Dr. Color Chip

DetailKitty

DetailKitty

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I bought this kit back over the winter and was waiting till spring to use it.

Ok, I apologize in advance that there aren't many pics and they aren't great... It's tough working and trying to hold a camera at the same time, AND I was working with an iPhone, that's it.

So here's the kit...
Comes with your paint color (you have to send them your color code, color name, year, make and model of your car), the sealant, a cotton rag, microfiber, latex glove, and a couple different brushes.



The instructions tell you it has to be above freezing to use. It was 65 today, so I was good there.
It also says to clean the area with rubbing alcohol. Done.

Then, you are to dab the touch-up paint next to the chip areas and then smear the paint over the chip. This was pretty easy to do. You wear the glove so you can use your finger or thumb to do this.





Then you use the sealant to "remove the excess paint". The instructions say to wait 2 minutes and up to 2 hours. I waited a few minutes before using it. Use the cotton rag they provide to apply.
You then use the microfiber to wipe and buff off the leftover sealant.

Here are a few (though bad) after pictures:

 
Ok, so my rating?
C-

Pros:
1. They matched my color spot on.... And I have a metallic flake paint.
2. Kit came with everything you needed.
3. I like the different size brushes they provided.

Cons:
It's NOT a seamless finish... You can still see where there are chips. Perhaps if you used the kit over a couple days on the same spots it may fill in the chips better.
I noticed the longer you wait to remove the excess paint, the harder it is to get off. I recommend going around an area (whole hood for example) touching up, then starting to remove the excess from where you started as soon as you finish touching up.

It may work better with a non metallic paint... I found as I was using the sealant to remove the excess it would remove the paint pigment quickly, but leave a weird, glittery haze.

Honestly, for the money? I'd stick to buying touch up paint from the dealership and using an art brush or toothpick carefully.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Kitty, thanks for the review. It's was right on time. I was going to order one next week. Even though your a girl, you da man.
:urtheman::urtheman::urtheman:
 
I have an edit.... Damn Autocorrect.
It's Seal Act, not sealant :doh:

Sorry.
 
Great review Kitty and in-line with my experience. I had the same issues you did in terms of weirdness (re: metallic blue paint) but think this is slightly better than the dealership touch up stuff.

As long as you're not expecting a miraculous, perfect finish, it's pretty good stuff.
 
It is good touch up paint, and there is a lot of it. I will certainly use it in the future.
The kit also says the paint and seal act are good for one year after buying (just an FYI).
 
I was very disappointed with my Dr. Color Chip experience.
 
I too wasn't overly impressed either. My car had no chips on any area of the car at all. About two months ago I was driving on I-95 and something flew up and put a nice chip in my door. I bought Dr. Colorchip after reading the reviews and so many said it was great. I have a crystal white car so they warned me the color wouldn't match. It matched fine but every time I put the paint on and smeared it, I would use the special solution and it would take away most of the paint I had applied a few mins prior.

It does not leave the chip filled in flush with the surrounding paint which is where it fooled me. I guess the only real way to get it perfect is a repaint. Not what I wanted to do. I also think it is probably easier to fill a chip of a flatter surface than a door like I was.

Thanks for posting. I thought I was the only one that wasn't "wowed" by the product!
 
I had some initial problems with my Dr CC order, the Summit White paint was quite far off, enough that one knew better to even try using it.

But those folks worked with me, were concerned about getting me a good color match, which I truly believed was not their fault, but some snafu in the paint systems out there. With a little work from both ends, they made a match in color hue which was about as good as anyone can get.

Application, and removal. A white paintjob always seems to have a much darker under layment of paint (primer) which is always darker.

I applied paint directly into the chip, and yes, waiting too long, you'll rub and rub and rub. 3-5 minutes in fair weather seemed about right.

You need good lighting, to see what you're doing, and as you start to see the excess paint being taken away, you need to then slowly, and gradually lighten up on your pressure, and rubbing. Just ever so lightly gliding the towel with Sealact. It's a bit of finessing, but if you're seeing an excess of paint around the chip, try staying away from the chip. Finesse around it. And if you see that the chip is not filled, then finesse the first application, then go back again with additional layers.

It's a little tricky, a bit of a learning curve, and no it isn't perfect, but IMO it is better in some ways than trying to deal with factory, or autozone duplicolor, then having a murderous time dealing with the blobs.

About my only gripe with my paint sample, was that it seemed quite a bit duller than factory paint, and this was what made the repair stick out the most, and not that it didn't adequately fill the chip. Even with fine polishes some weeks later, those spots never really glossed up. Like the paint needed some clear or something more added to it to make it better?

Maybe I still got a bad mix in my personal experience with them, tough to say?
 
This matches my experience too. Color match is great, filling is not.

I've tried multiple layers, still doesn't seem to fill it in. I can imagine that eventually, maybe with a dozen layers, it might fill in - but probably not with less than that and that's a huge amount of work.

So, my new strategy is to just hit each chip in order to put some color there and settle for that. It's better than seeing bare metal but it won't make it look like the chip never happened.
 
Agreed, the color match was almost perfect the products effectiveness not so much. It does work great on VERY tiny chips and road rash also you can throw that Seal Act crap away. I just used FG400 and a MF cloth, worked 10000x better.
 
Paint will shrink considerably after it dries. That's why it does not work to fill deep chips or scratches in the paint. If you look at the chip crater from edge-on, you 'll notice the edge of the chip is higher than the surface of the paint. One solution is to lightly sand each chip to level the chip.

Once the chip is leveled, fill the chip or scratch with Bondo Glazing Spot putty first, then apply the paint to the bondo putty. The putty won't shrink as much and will make applying touch-up paint look better.
 
jwgreen6 said:
Paint will shrink considerably after it dries. That's why it does not work to fill deep chips or scratches in the paint. If you look at the chip crater from edge-on, you 'll notice the edge of the chip is higher than the surface of the paint. One solution is to lightly sand each chip to level the chip.

Once the chip is leveled, fill the chip or scratch with Bondo Glazing Spot putty first, then apply the paint to the bondo putty. The putty won't shrink as much and will make applying touch-up paint look better.
Click to expand...

This seems to make a lot of sense and will solve just about all the complaints on this thread. Do you happen to have any photos of the process?

I have a few chips on my Rav4 I want to take care of and maybe this combination is the way to go.

Thanks!
 
miniSguy said:
This seems to make a lot of sense and will solve just about all the complaints on this thread. Do you happen to have any photos of the process?

I have a few chips on my Rav4 I want to take care of and maybe this combination is the way to go.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Robert Keppel of Applied Colors demonstrates the technique of filling the scratch or chip with bondo putty then applying the paint on a number of YouTube videos. I can't understand why other paint chip repair kit providers haven't promoted this idea. It makes a lot of sense.
 
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