AtroxDeorum

Hey everybody! I just bought my first Benz back in June (actually, the first car I've owned)--a 2002 E320 Sport sedan in Obsidian Black Metallic (197) paint. When I bought it, it had several paint chips from rocks/road debris--several on the front of the hood around the lights, one on the roof above the windshield, and one larger one on the passenger side window panel. All of them--except the one on the window panel--are fairly small; on average, a bit less than the diameter of a pencil eraser.

Anyway, I didn't really know how urgent an issue paint chips are and now, three months later, I realize that some of the chips already show some rust down in them. Some of the chips don't go past the greyish layer (which I believe is the primer), but the ones that do are now brown with rust at the bottom. Some of the chips also have a slight blue outline around them, which I'm afraid means the rust is starting to spread outward under the paint?

Worse, the largest chip, on the window panel, has paint bubbling around it already, which I KNOW means there is probably rust spreading underneath. Again, didn't notice this or realize how severe it was until I really started reading up on paint chips and rust. The chip itself is about as wide as a pencil eraser and a little longer than it is wide, with lightly bubbling paint around it. The total area of bubbling around the chip is a little smaller than a penny.

(NOTE: I'm at work and can't post any pictures now, but will take some high-resolution photos of the chips when I get home in a few hours so you can see what I'm describing for yourselves...)

Before I started reading up on rust issues with paint chips, I had intended on just DIYing the chips with touch-up paint and was planning on buying the paint pen kit from PaintScratch.com. But now the possibility that "hidden" rust is spreading under the paint around the visible chips has me somewhat concerned. If this ends up requiring me to sand existing paint away and "widen the chip" in order to clean rust that's spread underneath, I'm worried the job might be too extensive for me to DIY; filling in small chips is one thing but repainting a quarter-sized (or larger! ) patch after sanding down the surrounding area seems a bit more involved and a lot easier to screw up.

So, my questions to the experts of MBWorld are: First of all, can anyone offer a second opinion on the severity of the rust issues I've described? (Again, I plan to post photos later today in addition to the written descriptions.) What course of action should I take to repair the rust/ chips? Can I still DIY and if so, what is the best procedure/tools for the job? In all honestly, I'd like to maintain the car's (beautiful!) exterior as best as possible, but at the same time I'm not planning on keeping this vehicle for an extremely long time (5 years max) and I'd rather not shell out a lot of money on an issue like this if I can help it. I'm just looking for the cheapest, easiest solution that will best preserve the appearance (and resale value) of the vehicle for the next 4-5 years.

Bring on the ideas!

ohlord

$5grand car if that.So that point is moot.
Get some POR dab it on and lightly sand then paint a small bit of touch up paint and live with it.

AtroxDeorum

Thanks ohlord, I understand you're a guru around these parts. Yeah, I guess it's not so much the resale value per se, I just don't want to end up with rust still spreading under the paint or eating through the hood. At least not while I still own it!

Using touch up paint and living with it is exactly what I want to do, I'm just not sure if the rust that's already present has spread beyond the visible chips, under the paint--and if it has, whether that will be a problem that will end bite my *** again in the timeframe I own the car. I've read that rust continues to spread through the metal even if the original chip is repainted, but how quickly can it spread once its sealed in with no water or oxygen? Does POR stop the spreading in surrounding areas even if it doesn't make direct contact?

I thought you needed to sand down the surrounding areas and clean off any additional rust that has spread in order to stop it from spreading further, and I guess what I really want to know is whether that's the case for my chips or whether I can just use a rust converter on the visible rust in the chip and repaint? Having to sand it out and potentially widen each chip seems like a bigger repainting job than I've been planning to do, so I would need to rethink my strategy at the very least.



The pictures turned out to be a bust. I underestimated how reflective the paint is. Regardless, here they are:


One of the ones on my hood. The blue circle around it is not a layer of primer, but a blue tint to the paint all around the chip. Is that a sign that there is rust spreading underneath?


One on the roof, dime for size comparison. Most of them are roughly this size. The blue tint is most visible on this one.


The nasty one on the passenger side window panel. You can kind of see the bubbling that spreads backward from it.


Another of the window panel with dime for size comparison.


How bad do they look? Can I just fill and forget, or do these look like the kind where there's more rust lurking under the paint around them?