In retrospect this was a silly topic to start - so sorry!

Just done a search - 14 pages of threads on stone chips!

I'm going back to patience and Langka!

But here are a few of the more pertinent quotes:

First - some common sense:

"I had my S for just over a year now (May 8th). It's black, so I washed it every weekend or two when I first got it, and I still do.
I about cried when I saw my first scratch. Now it's got minor dings, little scratch here and there. It's now my daily driver d/t the nicer weather, so that was expected. I'll just zaino it later.
It's just a car. A very nice car, but it's still just a car. So don't worry about little scratches/dings here and there. It's still a very beautiful and a great handling car, w/ or w/o dings and scratches. It's hard to keep it showroom quality, so just have fun with it.
Feel better?
No? Wait 'til the flaming starts (on me), then you will.
Just trying to make you feel better."

Second - this is what your S cd look like:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/ferrari.f1/S2000_..._reflection.jpg

Third some of the more useful bits of advice - there were a couple of nuggets in there from my point of view:

"keep in mind that this is a laborious and time consuming process. you will definitely need patience.

here are the stuff you will need for the job: touchup paint (it's best to pay a body shop some money for them to mix you up a batch that matches your paint as best as possible), paper towel, liquid polishing compound, wax.

1. clean and dry the damaged area.
2. remove as much touchup paint from from the brush as possible, and gently dab the affected area with the tip of the brush so that a small amount of paint fills the chip.
3. used a clean part of the paper towel and gently dab the excess paint from the affected area. it is best to just lay a flat surface of the paper towel over the touchup paint to absorb some of the excess paint and remove it immediately. take care to remove the paint on the undamaged area surrounding the chip as best as possible.
4. wait a couple minutes for the paint to dry.
5. repeat steps 2-4 as many times as required till the dried touchup paint is at or slightly above the level of the orignal paint.
6. use a polishing compound to remove the residual paint left on the undamaged area that the paper towel did not remove as well as level off the touchup paint in the affected area till it is flush with the original paint.
7. apply a layer of wax to the polished area to protect it."

"I used the Griot's Garage tiny little paint applicators and system with the Honda touch up paint with great results. Basically:
1. Clean the stone chips area with 3M degreaser/ wax remover
2. Apply the paint with the applicators in stages until it is above the surrounding good paint, let it cure for 48 hours.
3. Wet sand the area with 2500 grit over a eraser, like the ones from Elementary school, red with a beveled edge, soak the sand paper overnight in water.
4. When you get the touch up paint equal with the surrounding good paint, stop and use their #3 polishing compound, almost like new again! If anyone is looking for the absolute best car care stuff, visit their site at www.griotsgarage.com, I have their entire system now and just love everything they make, expensive though, but worth it IMHO! Cheers, Soyinside"

"Some touch up paint "kits" include a book of matches (without the part that makes fire). You tear off a match and use the torn off end to dab the paint with."

"have to confess, I use a round toothpick. Whaler is right, it takes me several days fill in a chip. In a way this is good, because several thin coats of pain is always more durable than fewer thicker layers."

"I use a touch-up pen. Each end has a capped felt tip. One end for paint and the other for clear coat. Works great; you can apply the paint VERY sparingly.
I got it from my Honda dealer and the part number for red (in Canada anyway) is TUCHR510. $13.37 CDN"

"I have a friend that uses a hypodermic needle to apply touch up paint. He swears by that method. He says you can precisely apply the exact amount of paint you want.
I have not watched him applying touch up paint this way, but have seen the results and they are very good."

"The problem is that the paint, when applied by a spray gun, can disperse the metallic "chips" in a uniform manner, but it is impossible to do that with a pen or touch-up brush. So it's virtually impossible to match paint colors when touching up a metallic car."

"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."

"Got some GT88 scratch remover ("from the makers of Didi 7, as seen on TV") about a year ago to fix a few scratches on the wife's black Caravan. Didn't work so good for really deep scratches but I kept the stuff around. I had two 1/2" long scratches on the hood.....the kind made when a small rock does a "skip" along the surface of the paint. I cleaned them off and could feel the rough edge with my fingers and they were quite visible. Also had a regular rock chip that hit just on the edge of the 3M film. I was about to go at it with touch up paint when I thought, "What the heck." After I wiped these places clean, I could NOT see or feel the scratches anymore. The rock chip I could still feel but I could not visually detect where it was. Who'da thought?

 

And the MCB equiv on the Seat Leon... A friend with one has complained that it's the worst paint he's ever seen.

He's just bought an RX* in the same colour, so he must be a glutton for punishment

 

sheesh mike, amazing, I think i'll take mine to a bodyshop.

 

Yes, he very kindly did!

I have 3 very small (<1cm long) scratches in my rear bumper where some kind soul ran into me. The damage initially looked much worse with 6" long scuffs however, after 3 long, arm aching polishing (I use Auto Glym Silicon resin polish for this purpose as it is very, very slightly abrasive (I do not use it for polishing the car - I use Zaino)) sessions these have all gone.

Having removed the larger, but thankfully shallower damage, I am left with 3 little scratches which all broke the clear coat, and 1 which is down to the black bumper plastic.

Before seeing Peter I had applied 1 layer of touch up paint. I did this by cleaning the Auto Glym of the surface with IPA, then warming the touch up paint - 10 mins on a radiator seemed to do the trick. I then shook the little bottle for a good 5 mins.

I applied the paint using a very, very fine modelling brush. Peter seemed to thing I had done a reasonable job, and the only reason the scratches are still visible is that they havent been filled to the level of the rest of the paint.

So, what needs to be done is to fill the scratches. Despite ones natural inclination to brush in big dollops of paint to fill the holes, this is a strict no-no. It is a slow, painstaking process - Peter recommended a very thin layer of paint once per week for 3 or 4 weeks - this is what I am doing and things are looking pretty good. Peter recommended using a slither of matchstick to apply the paint - this seems to work well.

Once I have the paint up to, or just over the level of the undamaged paint Peter said he would 'mop the surface'. I do not know what this entails - I imagine it is some fort of polishing / leveling process - I'll let you know in a few weeks time!!!!