Sonic Soft Paint - How do you deal with chips?

[SMorris]

Afternoon all,

I've had my sonic red RC-F for just over a year now, and whilst the colour looks really special in the sun the paint seems incredibly soft.  Perhaps it's just the trade-off for the amazing depth of colour Lexus seem to be able to get into their paint (photographs don't do justice to the cars in the metal), but it is a constant battle to keep the stone chips to a minimum.

What do you guys do?  In an ideal world I'd have bought the car from new and immediately clear bra'd the most prone areas, but as a lowly engineer we're inhabiting the used market sector of F ownership so it's a bit late for that!

I've got a chipex kit which helps for the worst offenders on the nose, however with multi layer paint (red over metallic silver in this case) it's just not possible to get both colours layered into a chip, so they never quite match.

* This post was in no way related to the *beep* who opened their door into my car at work today, despite my parking at the end of a row, in an extra wide bay, hard up against the far side from them.  Obviously Suzuki swifts are wider than they look. 🤔

[Linas.P]

You could help him to make his Suzuki Swift little narrower by removing his rear view mirrors - "every little helps".

Sadly cannot advise on paint matching, as metallic are always pain to match, however "soft paint" in general is less likely to chip, so I would not blame the issue on the softness of the paint.

[SMorris]

Maybe you're right, perhaps it is just the design of the nose collects more chips than my previous cars, or perhaps I notice them more because of the paint colour (my ISF was silver).  Would be curious to know if anyone else with the red or blue paint has similar issues.

[NemesisUK]

I feel your pain ... 😩

I collected this chip on the bonnet very soon after getting the car (bought new) 

Dealer offered to repair it, using the touch-up kit but admitted it would "stick out like a sore thumb"!!

An invisible repair would cost £1100 😵 requiring a complete bonnet respray..

I've left it and in the interim 18 months have not acquired any more....  

[Guest]

I spoke to a pro painter about it and he said all you can do is try to make it so the eye isn't drawn to it. An invisible repair on this kind of paint would be super expensive everytime you got a chip. I've bought a Lowe fine line pen, you fill it with paint and touch tiny dots in. Plan to experiment this summer.

Coloured polish will improve matters.

If any consolation blue is the same.

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[Flytvr]

That stinks @SMorris!  Having been up an close to several member's RC-Fs, it appears that the RC-F nose is a magnet for chips.

Can't really advise on how to fix the issue now the 'horse has bolted', but for those owners who have not yet got chips, I can highly recommend NGenco - 

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3 (don't try this at home!)

[Tfp]

15 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

I feel your pain ... 😩

I collected this chip on the bonnet very soon after getting the car (bought new) 

Dealer offered to repair it, using the touch-up kit but admitted it would "stick out like a sore thumb"!!

An invisible repair would cost £1100 😵 requiring a complete bonnet respray..

I've left it and in the interim 18 months have not acquired any more....  

£1100 to repaint a bonnet?

Find yourself a local bodyshop that comes recommended.

 

[NemesisUK]

7 minutes ago, Tfp said:

£1100 to repaint a bonnet?

Find yourself a local bodyshop that comes recommended.

 

Would they be able to reproduce the finish, using the the 5 stage paint process ?

I doubt it would come out much cheaper

[Linas.P]

11 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

Would they be able to reproduce the finish, using the the 5 stage paint process ?

I doubt it would come out much cheaper

No don't even try, as much as I have experience getting car painted it is never done to anything near original paint (and that is plain black, non metallic). Furthermore when talking about painting bonnet, you need to understand that panels needs to be blended it. Now considering Lexus 5 stage painting process I have little confidence regular paint shop would be able to properly blend it either.

So basically instead of having stone chip eye sore you going to have whole bonnet eye sore. 

Obviously, there are good painters, but then the price and time it takes will make it non-financially feasible. 

[SMorris]

1 hour ago, NemesisUK said:

I feel your pain ... 😩

I collected this chip on the bonnet very soon after getting the car (bought new) 

Dealer offered to repair it, using the touch-up kit but admitted it would "stick out like a sore thumb"!!

An invisible repair would cost £1100 😵 requiring a complete bonnet respray..

I've left it and in the interim 18 months have not acquired any more....  

Ouch!  I had the exact same thing happen with my last car, an A45 AMG, the only new car I've ever owned.

[SMorris]

55 minutes ago, Comedian said:

I spoke to a pro painter about it and he said all you can do is try to make it so the eye isn't drawn to it. An invisible repair on this kind of paint would be super expensive everytime you got a chip. I've bought a Lowe fine line pen, you fill it with paint and touch tiny dots in. Plan to experiment this summer.

Coloured polish will improve matters.

If any consolation blue is the same.

Sent from my STV100-4 using Tapatalk
 

I'd seen a video of those pens, I think AmmoNYC on YouTube.  Not been able to find them in the UK, would be interested to hear how it works for you.

[Tfp]

43 minutes ago, NemesisUK said:

Would they be able to reproduce the finish, using the the 5 stage paint process ?

I doubt it would come out much cheaper

You'll have to go in and ask them.

I'm not local to you so can't recommend anyone, but there's a couple of bodyshops my way that do Bentleys and similar, I'm sure they could paint a Lexus, and they don't charge £1100

You only have to blend into the next panel if you're taking the colour close to the edge.

[Stazza80]

Won’t solve your problem now but maybe worth investing in a protective film over the front once you’ve painted it?

I hate stone chips and the way we repair roads with gravel in the UK really gets on my t*ts!

[NemesisUK]

Films tend to be sacrificial and can look scabby after a while too.

[Guest]

I'd seen a video of those pens, I think AmmoNYC on YouTube.  Not been able to find them in the UK, would be interested to hear how it works for you.

I ordered off amazon UK and they kept emailing saying they couldn't get it, do I want to cancel? and I kept saying no. Think it took 6 months + to arrive. Maybe they brought a few in?

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[tomRCFcarbon]

There’s a stonechip in my carbons bonnet. I presumed it might be easier to fix because it’s just lacquer? Not sure what I would use even - Mr Google will know if no one here is able to offer some advice first...

[Guest]

You should repair chips in carbon immediately. You do not want water getting in. If it starts to go....it will be super expensive. Speak to Flytvr about the coating he had fitted.

I've made a lot of posts about carbon when we were in the RC forum so you can read there if you like.




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[Martin F]

Some details attached for those of you with damage to the CF parts. 

 

B-4103R_IR.pdf

[Flytvr]

31 minutes ago, Comedian said:

You should repair chips in carbon immediately. You do not want water getting in. If it starts to go....it will be super expensive. Speak to Flytvr about the coating he had fitted.

I've made a lot of posts about carbon when we were in the RC forum so you can read there if you like.




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@Comedian helped me with making the decision to protect my car. Big thanks to him for  that.

I’ve recommended the treatment so many times on here. Amazes me that people buy such expensive cars, do nothing to protect them and then moan about how expensive it is to fix them.

Crumbs..... if you are buying a £40k car, surely a couple of grand is worth it to protect it? Each to their own I guess.

I wouldn’t touch PPF personally. Too many shoddy jobs done by cowboys. Finding someone good is harder than you might think - and IF you do find somebody - £££££!

 

 

 

 

[Flytvr]

50 minutes ago, tomRCFcarbon said:

There’s a stonechip in my carbons bonnet. I presumed it might be easier to fix because it’s just lacquer? Not sure what I would use even - Mr Google will know if no one here is able to offer some advice first...

I will add that you could just ignore it and eventually buy a replacement (replica bonnet) for less than @NemesisUK can repair his RC H.

[Hadrian]

When our Civic was damaged in a car park,  the door and front wing were damaged. I called out  "Dr Bump", I think it may be a franchise ?

They will usually do the work at your home or workplace, and charge £150 a panel. He had to take mine away as the door lining needed removing.

It was painted and glazed, and they did a beautiful job on it. Back with me in a couple of days.

[SMorris]

1 hour ago, Comedian said:

You should repair chips in carbon immediately. You do not want water getting in. If it starts to go....it will be super expensive. Speak to Flytvr about the coating he had fitted.

I've made a lot of posts about carbon when we were in the RC forum so you can read there if you like.




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Definitely.  Carbon hates moisture, it will start to delaminate if left damaged.

[SMorris]

1 hour ago, Flytvr said:

@Comedian helped me with making the decision to protect my car. Big thanks to him for  that.

I’ve recommended the treatment so many times on here. Amazes me that people buy such expensive cars, do nothing to protect them and then moan about how expensive it is to fix them.

Crumbs..... if you are buying a £40k car, surely a couple of grand is worth it to protect it? Each to their own I guess.

I wouldn’t touch PPF personally. Too many shoddy jobs done by cowboys. Finding someone good is harder than you might think - and IF you do find somebody - £££££!

 

 

 

 

Agreed, but if you're buying a £40k RCF then it's used, not new.  And if it's used it will already be chipped, and if it's chipped you can't apply a film covering - the paint should be perfect to avoid air bubbles etc.

[Flytvr]

Agreed, but if you're buying a £40k RCF then it's used, not new.  And if it's used it will already be chipped, and if it's chipped you can't apply a film covering - the paint should be perfect to avoid air bubbles etc.

Really? Used doesn’t mean it has chips at all. That’s a presumption.

If PPF can’t be applied on top of existing chips - that’s crap. Another reason I’d give standard PPF a very wide birth.



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[SMorris]

True.  I looked at 3 before buying, and i couldnt find one without a peppered nose.  Im sure they're out there though.  Not all the UK roads can be garbage, right? 🤔

I suppose you can put PPF over some chips, but I don't see the point in that case, there will always be a bubble or discontinuity there, surely?

A buddy of mine got part of his car vinyl wrapped without a full paint correction first.  Looks ok I guess, but it's not perfect and I think it causes more trouble in the long run.

At the end of the day though, I've no direct experience of PPF so this is all assumption on my side.  I've always just assumed you do it when new or not at all.