MBfan21

What do I do? Have had the car only 10 days and I am noticing a chip in the paint on the hood. I take it the dealership will not take responsibility on this but why would the paint chip so easily? I have a black car so it basically looks like a white spot on the hood...
About how much would it cost to get this repaired? They wouldn't have to repaint the entire hood right? Can't they just fill in that one spot?

CarGuru

Just live with it, our C300 front bumper had about 50 small rock chips on the bumper the first month we had it, then later a few showed up on the headlamps and fogs. Luckily the hood still looks cherry, IMO it's a lost cause as my wife drives 12 miles down the freeway daily. It's not really that big of a deal, if you walked through a mall parking lot 99% of the cars front ends would look like your s it happens to everyones car. Also think of it like this if you spend $800-$1000 to repaint it, I bet you have 3-5 new chips a week later so why bother When I was younger I had an Acura Integra GS-R I dearly loved, a huge rock came of the back of a semi and left x2 dents and gouged paint. I was so excited to file an Ins claim because I new my hood would look like brand new. Well it did for about a week, then I had a couple chips, a month later about 20 so the moral is you would be throwing money away.

-Ryan

W0n6_3d4n

Touch it up, is it just a plain Black??

GDawgC220

Simple wear and tear. Easiest solution if you don't want rock chips...don't drive the car. A clear bra helps in these situations but only up to where the bra covers.

ora12

I drove past 2 salt trucks heavily spraying salt on all three lanes of the highway at about 4am in the morning driving from Manhattan and I thought I'd find some chip or crack but nada! Thank God!!! I washed my car today and luckily I still don't have a single scratch. I recommend if you don't want chips or scratches just try not going past 60mph. I believe there's a reason why people with mint cars don't drive very fast.

OH! And last night I rode over a christmas tree on the FDR! lol I checked for scratches and still nada. Don't ask... I couldn't avoid it. I also had 2 martinis... Okay, that's enough... lol

CarGuru

Your right about the speed and all, heck I can't keep my car below 60 as it is.. The best way is to try not to trail close to cars on the highway. The fast lane is the worst because people veer off into the shoulder kicking up crap, also avoid gravel transfers, lifted trucks with all-terrain tires and no mud flaps, tractor trailers, cement trucks, debris trucks, landscaping etc... There really is no solution. In the end it's just a car and you have to come to the conclusion the W204 albeit a beautiful, innovative, great car will never be a classic or collectors item like a Vette or Porsche etc..

-Ryan

hyukki

Oh man, you guys are compaining about a rock chip?

Nissan/Infiniti paint sucks major *****. I've had my car for 5-6 months with 26k miles, the front bumper is seriously covered with chips.

I chipped a bit of the paint off today at the gas station while trying to put the nozzle in to the gas tank hole with one hand.

MBfan21

It's obsidian black. But not sure how much a touch up would be. The chip is about the size of a dot made by a sharpie marker.

I have no problem going below 60 mph but it's hard to go below that on the NJ turnpike. People zooming up right behind you and you feel the need to go faster so they don't hit you... or there's a truck next to you and you have to pass it.

Now this is going to sound rather foolish, but do you think if I took a black sharpie and just filled in that dot, would it look noticeable? I know you have use paint in such a way. I wish I knew how to just fix it with some black paint... but it's obsidian black. I guess I should leave it alone.

Besides carguru who posted, anyone else have chips in their hood yet?

MBfan21

anyone know if the dealership sells a touch up paint kit made for rock chips?
I was reading about it on this site.

http://drcolorchip.com/mini-touchup-kit.html

aowhaus

I have been really satisfied with this place for touch up paint and custom mixed paint in cans (perfect match to manufacturer's codes):
www.paintscratch.com

W0n6_3d4n

I recomend getting someone profesional doing it. My previous C class was egged and left a nasty chips spot (20 or so) around the target, i had a pro touch them up and couldn't tell the difference. I bought some touch up pen marker that contain the exact paint colour but it turns out to be too dark once applied.

chilledbenz

OOOOh none of the clear bra guys have hit this thread up? They are lacking, this is the perfect time to tell him he should have paid $600 or $800 or what ever they are charging these days to suran wrap a car.

Just go to the service department and buy some touch up paint. There's no reason to spend hundreds of dollars to have someone touch it up, and buff it out, only for you to get another stone chip somewhere else and defeat the money you just spent.

Just drive it....and if its not yours..drive it like you stole it!

st13phil

First thing: Stone chips are unavoidable on any motor vehicle.

Second thing (from someone who lives in a damp climate!): You must touch up stone chips quickly or they will provide an opportunity for corrosion to start.

Get a colour-matched touch up pencil from an MB dealer and use that - both the colour coat and the clear laquer. The latter provides a moisture barrier, the base-coat paint does not. Do not expect to get a perfect finish from any sort of paint touch up, but the result is far preferable to the corrosion if you leave it unattended.

tanktube67

Buy a touch up kit from your MB ($20.00) I got one last week

MBfan21

Thanks . I will go and get a touch up pencil thing. But my question is it easily noticeable to tell you did something to the car. I have never painted anything before.. I guess it would be simple just filling in the little rock chip area. I don't want it to look bad though.

GDawgC220

Look up something called Langka. It basically smooths out touch up paint because usually when you apply touch up paint, it's somewhat a "blob" almost and Langka smooths it out. People have had good results.

You won't be able to cover all rock chips, just something that happens to everyone when you take the car out.

CarGuru

The answer is yes. It's like damn if you do damn if you don't The PO touched up chips on the front of my '88 Cab and personally I would rather have had the chips than the touch up. IMO I think touch up looks worse than the chips, but in contrast like the other fellow said you want to cover them so they don't corrode.
-Ryan

webada

yep, these are nice stuff. I used them on my motorcycle.

I really hate the brush stuff and spray can is just too much to stone chips... if you can find the color match in pen style, that might fit the bill better. It can cover the tiny spot easily without the brush stroke or bumps.

However, my recommendation is don't do anything or get a bra if that really bothers you. I have a black car too, and its way too noticable but only if you keep looking for them :-) Sometimes I use those color wax when it bothers me but mostly I just wax and forget about it.

Shake

I've had my front end repainted due to rock chips, about $4100.

rb23lb

5000 miles no chips for me, just lots of dead bugs i clean out from time to time... guess i am lucky

oblu

Okay ... since we've got the, 'shoulda got clear bra' thing covered, let me add in the old dude, 'in my day when they had thicker paint we didn't get many rock chips'.

I have no idea what chemical they used to put in the paint that they switched out for water based paint. But I know it used to be at least 3x as thick as it is now.

Nevermind, that back in my day there weren't nearly as many cars on the road to throw **** up either.

I wish instead of consumers leaning on the manufacturers for stupid crap like more cupholders that they'd lay on them for some better engineered paint solutions that wouldn't chip so easy. And some tougher windshield glass while they're at it. It sucks have a 2yr old car that looks like it was left out in a sand storm for 10yrs.

MBfan21

I had a clear bra and hated the line and the crappy installation they did and I had it removed. The chip in the paint is on the upper portion of the hood anyway so the bra wouldn't have covered it.

Speaking of the hood, how do you get rid of the light scratches in the paint.. is there a solution that would take it off? Recommend something please!

CarGuru

I used to be an ins adjuster, heres my 2 cents. The paint they use now is made and applied different to be more friendly on the environment per se. It sucks for the car, but better for all of us in the end.

-Ryan

GDawgC220

A good polish (Menzerna, Zaino, etc) to take out the light swirls/scratches/paint imperfections. Sometimes application by hand can take care of it but a Porter Cable would be a plus.

oblu

Really? Why not just make sure the factory doesn't dump it's waste by products directly into some stream or come up with a better disposal process? Or at least make the respray costs less so that consumers could afford to have it repainted every couple of years ... but that doesn't solve the sand blasted headlight housings (that as you must know are several hundred if not over a thousand to replace) and the windshield glass.

Plus how is it better for the environment when these items need to be replaced and disposed of to refresh the car for resale in the case of lease? I would think one hit during manufacturing would be better than multiple hits over the life cycle of the car.

It still firmly believe that if consumers demanded it they could come up a paint application (possibly that had some flexibility to it to absorb impacts instead of chip off?) that was better engineered to last longer.

And then there wouldn't be any environmental impact from resprays. Speaking of which, do body shops have any EPA guidelines they have to follow like factories do? If not it's quite possible they have a larger environmental impact than the original paint application if they have not controls in place.