bprotas

Hi all -

First post on the forum, so please be nice

I am the proud owner of a new 2010 A4 2.0T which I love. It just crossed 2000 miles on it this week.

I live on the east coast, and we've had a rough winter, and there has been lots of snow, ice, salt, and sand on the road (boy am I glad to have an AWD in this!) However, I've noticed two very large paint chips in my brand-new car that go all the way to the metal. Now, I know that this is "normal wear" and that damage from sand and salt is not covered by the warranty, but this seems to me to be excessive. My wife's Lexus, which has 40,000 miles on it, is the same color, and was driven more often in the recent rough conditions looks better than my brand new Audi

So, I guess I have a few questions for the pros here:

1. IS it worth it to try to touch up myself? Audi only seems to sell spray-on touchup paint, which seems too unwieldy for chips, so I bought a bottle of the stuff from Microfinish, LLC
2. Does anyone have any experience trying to get their dealer to fix this stuff?
3. My dealer offers Cilajet coating, which I initially turned down as I think it is waaay overpriced (and assuming that my paint would be as durable as on a Lexus - whoops!), but am now reconsidering. Has anyone had this coating on their cars, and is it worth it?


Thanks for any tips and help!

NickZag

Fixing the chips with touch-up-paint is simple. Just clean the area and dab on a drop with a tooth pick or something like an end of a paper clip. The pen never works right.

As far as the coating, my dealer didn't offer it. Is it the 3M style "clear bra" type coating? I have that on my C63 which works OK, but I've two chips go through it which looks worse then being able to just repair it with touch up paint.

audi8k

My understanding is that both spray and bottles are available from Audi (at least my colour and in Europe). I had to be specific when I ordered because I wanted the spray cans.

I find the paint in the bottles often to be too thick for small chips. I use the spray cans to spray out some and than quickly apply using a small brush. That floats out better to fill small chips. I also choose size of the brush depending on the chip size.
(It will never be invisible, though.)

need_TQM

Dr. Colorchip? Anyone have experience with their products?

redherring

I always be sure to get the dealer to throw in a bottle of touch up paint whenever I buy a new car, and the A4 was no exception. They have either bottles or spray available (US). I've gotten pretty good with the bottle/brush over the years, so that's my preference (I agree that the pen is worthless).

NickZag

Don't risk the aftermarket brands. Get factory Audi paint. Why risk it to save a few dollars? The last thing you want it something that looks worse then the chip.

ShadowJet

Some idiot ran his front license plate screws into my back bumper. I bought my touchup paint here...

http://www.automotivetouchup.com/cho...=49&search.y=7

The color match is great. I even have meteor gray which is slightly pearlescent and I can't tell a difference.

Here are the steps I took to repair my paint damage.

1) Wash the area

2) Using a fine tipped paintbrush (you can try a toothpick also if you don't want to buy a brush), apply a small amount of paint just enough to cover the damage.

3) Wait 5 minutes to let the paint dry then add another coat. Keep doing this until your paint chip is completely filled in and slightly over filled.

4) Take 1500+ grit sand paper (the higher the better) doused in water to keep friction low and sand down the overfill to make the touch up paint as flush as you can with the surface. Be sure to keep the sand paper localized on the touch up paint or you're going to sand off your clearcoat on the "good" parts of your paint.

Note: If you want to use clearcoat to top the chip off, instead of using paint to overfill the chip, use clearcoat on the last 3 layers or so.

5) Let the paint dry for several hours, maybe even wait until the next day and wax/polish the area.

And you're done.

I'm pretty happy with my results. The chips are as flush as I could possibly get it, although I think I sanded a little bit out of my limits and dulled the clearcoat around the chip. Be careful! Still much better than the original damage or if I just tried to fill the chip without overfilling/sanding.

jkownz

I have a really deep scratch on my bottom front bumper(plastic). Should i use a bondo body filler then use 1200 grit wet sandpaper when dried then apply paint then clearcoat?

NickZag

Have you ever done body work in the past? If not, I wouldn't do it as you will probably end up doing more harm then good. Body filler MIGHT stick to the plastic, but chances are your out of luck. Usually a body shop would just order new plastics and spray it. What color is your car? You might be able to get away with it on a color like white but if its something like black or phantom blue then it will show big time and probably look worse then the scratch.

jkownz

The scratch is on the bottom left under the fog light. I know other types of fillers that stick to plastics. Don't know if I should just wait and buy a whole new piece after I eventually get some scratches/dinks on it later in the year. And no I don't have much experience with body work.



Here is where a deep scratch is.