Scratch n Dent DIY
Stone chips and parking lot scratches are a fact of auto ownership that cannot be avoided. Even the most careful of owners will eventually encounter a loose piece of gravel or a shopping trolley in the course of their vehicle ownership. On their own, these single stone chips to a bonnet leading edge or a scratch on a door or fender, won't render you car valueless, but over time these untreated dings and dents can begin to rust, ultimately reducing the vehicle's value down the line.
Related: What colour car hides scratches best?
An easy solution is to get yourself a paint touch-up kit that you can use to do DIY repairs to the paintwork. In the past, it was common practice for a dealership to give you a small sample bottle of the vehicle's paint when you purchase the car new so that you could do this. This has however fallen away as the paint would often harden up over time as owners opted not to do the repairs themselves.
What is car scratch and dent insurance? Is it worth having?
Fixing it yourself
As vehicle owners have gotten more involved with the ownership process and take a more active role, the advent of DIY repair kits has taken off. The kits can be professionally assembled to perfectly match your cars color palette and enable owners to do touch-ups in the comfort of their own garages.
We did some research to see who were the top-rated kit suppliers and this is what we found. This is by no means the be-all and end-all of where you can get a DIY paint kit, but rather just the companies that came out on top of customer satisfaction
Rustoleum
Rustoleum make these fantastic little markers that are able to fill scratches and stone chips in one motion and are available in a host of OEM colours. These are a simple and easy-to-use solution, but results may vary depending on the skill of the DIY'er.
Dr Colour Chip
Colour chip SA is a two-part system, wherein you get the OEM colour-matched paint which you then apply to the affected area and then using a sealer wipe away excess. The color fills the chip, creating a smooth blend that covers the damaged area.
Scratch Fix Pro
Much like the aforementioned system, the Scratch Fix solution is a multi-part application process requiring the color match paint, prep solution, and finalising products. It goes without saying that the more work required to effect a repair, the better the overall outcome will be.
Final thoughts
We will be honest here and say that a paint touch-up is never going to be as good as the completely sealed paint job, but it can save you a fortune in respray costs. Often times it is simply not feasible to have an entire panel or cover resprayed to fix one tiny little chip, so kits of this nature are a much-needed accessory to car ownership.
