As an owner of a body shop there are two things that are a "pain" to deal with when a customer brings in a vehicle. One is a small dent... the other is paint chips. How do you explain to the customer that I have to charge $150.00 just to put paint in my paint gun... and then a basic amount just to sand the hood door etc. so that even a small dent comes in at $350.00 or more because I have to paint the entire panel.

My advise on small areas is to use a paint stick. However... most people get poor results with them and here is the reason why. The little paint brush that they come with is a WAY TOO BIG ! What you need to do is take a utlilty knife and eliminate 1/2 to 2/3's of the bristles. You now have something that you can use that will give good results. Just go easy and do not try to cover the chip in one aplication. It generaly takes two or three tries allowing it to dry a bit between aplications.

My advise is that if you go the paint route remember that it is expensive to mix paint these days so your biggest hit is always your first body panel. So I suggest that you use a touch up stick initially and then when it's time to paint the lower panels for rock chips etc. or your tail gate that you do all the panels at the same time. As a body shop owner it is better for me/us and easer to pass on a better deal to the customer. After all it is hard to get excited about tying up my shop for a job that brings in $350.00 and almost half of that is materials. Especially when it might take an extra hout at times just to get a good paint match...

As far as why it is failing... yours sounds a bit odd. Generally paint failing in "small spots" is caused from an impact. If that is not the case, which seems to be the case here, then what you will likely be experiencing is paint failure. If that is indeed the case then you will soon see a larger area peeling and spreading around the edges. If that turns out to be the case then your only option is refinishing the panel.


If you do not already have a bodyshop that you use the best way that I know of is to ask car salesman as they general know who the good ones are. Wishing you good luck...


Les

 

I had a couple of tiny "flakes" come off that same area. And no other area on the truck.

When I was painting my v-gate (tailgate) I touched up the spots and no new ones have occurred. That was 2-3 years ago.

 

Found a few more spots flaking. Looks like it is under some tree sap drippings

Seems to be ONLY on the hood though - and not on the roof .........