Took the new Prius for a trip down to the Central Coast. 4 days and 700 miles after I took delivery, I found this today while sealing the paint: Close-up: I have an appointment for a clear bra kit next Saturday (7/3), but of course, the rocks already beat me. Does anyone have any advice on how to best touch this up? Or should I leave it? Thanks.
Best money I ever spent! All my cars have it, I always do just the hood. I tell the wife to back off the semis and were good!Touch up paint from the dealer is best, EZ fix! Do it before the clear bra gos on!
Yeah, I was in denial about the tendency of chips on the newer water-based finishes until this happened to me. I ordered a VentureShield Ultra pre-cut kit, cut with Xpel Software, for this car. It has a 24" bikini cut for the hood, full bumper, turn signals in the bumper, headlights, mirrors and partial fenders. $287 for the kit, and another $200 (ish) for my buddy to install it. Local installers were quoting $700 for the 18" hood kit without headlights, so with headlights and the 24" hood piece, I was likely looking at over $800. Hopefully my friend does a good job.
We have 24k on our Prius and the paint is a mess. It's got tons of chips on it (most of our driving is outskirts of city-type speeds; very little on the highway). I'm currently working on techniques to resolve them with touch up paint and buffing the edges. Even if we had a clear bra on it I see some on the side view mirrors and, well, I guess from where kids rub up against the sides. But, yeah, doesn't seem the toughest paint in the world.
Ditto for me on the hood. I drive mostly highway and take a ton of road trips, and my hoods is really chipped up. I am pretty disappointed in how quickly it has been eaten up.
Ditto. The bumper is pitted and the hood has plenty of chips (most of which I've touched up). The new paint is water-based and much softer than the older paint composition. I'm also guessing that the Prius' front design has something to do with it (i.e. the angle of the hood). My area is so bad, I have stone chips in my side windows (2 very small ones, one on each rear window) ... yep.. not happy.
I was out today correcting a ton of chips/scratches (I will admit most of the scratches were from me using a contaminated wash mitt). Here is an example of damage not caused by me. Believe it or not, yes, those are all chips in the paint. I know because I cleaned this area thoroughly and clay-barred it. Other than the two vertical scuffs that I will take responsibility for the rest is just road wear. For a car with 24k that's an awful lot, I think.
Depends on the area, I guess. Those areas that use sand instead of salt will probably see more chips.
I tried touching up the spot and kept failing miserably. Eventually I just scraped/cleaned/dissolved any touch-up paint I installed, claybar-ed the hood and took the car to the body shop. The guys at the body shop were able to touch up the car in about 15 minutes and the results are much better than what I could have achieved.
The key to chip touch ups is using a toothpick, apply a very light dab, keeping it inside the damaged area, and allow to dry. It will shrink quite a bit. Keep applying light coats, allowing to dry 10 minutes between coats, until the new paint level is even with the old.
The body shop manager did it for free. I offered to pay him but he wouldn't take my money. My local dealerships referred me to two different mobile paint repair guys that they use for their used cars. Both of these guys mix the paint on the truck. One quoted me $30, while the other said he charged a flat rate of $65 for the entire car. Both of these guys also turned down my business and told me to buy the paint and do it myself with a toothpick. MB860 ?
Any chance you can tell us the name of your body shop and/or the mobile repair guys? I'm in northern CA also and could use a reliable referral. Tom G.
