Kudos for taking it on yourself!!

 

i found a good link for removing chips

it may work for u too.

I have not tried this personally, yet, so do it at your own risk

https://www.6speedonline.com/article...b_source=pubv1

 

Great tips! Thanks for posting.

 

Well, after 10.000Km it finally happened.
I drove hehind a truck with no skirts (the big rubber flappy things that are supposed to cover the wheels to prevent them from throwing stones) and got pelted with a shower of small stones.

My Porsche dealer gave me a small bottle of touch up paint (for FREE !!!) and after some patching it is a perfect color match.
Most of the damage is on the front bumper (white car) which leaves tiny litte back spots where the paint has been removed down to the plastic.
Using a wooden toothpick these are easy to fill and when the paint is dry I can't even find the places where I patched. Good.

Now there are two bigger ones remaining. One on the bonnet (Oh no !!!).
OK, the paint works well but there is a fairly big patch (say 3-4mm diameter) of clearcoat gone and this you see no matter how well the paint matches and how careful you have filled the hole.
Well, I tried a clear coat pen (the stuff advertised on TV). What a load of rubbish. Complete waste of money.

So, I started asking Google and of course there is a lot of info on how to fix minor clear coat damage.
I have a few older cars that have a lot of little paint nicks from years of use so I decided to use these as test bed. Just to learn and make mistakes.
The method I chose is to use a can of Rustoleum high gloss clear coat, a sheet of paper with a small hole in the middle (just larger than the area you need to repair), tiny piece of 1800 grit wet/dry sandpaper (used dry) and some cutting compound to blend in the new paint.
First lightly sand the damage (I used magnifying head mount glasses to help me to work this in a tiny area only), clean then apply touch up paint - enough so it slightly overlaps the damage with a bit of a "hill" - that goes away when the paint dries. Allow to cure for 24 hours or so. Now sand again lightly and make sure it is a little less than level to allow room for the clear coat) and clean again. Use the paper with the hole and spray ONE pass of clear coat - rather to little than too much - the hole allows just enough to get to the damaged area without you needing to mask anything. Wait an hour, now sand lightly again. Clean and repeat if needed (twice seems good for most small repairs).
After the last sanding pass things should be level. Now use the cutting compound and blend in the clear coat with a bit of rubbing then use a very fine cutting compound like McGuires Ultimate Compound to finish.
Voila - perfect. Provided the touch up paint is a perfect match it is now all but invisible.

I used this on a number of spots up to fairly bad scuff marks on my Merc (metallic paint) and then moved on to my MX5 which is bright red - very difficult - this shows the slightest imperfections. I tackled a bad area that in fact came from the factory like this (yes I know I should have complained but at the time I got one before they where even released). This required multiple applications in an area about an inch across but I got the clearcoat perfectly leveled and blended in with actually fairly little effort. Even in bright sunlight with this highly reflective surface the repair is invisible. Completely. Should have done this sooner.

I have now summed up enough courage to tackle the Porsche and this is my next weekend job. Hold thumbs for me.

Yes I know there are professionals out there that do this kind of thing - this is not about saving money, I just like fixing things myself. Even a Porsche.

Rainier

 

Great write-up Ranier. I too like to fix things myself (or at least try).