When you are driving car on any kind of road, the body is bound to get some paint chips, dings and road rash. Below, we take a look at a semi-permanent method of repairing these little defects that are visible on the body of your car.
Step #1: Acquire Your Tools
You will need several pieces of tools and accessories for basic paint chip repair. You will need the following: 1500 grit sandpaper, a couple different touch up applicators with varying brush styles, a base coat paint, a urethane clear coat, a catalyst solution, a couple of stainless steel mixing cups, and a handful of little plastic paint caps, three eyedroppers, and a single-edged razor blade.
Step #2: Smooth and Repair the Chips
Many times when driving, little rocks can kick up and hit the body of your car causing little pits or chips. To get rid of these rock chips, take your razor blade and dig out any residual rust or rock fragments that may still be there. Next, take your 1500 grit sand paper and simply smooth out the surface area to level down the area around the chips and and give the repair (the base coat paint) something to stick to. 
Now, take your base coat and apply a little bit to one of your touch up brushes, preferably one with a precise small brush. Lightly touch the the chip in a gentle up and down motion, ensuring that the base coat is covering the chip while still leaving some room in the cavity for the clear coat. If you have a bigger, more conventional modeler’s brush, use the backend of the brush for applying the base coat in order to get more precision and paint control. Let the base coat dry for up to an hour to ensure that the clear coat doesn’t change the color once it’s applied.
Step #3: Apply the Clear Coat
Take your clear coat, and pour a small splash of it into one of your stainless steel mixing cups. Take your catalyst and pour a similarly small amount into the other steel mixing cup. Now, take one of your eyedroppers, and fill it up from the clear coat mixing cup. Take another eyedropper, and fill it up from the catalyst mixing cup. Next, you’re going to add drops from each dropper into one small plastic cap. You always want this to be a 2-1 ratio with two parts clear coat to one part catalyst. 
So, for instance, if you deposit eight drops of your clear coat into a plastic cap, you’ll deposit four drops of the catalyst into the same cap. Now with your third eyedropper, lightly mix the clear coat and catalyst in the plastic cap by squeezing the drop and bubbling up the mixture.
Now, take one of your unused touch up applicators and gently dip it in the plastic cap so that the brush soaks up the clear coat and catalyst mixture. Lightly dab the brush onto the rock chip surface to apply the first coat of the mixture. Wait 20 to 30 minutes to allow the first coat to dry, than apply a second coat with the touch up brush in order to completely fill in the paint chip depression. Once the final coat is dried, take your single-edged razor blade, and lightly scrape it down the top of the paint chip to get rid of any excess clear coat. Make sure, as you’re doing this, that you are not digging your coats out or redoing any work you have put into the paint chip repair. 
Once that’s done, sand down the entire paint chip area, add some liquidized compound to the region, start buffing the area to smooth it out. Buff it out until the color matches or is as close to the original color as possible. This method of paint chip repair is ideal for re-coating your car any time you want, as it levels the chip and makes the area uniform with the rest of the car’s body. As always, make sure before you work that your tools and accessories are clean and free of anything that may contaminate your workspace.
So go forth, and repair those paint ships today! For more DIY car tutorials, be sure to visit Eastwood.com.