Frequently Asked Questions

Wash and thoroughly dry the car. If you have visible remnants of wax in the chips, remove it with a little rubbing alcohol or mineral spirits on a soft cloth. Don’t scrub!

Otherwise, a clean dry surface is all you need. The area to be repaired must be completely dry.

Yes, as far as we’ve tested. Eight years is the longest repair we’ve monitored (a chip repair), and it looks the same as it did the day it was applied. Most touch-up paints shrink up over time after they’ve dried and cured. Our paint does not shrink. It should remain the same as it appears after application for years to come.

Wash & dry the vehicle. Do any “hard” detailing first, like wet-sanding, compounding and buffing. Then use our paint. Follow up with standard waxing a week later. Refrain from using a circular buffing wheel and wool pad for at least 30 days. We suggest using a random-orbit buffer with a foam pad and quality compound at all times for the best, swirl-free results (rather than the circular buffer and wool pad.)

Yes. All paint is mixed to OEM specifications using the colour-code you provide with your order, ensuring your paint is as fresh as it can be. Plus, with thousands of colour codes on the market, we couldn’t possibly inventory them all.

The paint should last at least a year from the ship date in the bottle, provided you don’t use most of it right away. A bottle that is half-full will obviously dry out faster. Store in a dark, dry, cool place. For optimal shelf life, shake the bottle every now and then.

The SealAct™ blending solution has an indefinite shelf life.

We suggest temps above freezing for best results.

No. What you see is the final product. Photos do not show every minute detail of course. Upon close inspection in person, some repaired chips will be visible when looking for them, but standing a few feet from the vehicle they shouldn’t be noticeable.

The paint included in your Dr. ColourChip repair kit is not regular touch-up paint and is made to work with the SealAct solution, but may be used alone. Feel free to order just the paint if you plan on applying it and leaving it as is.

The SealAct™ blending solution is a proprietary product developed to work with our paint only. It will not work with regular touch-up paint. Best results are achieved using our touch-up paint and SealAct blending solutions as directed in the repair kit instructions.

Our paint system is primarily designed to address chips, but it will work well on certain types of scratches and poorly on others. There are several variables that determine repair quality:

• Deep Scratches – Deep, narrow scratches (1/16″ or less) down to the metal will usually hold paint. As our paint is instantly malleable (in this case, tacky, yet removable), there is some flexibilty in finessing the paint into place.  The various brushes in the kit also allow for more precise painting of scratches that can’t effectively be repaired by our standard process.
• Wide Scratches – Wide scratches (1/16″ or greater), gashes or other large defects will likely need to have the paint applied and left as is. Filling and spraying these types of damage is the only way to get a ‘like new’ repair.
• Light Surface Scratches – Generally these can be buffed out. If you can feel them with your fingernail, they might come out completely with some wet-sanding and buffing. Otherwise, our precision brush can be used to lightly apply the paint over the scratch and left as is.
• Key Scratches – We don’t recommend buying our kit soley for fixing key scratches unless the vehicle color is dark, and the scratch is short and deep. A long key scratch on a light silver or gold car will show almost no difference, even if the paint completely fills the scratch. However, if you are not inclined to pay for a body shop repair, the special brushes in the kit will help you make the best repair possible.
• Vehicle Color – The color of the vehicle also determines the quality of the scratch repair. Darker colors always look better than light ones. A scratch on a black or dark red metallic vehicle will always look better afterward than on a light silver or gold one.

Our kit works best for small chips and general “road-rash.”

Used as directed, most repairs will dramatically improve your vehicle’s overall appearance, especially at distances of 3 foot or more.

Chips much larger than a pencil eraser will begin to lose the ‘dramatic’ effect we advertise. You can still paint chips larger than this with quality results, but you may need to allow more drying time, use special care when removing the excess paint, or use our fine-tipped brush and simply apply the paint and leave it as is.

The size, shape, depth and coluor all factor into the outcome of each repair when you get into damage much larger than this.

Some are, some aren’t. Most small chips are not visible unless you’re trying to find them. “Road-rashed” vehicles contain thousands of small chips and most are not visible at all afterward, leaving the overall look of the vehicle dramatically improved.

If you’re trying to fix one single chip, you’re probably going to still see it because you’re looking for it.

Many chips are filled after one application, though others will require a second application to achieve a satisfactory fill. It is difficult to get a 100% body-shop re-spray appearance on most chips using touch-up paint.

However, because our system allows the excess paint around the chip to be completely removed, you will realise that a total fill is usually not required to render a satisfying repair. Using the 3 foot rule, most chip repairs look very good.

Scuff marks can generally be removed rather than painted.

Most scuffs are the result of an object rubbing against the car, usually the bumper, leaving a portion of that object on the car. If it appears the paint from the vehicle is not actually missing from this type of damage, it’s likely the scuff can be removed completely. Try using a little acetone or finger nail polish remover and a little liquid car wax mixed together on a soft cloth and lightly rub over the scuff.

Yes!

Our paint works well on fixing chips on painted bumpers and moulding. If you have large gouges or missing plastic, all you can do is apply the paint and leave it as is. See below for an example on a badly road-rashed bumper.

If you have surface rust in the area you want to paint, you should remove it first if possible.

The paint will adhere to exposed metal, plastic, fiber-glass and primed surfaces.

The only trouble spot we’ve seen is when chips reveal a gray primer color that appears plastic-like in texture. To the best of our knowledge, this is a coating applied to the vehicle prior to painting to prevent rust. When this color is exposed, the chip has gone through the paint but not down to the metal.

Our paint has had trouble at times adhering to this surface when using our standard application and removal process. Rubbing the chip with alcohol may help adhesion. It may also be necessary to let the paint dry longer on these spots before removing the excess. Or as a last resort, it may be necessary to apply the paint with the fine-tipped brush and leave it as is.

Yes. We can match over 95 percent of all colours on the market. We use OEM formulations supplied by the top paint manufacturers to match the colour code. All paint is mixed to the exact formulation at the time of order.

Use our code selector database, or locate your colour code using our handy code-finder guide.

NOTE: Many colour codes have variants, or slightly different formulations for the same code due to different production lots or manufacturing locations. The deviations are usually quite minor, and for touch-up purposes, it’s highly unlikely you’ll notice a difference in colour. In the event your colour is noticeably different, we will work with you to get a suitable colour match.

Chips on most car colours are dramatically reduced or visually eliminated.

Repairs on light silver and gold metallic colours generally look much better after initial application, though sometimes they are still more visible because the edge of the chip is slightly darker and will catch your eye if large enough. Sometimes with these colours and on larger chips, it’s better to use the small-tipped brush and apply a small amount of paint and leave it as is.

One other point on light metallic finishes:

Some of our light-coloured metallics are made with domestically produced metallic flake, which is polished only on one side. When the paint is applied in a small blob, the flake will turn over and appear darker in colour. This darker effect is apparent in the bottle and cap lid after shaking. Once smeared, the flake will re-align itself and appear bright again.

Yes. The majority of the colours we make are metallics.

Yes, but with a minor disclaimer*.

Tri-coat coloured vehicles are painted in three stages at the factory:

• A base colour is sprayed.
• Then a mid-coat which gives the ‘pearl’ effect.
• Then a clear coat to bring the two colours together visually.

Our paints are made for single-stage application.

We hand-mix each order individually, and we’ve gotten very good at approximating the various pearl finishes on the market. The paint may not look like a very good match in the bottle, but once applied and the excess blended away, the result is generally impressive, and certainly better than leaving the dark chips that will eventually rust.

Our pearl colours are good for typical stone chip damage. The larger the repair, scratches included, the less impressive the result will be.

* No single bottle of true Tri-Coat/Pearl touch-up paint exists. Some companies & dealerships sell a 3-step paint kit with two colours and a clear coat. Our experience has shown that this will not look good on your car, and you will likely regret using it. (Think, shiny blobs all over the bonnet each catching your eye.)

After painting thousands of pearl vehicles on a commercial level with our system, we can say with confidence that our paint kit will provide a much better Tri-Coat/Pearl chip repair than any 3-step paint kit on the market. It’s not perfect, but it’s still the best alternative to the body shop.

On cars prior to 1994, we do have formulations (codes) on most colours. We cannot promise a perfect colour match on vehicles prior to 1994 as we do not have a chip library to make a visual comparison.

However, most colours we make dating back from around 1930 to the present are a match the first time, regardless of whether we have a chip on file to make a visual match.

While we can’t guarantee a colour match without a sample, if you have the code, we can mix the paint according to the OEM formulations. We do, however, strongly recommend you try and get us a paint sample if possible.

If the colour you receive is off substantially, let us know and we’ll work with you to provide a satisfactory match at no charge.