Do these look like rock chips?

S

schiddy

New member
These white spots are all over my front bumper and front bumper lip. It's a black honda and at first I thought the spots were paint or something because it was relatively smooth. I clayed and realized they are something else. Do these look like rocks chips? There is a million of them!



Front bumper:

DSCF0333.jpg




http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff138/tsenfw/DSCF0332.jpg



Front bumper lip:

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff138/tsenfw/DSCF0334.jpg



http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff138/tsenfw/DSCF0335.jpg
 
schiddy- Yeah...they do look like that to me. Or maybe some other kind of "sandblast"-style abrasion, like from a salt/sand spreader.



Eh, I'd just have a (good) shop pull the bumpercover off and repaint it.
 
I have the exact same thing on my black cherry car. How do I get rid of it. They seem to be ON the paint. I tried claying (not very hard) and it didn't seem to remove them. Any ideas?
 
A 30x lighted microscope is handy to have in situations like this to really have a look at the paint. If the spots seem on the paint and not in it, maybe it's a paint overspray of some kind, or possibly even tiny droplets of dried concrete. If it's overspray, sometimes several passes of clay is necessary. Happened to me, I did a whole of claying and then some on my black car. And still at different sunlight angles I missed and had to go back. On another car, I experienced bad overspray that I had to do the three step Valugard ABC wash procedure twice and then clay off the remainder, but it did work eventually. I hear folks have decent success with removing spots of concrete with vinegar and I'm certain there are specialty products for its removal too.



Now if they are indeed chips and there's hundreds of them, the best cure is going to have to be a spot touch up spray by a paint shop.
 
The bumper and hood on my black mustang looks similar, although my chips are more fine. This happened when I was driving on the highway in the winter on a very windy day and there was a fine mist of ice being blown over the road in certain spots. The front end was sandblasted pretty well. I used Dr. Colorchip with okay results. I'm not that happy with it because after application the touch up paint became somewhat matte and you can still see the chips up close, but at least they aren't white anymore.
 
Bill D said:
A 30x lighted microscope is handy to have in situations like this to really have a look at the paint....
Click to expand...



I myself found the 30X kinda hard to use for most paint inspections, more magnification than I want most of the time. I do a lot better with my 15X one.
 
With a 30x you can see into the pores of your skin on your hand! I guess I could compromise with my 10X jeweler's loupe :nixweiss
 
Never went back with magnification for a better look. 99.9% sure it's exactly what has been mentioned. rock chip/sandblast type damage. It's all over the front bumper, nowhere else. I think it appears white because of the plastic of the bumper behind the paint. Rock chips on the painted metal portions are very distinguishable as bare metal with rust.
 
Probably won't fix it anytime soon as I don't have money for respeay. I'll prob plan out a clear bra strategy before I do have it done also. New England roads are horrible.
 
A $5 photo loupe is a wonderfully useful tool. It really helps you know what defect you have and how to attack it. They are usually 10x and that is plenty strong enough. Get them at a art/ hobby shop or a camera store.
 
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