I have a question about painting and touchups. My front bumper has a lot of Rock chips and I don't know what way I should go about it... all body shops around me want 450+ In the NE philly area .. It's stupid ...I thought of using a matching kh3 rattle can and fill , prime and spray then clear coat it. Rock chips are all over the mid range of the bumper left to right so it's either do 150 repairs or spray it all at once. If I decide on spraying how many cans do you think I should use ? 11oz each from express paint .com or if anyone knows who can do a good job for a good price in my area please let me know! Also this isn't a permanent thing I just want it to look decent till I get my nismo front bumper .

 

Dr Colorchip has a system for about $80 bucks to touch up what they call road rashes.

 

Sounds interesting but sounds like it'll come off if I machine polish it lol ... Anyone tried it before ?

 

Depends on the severity of the rock chips. If it's really bad you might just want to respray it. But since you said your gonna get a nismo bumper soon then touching up the chips should be fine. Dr color chip works great, I have used it on two of my cars before. It takes a little practice to get it right.

 

Touch up paint is for exactly that, touch up! If you have a front bumper with 6 dozen chips from years of driving, get it painted! Average price on the left coast is $300 but $450 isn't unreasonable, done right!
Gary

 

You live in Cali where the market drives cheap prices. Some of us aren't so lucky, but OP it's only like $400 and a good quality paint like Sikkens will last.

 

Agree with the others that you need a respray. If the price is that off-putting, have you considered doing the prep work yourself and asking for a quote for just the paint/clear?

When are you getting your nismo bumper? If that's actually something that you've planned/budgeted for in the near future, just wait.

I'd avoid hardware store-ish mods at pretty much all costs (read: the rattle cans you mentioned).

Also, keep in mind, there is precious little you can do to fix/maintain/upgrade these cars for <$450.