym Super Resin Polish. That brings the gloss back to the surface. Job done. Provided the paint colour match is good, the repair is essentially invisible. Metallics are always more fussy to match than solids, which is why I use a genuine touch up paint (I learned the hard way and tried cheaper non-genuine paint and the colour match was awful).

If the chips are on a plastic bumper, sometimes there are little areas of plastic around the chip which stand proud of the surface, so flat those off prior to cleaning the area and applying the first coat of paint.

[wcr3d]

"Dr. Colorchip" maybe worth looking into if they are available in your area.

[Dhruv25]

Originally Posted by Johnny Grabble

I do these myself with the genuine BMW touch up paint, which includes the paint and the lacquer. Easy enough if you're patient and prep the job properly - been doing this for over 20 years on various cars I've had so I've got the hang of it by now. Takes a little practice, so if you're not confident with this, do not follow my advice! I will not be held responsible if you nause it up!

What I do is as follows. Clean the chip off with rubbing alcohol, apply the paint to the chip, let it dry, use more than 1 coat if required to fill the hole so the paint is a little proud of the surface. Flat it back with 2000 grit wet and dry, sanding as small an area as possible, I typically wrap the 2000 round a small piece of dowel, so I abrade no more than about 1 sq cm per chip. Apply the lacquer, let it dry, flat that back with the 2000, then use some 6000 grit wet and dry to prep the surface for polishing. This will leave a slightly matt surface but the key point is 6000 grit is so fine, the scratches it leaves are easily polished out. Polish that with a normal car polish, I use AutoGlym Super Resin Polish. That brings the gloss back to the surface. Job done. Provided the paint colour match is good, the repair is essentially invisible. Metallics are always more fussy to match than solids, which is why I use a genuine touch up paint (I learned the hard way and tried cheaper non-genuine paint and the colour match was awful).

If the chips are on a plastic bumper, sometimes there are little areas of plastic around the chip which stand proud of the surface, so flat those off prior to cleaning the area and applying the first coat of paint.

Thank you very much for a detailed process on how to deal with the Stone chip.

To be honest I have been itching to give it a go since a while, but after what you have detailed down for me has given me a lot of confidence to go and do it myself.

Thank you again.

[Dhruv25]

Originally Posted by wcr3d

"Dr. Colorchip" maybe worth looking into if they are available in your area.

Thank you for your suggestion, I will surely look into it?

Have you personally used them?

[wcr3d]

No but wished I had, I went with BMW touch up kit.
Didn't really like the results.
You can find a number of videos on YouTube of people using that kit.

[Dhruv25]

Originally Posted by wcr3d

No but wished I had, I went with BMW touch up kit.
Didn't really like the results.
You can find a number of videos on YouTube of people using that kit.

Cheers for that. Yeah I know I have watched a few videos too and they all look good, but wanted some assurance from someone who has actually done it.

[mrashton]

Just to add... I have used ChipEx on all our cars since 2011 when I bought my first BMW. The colour match is perfect. It takes a while to get the process right but it is quite forgiving. You just need the right colour code for your car and buy their kit that comes with all of the bits you need.

https://www.chipex.co.uk