I think I found a system that is as good as Dr. Colorchip.....

[supra90]

I have always been a do it youself kind of person. I was thinking about getting Dr. Colorchip, but paying that much for touch up paint and a solvent just didn't seem right. I know Dr. Colorchip paint is designed so the "blending solution" will work. I think they just put some paint thinner into the touch up paint. The system I use which I use for very small chips (less than 1 mm in diameter and not deep) is a combo of dealer touchup paint and nail polish remover. I get these very tiny chips on the front of my car, some of them about the size of a pinhead. So I used one of those tiny touch up brushes or a tooth pick and put in a tiny dab of touchup. Then I let it dry for about 5 minutes and carefully remove the excess with the acetone. It does not hurt my good paint and it seems to blend it nicely. I guess waiting longer, like waiting an hour might be better. I just want the paint to harden somewhat but still be workable. Remember, these are for very small chips some the size of a pin point to 1mm. The kind of damage you get from very small pebbles and dirt. Curious what your thoughts are about this? I could include pics.

[DEwalt]

Sounds like a good method. Im like you, thats to much money for what it is. I have a bunch of places I need to touch up on my truck. I have a 3 in 1 touch up pen. It works good but a lot of the spots are high after adding paint. I'm trying to figure out how to level it with the original paint. Did you have that problem?

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[Finick]

I’ve read about people doing this, and some people comment this on the dr ColorChip videos on YouTube as well (from what I remember.)

For what it’s worth, when I went to town touching up a gigantic amount of spots on my car, I missed a couple when leveling (guess that speaks to the fact that speaks volumes about it camouflaging the chips) and emailed them about what they’d recommend I do to level them.

They recommended putting 10 drops of sealact into something, and adding a drop of acetone and mixing it up, then working the areas with a q tip. Adding a drop of acetone until it started to soften/break down the paint.

I’ve been meaning to get around to doing this but I’m very lazy. If it levels it nicely I may just let all the tips I touch up harden and do it that way exclusively.


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[Larry A]

I do the same thing , but I use brake clean as the solvent.

[supra90]

Sounds like a good method. Im like you, thats to much money for what it is. I have a bunch of places I need to touch up on my truck. I have a 3 in 1 touch up pen. It works good but a lot of the spots are high after adding paint. I'm trying to figure out how to level it with the original paint. Did you have that problem?

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I have not had a problem leveling because I am very careful how much paint I put in the defect. Someone said a q tip might even work better. I am just wondering what is the optimum amount of time I should wait before removing excess?

[georgeallen1]

Do you use the clear coat portion on the factory pen too? I think I am going to try with just dr color chip and a tiny brush and see how it comes out.

I have dr color chip and also langka blob eliminator on hand. need to buy tiny brushes

[tvg]

One of our cars had lots of small/tiny paint chips on it. Green car, and the little chips looked whitish. I was going to use touch up paint to try and fix it, but while cleaning the front, I noticed that the little white marks disappeared when wet. I figured it was just the clear coat that was damaged and didn't use the touch up green paint, and just used the clear coat touch up. Really hard to see the chips now.

[supra90]

Do you use the clear coat portion on the factory pen too? I think I am going to try with just dr color chip and a tiny brush and see how it comes out.

I have dr color chip and also langka blob eliminator on hand. need to buy tiny brushes

No I don't use clear coat. I try to avoid that if possible. I find adding clear just makes the spot too shiny and it will stand out as a very small shiny circle. So nope. I do think if have more extensive damage , say 1 mm in diameter chip, adding clear would be a good idea if you can get it to blend. Most of my spots are too small for clear coat. I add just a fraction of a drop of touch up paint to get the results I want.

[AZpolisher15]

Acetone is clear coat safe?!

[DEwalt]

I don't mess with clear coat either. The spots I touched up look really good without it.

When you say sealant do you mean something like Jescar Power Lock and the other products we use?

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[ChristyZ]

I have always been a do it youself kind of person. I was thinking about getting Dr. Colorchip, but paying that much for touch up paint and a solvent just didn't seem right. I know Dr. Colorchip paint is designed so the "blending solution" will work. I think they just put some paint thinner into the touch up paint. The system I use which I use for very small chips (less than 1 mm in diameter and not deep) is a combo of dealer touchup paint and nail polish remover. I get these very tiny chips on the front of my car, some of them about the size of a pinhead. So I used one of those tiny touch up brushes or a tooth pick and put in a tiny dab of touchup. Then I let it dry for about 5 minutes and carefully remove the excess with the acetone. It does not hurt my good paint and it seems to blend it nicely. I guess waiting longer, like waiting an hour might be better. I just want the paint to harden somewhat but still be workable. Remember, these are for very small chips some the size of a pin point to 1mm. The kind of damage you get from very small pebbles and dirt. Curious what your thoughts are about this? I could include pics.Awesome idea. Thanks!

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[RippyD]

I do something similar. It takes time. I get very fine brushes or hard foam paint applicators - will post a picture when I find them. (See below - no pics and no link - not sold here). I prep the chip by washing and drying, usually with air. Sometimes I'll take a tiny piece of sandpaper to it - most chips are too small. An sharpened pencil eraser can work as well. Then have to clean it again.

I also use a magnifying glass or headband magnifiers - being able to see the details helps a lot.

I've also use touch up paint mixed with clear. Got this tip from a detailer on Youtube. Depending on the color this can work pretty well. As you build up the paint it's less noticeable that the chip doesn't have clear.

And for a big chips that I really want to look even I'll wet sand after filling. This is not for the faint of heart and will remove paint around the chip. I suspect you need to be really stupid or really confident to do this. It's worked well, but is quite a bit of work and can be stressful.

NOTE: I'm not a pro and not recommending this. After trying a few other things this works for me. It's somewhat risky.

EDIT: I use small applicators called "Micro Applicator Brushes" where the size is labeled "superfine" and 1.0mm. Essentially a plastic stick with a tiny bit of foam on the end. Can still be too large for the smallest chips.

[MarkD51]

I have always been a do it youself kind of person. I was thinking about getting Dr. Colorchip, but paying that much for touch up paint and a solvent just didn't seem right. I know Dr. Colorchip paint is designed so the "blending solution" will work. I think they just put some paint thinner into the touch up paint. The system I use which I use for very small chips (less than 1 mm in diameter and not deep) is a combo of dealer touchup paint and nail polish remover. I get these very tiny chips on the front of my car, some of them about the size of a pinhead. So I used one of those tiny touch up brushes or a tooth pick and put in a tiny dab of touchup. Then I let it dry for about 5 minutes and carefully remove the excess with the acetone. It does not hurt my good paint and it seems to blend it nicely. I guess waiting longer, like waiting an hour might be better. I just want the paint to harden somewhat but still be workable. Remember, these are for very small chips some the size of a pin point to 1mm. The kind of damage you get from very small pebbles and dirt. Curious what your thoughts are about this? I could include pics.

Your method seems to mimic Dr. Colrochip's methods-principles quite closely.

AFAIK, and when asking Mr McCool at Dr. C-Chip about what to use to slightly thin the mixture in an old bottle of their paint, he recommended Acetone.

I'm no chemical engineer to tell you what the base solvents are in their paint, nor what are in dealer, or Duracolor, or Auto Paint Supply House formulas?

One local Auto Supply Shop I spoke with here about 6 months back, when I asked him about his paints (at $7 a Jar) he said they were Acrylic Based.

So, with that said, will Acetone, or the Dr. C-Chip Sealact solution behave the same way with those Acrylic Based Paints? I have no idea, but sure would like to know for personal beneficial knowledge.

Over the past few days I've been using my Dr C-Chip Kit on my '97 Tahoe pictured in my avatar. I used a brand new fresh bottle of Summit White I had gotten from them, and had a brand new fresh bottle of the Sealact Solution on hand.

I love their system, but the learning curves which it seemed like I had to learn all over again here in the Midwest, is getting the hang of drying times, and how long to wait?

Could be that there was a slight difference in formulations, but the few to ten minutes time I typically used to do was too short a time, paint hadn't properly set. So I had to wait a bit longer, like 15-20 minutes before I could go further.

Then I had to work harder, and use more Sealact Solution(which isn't cheap either) to level, but I think it is better to err on too long, rather than too short a time.

The touch up I've been doing is mostly on the lower rocker panels, from kicked up gravel from the now present BFG AT Tires , and all I'll say without the need of a moderator censoring my post, is it is a real pistol when you're working on your back on a gravel driveway, laying on your back on a sheet of cardboard and dabbing the paint upwards onto a panel. (one has to excercise a bit of patience, and perseverance to succeed)

One beauty of the Dr. C-Chip Paint, and unlike dealer/paint shop sourced touch up paints, is their paint sets quite fast, meaning less in the way of running-sagging when applying. As all know, chips can occur anywhere on a vehicle, they're often never so "conveniently placed" like on a horizontal panel such as a hood, roof, trunk.

I've monkeyed with dealer-Duracolor Paints in the past, they sometimes take literal hours to set, run-sag, and the attempts of touch up look horribly amateurish at best. I've seen many other's attempts not look much better.

About the only minor quirps I have with Dr. Chip is there can be a slight difference in matching, it's not sometimes perfect, as I recently noticed again a paint that looks a little bit more "greyish" than my Summit White Paint. Not the first time I had difficulties with their paint matching my truck.

The other quirp is that this time I've noted a difficulty "filling" the chip with just one application, or due to paint drying havoc had to re-do a few chips again, cause I removed too much with the Sealact product.

In highly critical areas, one, as I found might have to repeat an application an additional 1, 2, maybe 3 times to fill the void to then come away with a level fill.

About all I can say with my makeshift attempts over the past few days on the Tahoe, and on areas where you need a creeper to see such, I got a considerable improvement of removing and hiding a lot of the stone chip damage.

If I have the time, I might toy around again with some more application layers here and there, because I'm fussy-particular, but I basically wanted to fill and place some paint on this stone chip damage to stave off rust that could be caused by upcoming winter road salts here. (which is brutal! LOL)

Hope my ramblings were of some worth. But overall, yeah, the Dr. C-Chip system is a little pricey, but in relation to the cost of our vehicles, I feel it's a small price to pay for some good repair to our beloved vehicles.

About the only big wish I'd have of their system, there is no clear color to deal with minor key scratches-etc, where the color layer hasn't been compromised. Not sure if they sell a clear, but cannot find it on their website?

[RippyD]

I struggle to keep paint where I want it with Dr. Colorchip. I'll do 3-4 (or more applications) and then just call it good. I never get close to leveling with Dr. Colorchip. Every time I try to remove the excess some paint comes out of the chip as well. If there's a better way to do this I'm all ears.

One more tip I got from here or elsewhere: I cover my paint around the chip with paste wax. The paint you smear won't stick to it and easily wipes off. Has worked well for me.