The Easy Way To Find Your Perfect Paint Chip Repair Kit

Getting paint chips and scratches on your car's most priceless bodywork seems to be a fact of life. It's unavoidable, yet is still a pain in the backside whenever it appears. Your heart sinks to the ground, as your bank account nervously tabulates the costs. In the olden days, the only way to fix paint chips or damage, be it from a loose pebble flying at Mach 1 or the handle of a shopping trolley, is a respray.

Having your car repainted over is complex, time-consuming, and stupidly expensive, especially when it's to cover up what appears to be a trivial fault. Thankfully, the advances in paint tech mean that there are far cheaper and simpler ways of patching up and repairing those pesky paint chips. Plus, actually needing to go out of your way to find a paint chip repair kit by yourself is quite easy, too.

How Can You Find The Right Paint Touch-Up Kit For Your Car?

The most important consideration as far as picking and choosing from the myriad of different paint chip touch-up kits is no doubt whether it matches your car. Its shimmering paintwork is the first thing that your eyes lock on to, so it's worthwhile finding the right shade of colour to match your car. A bit too dark of maroon on your cherry red car will almost immediately look out of place.

The good news here is that many paint touch-up and repair brands have easy ways to get the perfect colour match. Chipex, for example, was among the first companies to use a registration plate system, so you'll only need to input your car's number plates to get the exact tinge from the manufacturer. Or, you could try and find your car's colour code from dozens of makes and models combined.

For Chipex, you find paint touch-ups made for popular carmakers such as Audi, BMW, Ford, Honda, Jaguar, Mercedes, Nissan, Mazda, Volkswagen, and a whole lot more. Regardless of whichever brand of paint chip repair kits that you pick, it's surprisingly very easy to find the right colours, and bring back that beaming glow and shine your car once had. 

A Few Other Features To Think Over

Once you've found whether or not the colour suits your car, there's a few other important variables of a paint touch-up kit to consider. Paint chip repair kits come in different forms, from brush bottles to pen tips. You'll have to choose between them depending on how bad the damage is, such as assessing the surface area of the chips and how many there are.

Pen - The most common variation of paint touch-up solutions is one that's delivered as a pen. It works like a typical marker such as a marker, where the paint flows to the precise tip of the pen. A paint pen is far easier to use and get it right, but it does dry out rather quickly. Moreover, it may take a little while for you to fill in every chip, so pick a pen only when the damage is minor. 

Brush - If your paint chips are present in several parts of the car, and is larger than say, a pencil eraser (but still smaller than a penny), then it's worth stepping up to the brush. These kits look like oversized nail polish, with a bottle of paint and a brush applicator to smear onto your car. It might take a bit more skill to get the paint applied properly, but a brush does work better for larger chips.

Once that's done, you'll now have to think about how easy they are to use. You'd preferably want a paint repair kit with clear instructions, requires as few steps as possible, and dries out quickly. In the instance of Chipex, it fulfils all these requirements beautifully, with a touch-up solution that even the beginner could comfortably do, and its paints take often less than 5 minutes to dry.

The Benefits Of Getting Your Car's Paint Patched Up

But... Why should I actually bother with getting my car's paint chips repaired? I can hear you asking this, as the chip that you're encountering might be fairly trivial. Maybe it doesn't bother you as much, or you think it's not worth brushing fresh paint on your old car. Perhaps you might not have the time, or are just too busy to be shopping around for a bottle of paint. 

Nonetheless, there are some very big upsides to getting those stone chips, scratches, dings, and other paint imperfections mended properly...

Prevents your car from rusting - Your car's paint isn't just to flaunt and show off its vibrant colours. The coatings of paint splotched onto your car doubles as a protective layer to shield its metal (or plastic) bodywork below from the elements. If your car's paint is exposed, then all that moisture, salt, grime, and contaminants can start rusting into your car's body, eating away all the metal.

Protects your car's resale value - While you may think that the puny stone chips are nothing to worry about, the next potential owner might. Even the smallest of damage can make substantial dents to your car's resale value. You'd have to be very lucky to find a future buyer who's either oblivious, or is incredibly merciful to not knock off hundreds or thousands of pounds from the asking price.

Paint resprays are expensive - Let's be fair, it's hard to ignore stone chips and scratches. They're a sore sight for your eyes, and you'd surely be keen to have it fixed right away. Typically, this means sending your car over to a paint shop. In the UK, even the most basic full respray can cost you at least £1,000. Or, why not get a DIY-style touch-up kit, where a whole bottle can be had for less than £50. 

A quick and easy repair - Another add-on plus point for choosing a paint touch-up and repair kit over passing it on to a full paint shop is time. Getting your car's paint stripped down, repainted, and then meticulously detailed might see you parting ways with your car for several days or upwards of a week. An at-home paint touch-up, meanwhile, would spare you no more than just an hour or two.