O.K. So everyone thinks those darned annoying chips on the front of the car are all the same, and that all you need to do is use a drop of touchup paint on them. Well, that's not quite the case. Having the benefit of a white S2K, and the use of a 10x magnifier, it is very obvious that most chips on the frontal area of the bumper tend to take away the paint down the original surface. However, chips that appear on the hood, fenders, and sides of the front bumper are usually only superficial - removing just the clear coat; presumably this is because they are caused by stones glancing off the bodywork - not by direct impact. The reason that chips in the clear coat are so visible is that dirt and wax tend to build up in the cavity. If you take some rubbing alcohol and Q-tip to them, they usually (almost) disappear.

The question is - how do you fix the two types of stone chip damage? I've read the on-line suggestion about sanding (paint) chips down using an eraser pencil with sandpaper glued to the end, but rubbing a 1/4" circular hole for each chip seems a little too drastic to me. I use a simple dab of touchup paint on a toothpick, and apply it using the magnifier. For those chips that only break through the clear coat, I have no idea how to fix them. Cleaning them out only works until more dust accumulates in them. Has anyone any ideas or suggestions on how to repair (just) the clear coat? Will clear coat touchup paint do the job?

 

Once you feel the uneven surface with a fingernail there is not much you can do but to have it repainted. The problem is with the clear coat and waterbased paints. They are not as sound as the old lead based paints. This is a problem for all cars today. After getting my first two stone chips, I went with the 3M Invca Shield. This is an invisible bra like Xpel. Just a different distributor. I went to a Ziebart dealer. The problem with this process is the ditributor who sell the stuff to Ziebart has not correctly figured out the template for the S2000 and the front bumber piece had to be sent back before they finalyl got it down. iIt looks great and can barely be seen. I also like that it can peeled off down the road.