Frankie the Fink

My gorgeous 63 paint job is only 6 months old and I refuse to leave the car in the garage -- so lo and behold the car got anointed with its first rock chip - (a double BTW). Two pencil eraser-sized dings right at the outboard front edge of the DS headlight bucket. Clearly too deep to wet sand out.

I found them adjusting the Y-stops for the bucket and I won't shock you with the expletives that I spewed out.

I was upset enough that I didn't really get pictures of the original damage but the first pic will give you an idea - its shown with the initial dab of touch up paint applied that partially filled the holes....2 more coats followed.

This weekend was devoted to dealing with it and I don't see it discussed all that much on here. First requirement is matching touch up paint - I have 1/2 qt left from my repaint (withOUT) hardener.....my car is done in single-stage which helps a lot.

Here is my method:

1) Clean the damage and surrounding area with rubbing alcohol.
2) Go back again and clean the damaged area with lacquer thinner and let it air dry. Don't TOUCH or otherwise contaminate the cleaned area.
3) Stir the touch up paint thoroughly and use one of those gal's fingernail painting tiny brushes to dab paint into the damaged area -- it may take 2-3 times or more to get the paint ABOVE the level of the surrounding paint and it may shrink a bit after it dries.
4) Let the paint dry 2 days (3 is better)
5) Mask off any areas you want to protect - particularly edges where paint may be thin. In this case the two dings were REAL close to the edge of the headlight bucket.
6) With a spray bottle of clean water mixed with a few drops of Joy and 1500 grit sandpaper wrapped around a Popsicle stick CAREFULLY begin sanding the damaged area - liberally spraying the sandpaper and work area with the Joy-laced water. Try to avoid edges or other area where the paint is thin. If you're ham-fisted you may want to back off to 2000 grit or even higher to you get the feel of the work. Work in random patterns across the damage.
7) Every 20-30 sanding "passes" wipe off the area with a dry cloth and see if there are still 'shiny' spots around the damage...in which case they are low and you're not done yet. The third and fourth pic will give you some idea how things look in mid-repair.
8) When you feel you're getting close then step down to finer grit paper 2000, 3000 or even higher. Attack only those shiny areas left and not the whole repair - don't bear down just push the Popsicle stick flat across the paint.
9) When the area is wiped with a dry towel and the scuffing looks uniform STOP. I said STOP.
10) Switch to a mild rubbing/polishing compound and rub it in with a Popsicle stick wrapped around a T-shirt or microfiber towel. I like Turtle Wax Premium Rubbing Compound in the green bottle.
11) When the area starts to take on a uniform gloss (but still a bit dull) switch to polishing compound. I use Turtle Wax Polishing Compound in the black bottle.
12) Stop when the gloss is up to the appearance the rest of the car has.

NOTE: If the repair is near an "edge" I hand compound and polish it....if its in the center of a panel I'll use my Porter-Wagner buffer and save some work...

Step back and admire your work - you earned it...

The pictures show the damage gradually being worked and the repair eventually becoming undetectable... About 3-4 hours of painstaking work.

Vettrocious

The original lacquer paint was not nearly as fragile back in the day. Seems todays paints just like to chip off. I'm beginning to think that if we're going to drive these things, we need to put that clear plastic wrap on every square inch of them...

warrenmj

Great job Frankie. Since you drive it, I’m just surprised it took 6 months for the first chip

Frankie the Fink

I don't disagree. Seems new factory paint is tougher too (baked on ?). I've heard crap hit my 2013 Tundra from inside the cockpit and I examine the front end later -- no damage..

dkleather

Looks great. You were fortunate to have the exact paint to use.

wmf62

an excellent job

Bill

bc/cc repaired with single stage

Bill

Frankie the Fink

Absolutely - my heart went out to the guy that boogered up his C2's candy paint - no way to achieve perfection with a spot repair on that stuff...

Tigershark3

After I had the front nose of my '66 resprayed I had the nose covered with a SunTek film. Way less orange peal than the 3M product and it looks almost invisible.

phil2302

That is a really terrific repair.
If I owned that gorgeous 63 I would have been just as upset and hell bent on fixing it. In my case though my kids treated this car like a bike stand when they were young. After 32 years of ownership I long ago surrendered to the inevitable and only care about keeping it clean and having 110% fully functioning mechanicals. It is liberating.

Frankie the Fink

Its just gonna happen. I maintain an 8 car length following distance in traffic minimum and sometimes more from big trucks. It helps but there are two types of 'driven' classic cars: those with dings, and, those that are going to get dings.

dmaxx3500

ive had good luck,just filling in the chip,and not building up the surrounding areas so much,try finding artist or pinstriping brushs,horse hair and real thin,then just fill the chip,still might take 2-5 times filling,let dry,then they make sanding pencils,where the eraser end is a small piece of sandpaper,and you just twist it,then polish by hand

good luck

Frankie the Fink

Vettrocious

Looks good from the photos...nice job!

Bluestripe67

Nice work Frankie! Dennis

pop23235

There is one more “helpful trick”. When you wrap paper around the pop cycle stick, wrap masking tape around the free ends of the sand paper such that you only expose sand paper over a short distance between the end wraps of tape. The tape forms a bit of a bridge over the sand paper preventing cutting too deep with what is exposed. The gap width corresponds to the width of the ding.

DansYellow66

That is a good idea. I've had trouble sanding out a small chip repair in clear coat and ending up with a shallow divot when polished out.

Probably those little square filing blocks used for removing runs and trash in fresh paint would work well too for leveling touch up paint, but I've been leery of using one on aged paint. Anyone try one?

dahogan

Step back and admire your work - you earned it...

GTOguy

My thoughts exactly. If they get driven, they get rock chips. Love the single stage paint, which is what all of my old cars are. And always will be. No way for that repair to be spotted unless you took someone by the hand, had the car out in the sunlight, and pointed it out to them. Well done! My '61, which is Roman Red (same as your Riverside Red) had a bunch of flaws/scratches/chips...I happened to have a small can of 'Premium Decor' code PDL-21 "Americana" produced by the General Paint Manufacturing Company of Cary, Ill. It is a single stage, water based acrylic enamel. It looked 'close' to the Roman red, so I used it. It is a dead-on match for the paint on my car. I never get lucky like this. Glad to see you out enjoying your car!!!

mrg

Good policy to at least minimize rock chip potential. . The worst has to be those jacked up full size trucks with the wheels sticking out halfway past the fenders creeping up through traffic. What to do but give width birth and move over.

Another part of the equation are cars coming from the opposite direction kicking up a rock or stone. . On a local freeway here I could see a whitish colored cloud rising in the distance. The median barrier wall separating the two directions of travel obscured what the material might have been. As I got closer the dust cloud appeared to be a loose bag of concrete that got loose from someone's vehicle. With cars now passing over the mess, in my peripheral vision I remember seeing a rock stone heading straight for the left front windshield quadrant. There was no time time to do anything. ..

There was a loud THWACK sound as the stone glanced of the windshield. The sound of the stone hitting the windshield was fairly loud. I thought sure the windshield had just been taken out. A more direct angle of that stone hit would have surely cracked the glass. The windshield on the '64 is original. .. I would have hated losing it.

John

Frankie the Fink

And of course no mud flaps. And those are always the Bubba's that want to show you they're cool too in their monster truck wannabes so they have to get beside you and roar over right in front of you. No help for it.....