Are these rock chips or something else...?

**zimmerpflanze** · 12-19-2018, 03:41 PM

Took my car to an automatic car wash to wash off winter grime and salt when the temperature raise slightly above freezing (hand-washing in 35 F temperatures seemed to me an unappealing alternative). After the wash, I noticed these scratches/chips in the car's paint:

They're pretty small ( ~ 1 mm) and I only noticed them because of aberrations in how light was reflecting off the surrounding area. The photos are showing a very close cropping of the "paint artifacts".

Anyone have any thoughts on what might have caused them? My gut feeling is that they're small rock chips from the car wash, but the morphology doesn't seem consistent with previous rock chips that I've seen. It's entirely possible that they've been there pre-car wash but I just didn't notice them because of all the winter grime. I could it also be some sort of solvent popping or rock chips incurred through use of the car.

They're small enough where I'm not sure what the most appropriate thing to do with them would be...

**rlmccarty2000** · 12-19-2018, 08:04 PM

Doesn’t look like solvent pop. If they are rock chips you should be able to feel the indentation where the paint is gone. Looks like a ton of them. Dr Colorchip sells a kit for that type of rash. You just squirt the paint onto the surface and then squeegee the paint into the chips and then wipe with their sealer. It’s a good cheap fix instead of a full repaint.

**zimmerpflanze** · 12-19-2018, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by rlmccarty2000

Doesn’t look like solvent pop. If they are rock chips you should be able to feel the indentation where the paint is gone. Looks like a ton of them. Dr Colorchip sells a kit for that type of rash. You just squirt the paint onto the surface and then squeegee the paint into the chips and then wipe with their sealer. It’s a good cheap fix instead of a full repaint.

Thanks for the reply. It's much appreciated. I'll give the Dr. Colorchip a look.

I think the cropping I did on the photo makes it a bit hard to discern, but the larger spots in center of the photo are the bits of paint damage I am trying to figure out. What makes them confusing to me is that they protrude from the surrounding paint rather than going into it; I'm thinking the white at the center of each protrusion is primer.