Best time for touch up

[BraveRhino]

The G9, backing plate, pads, compound and polish are on the way and I'm wondering at what point would make sense to take care of tiny blemishes on the paint. Stone chips in the bumper, that kind of thing..

I assume my approach would be - Wash, Decon, Clay Bar, TOUCH UP, Polish, Seal..

Any input highly appreciated!

[MisterSnoop]

What are you using to do touch up? I use Dr Colorchip. For that, you need to wait 30 days after doing that until you polish so it's touch-up and then polish.

[Mike Phillips]

What I practice and what I teach is also shared in the first part of my article on using Dr. Color Chip.




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Question

Do I do the rock chip repair first or do the paint correction, polishing and waxing first?



Answer

Probably the most common question I get about doing rock chip repair goes like this,

My car has rock chips and there's also swirls, scratches, water spots and oxidation in the paint. Should I polish the paint before using the Dr. ColorChip Rock Chip Repair Kit or after I fix the rock chips?


The answer is, for most people you'll be better off to polish the paint first.


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Here's the link to the full article.

How to use the Dr. ColorChip Paint Chip Repair Systems


And the above article is a text book example of why I cannot share this kind of educational content on Facebook, Facebook Groups or Instagram.

TOO much information formatted in an easy to take in the information manner with pictures that tell a story in a linear display.

[Bruno Soares]

Personally, I've always done the touch up (Dr. Colorchip) and then 2 weeks later I detail the car. The seal-act solution that needs to be wiped to level the paint always causes some marring, no matter how gentle I've tried to use it. So I like to polish after the touch up to clean up any marring caused. Of course you can't be too aggressive or you risk pulling that "fresh" paint off and then need to start again.

I haven't had any issues doing it as I describe below but I've always heard the recommendation is to polish first, then touch up. I just don't want to do it that way because it will require another session of polishing later and then I can't finish the detail. Doing it my way I know when I get to polishing the car I'll be able to apply the LSP afterwards and be done with it.

[BraveRhino]

All I have available at the moment is a double-sided paint/clear pan and this weekend I had hoped to test out the new G9 arriving this week. I'll have to look into the Dr Chip that Mike mentioned below, polish the whole car except for the front bumper, and fix bumper with Dr Chip, then follow up polishing/waxing the bumper afterwards. Darnit..

[BraveRhino]

On the Dr Chip site now, and I will read the article today. Thank you so much Mike!

[Mike Phillips]

On the Dr Chip site now, and I will read the article today.

Thank you so much Mike!

My article is in-depth - take your time to read through it and then take your time when you use the Dr. Color Chip system.

[2black1s]

I agree with those who recommend polishing first. Either that or wait 30+ days before machine polishing.

Polishing too soon, especially by machine, removes the fresh paint too easily.

Personally, if I couldn't wait the 30+ days for one reason or another, I would still do all of the major machine polishing first, then do the touch-up. If you create any marring during the touch-up process you can address it by lightly and carefully hand polishing those areas within a day or two.

We all have to make compromises from time-to-time and the scenario discussed here is ripe for compromise.

[damonb10]

Personally, I've always done the touch up (Dr. Colorchip) and then 2 weeks later I detail the car. The seal-act solution that needs to be wiped to level the paint always causes some marring, no matter how gentle I've tried to use it. So I like to polish after the touch up to clean up any marring caused. Of course you can't be too aggressive or you risk pulling that "fresh" paint off and then need to start again.

I haven't had any issues doing it as I describe below but I've always heard the recommendation is to polish first, then touch up. I just don't want to do it that way because it will require another session of polishing later and then I can't finish the detail. Doing it my way I know when I get to polishing the car I'll be able to apply the LSP afterwards and be done with it.

I do the same as you and have never had any issues with the paint pulling from the chip either.

I feel the risk is very low anyway. If for some reason the paint were pulled from the chip, then just redo it. But I've never had that happen.