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No matter how careful you might be, small dings and signs of damage are just a fact of life as a car owner–and fortunately, there are plenty of products out there that are designed to help cover up these unwanted issues. Wondering which car paint chip repair kits are worth your money? We’ve gone out and found the best for you.
Summary List
- Best Overall: Langka Paint Chip Repair Kit
- Best Value: MagicEzy Auto Scratch Repairezy
Also Consider
- Paint2Fix Automotive Touch-up Paint
- Color N Drive for Toyota Automotive Touch Up Paint
- Dupli-Color Touch-Up Spray Paint
- ACDelco GM Four-In-One Touch-Up Paint Pen
- N N Paint Repair Pen
- Bondo Scratch & Rock Chip Repair Kit
- TriNova Scratch Swirl Remover
Best Car Paint Chip Repair Kits: Reviews & Recommendations
Best Overall
Langka Paint Chip Repair Kit
Best Value
MagicEzy Auto Scratch Repairezy
Honorable Mention
Paint2Fix Automotive Touch-up Paint
Honorable Mention
Color N Drive for Toyota Automotive Touch Up Paint
Honorable Mention
Dupli-Color Touch-Up Spray Paint
Honorable Mention
ACDelco GM Four-In-One Touch-Up Paint Pen
Honorable Mention
N N Paint Repair Pen
Honorable Mention
Bondo Scratch & Rock Chip Repair Kit
Honorable Mention
TriNova Scratch Swirl Remover
Our Verdict on the Best Car Paint Chip Repair Kits
We chose the Langka Paint Chip Repair Kit for its universal application and affordable pricing. Order your vehicle’s paint color and you are ready to repair those paint chips.
The MagicEzy Auto Scratch Repairezy won our value pick for the variety of products you receive to correct paint chips across your vehicle’s surface.
Benefits
- Restore chipping paint. The biggest benefit of any car paint chip repair kit is kind of an obvious one: With the paint repair items included, these kits can restore your vehicle’s exterior and solve the problem of chipped paint. They’ll take your original paint job from damaged and decaying and breathe fresh life back into it, smoothing out your problems and making the chips disappear. Your paint will look sleek once again, just like the day you rolled off the lot.
- Affordable. Paying for a whole new paint job isn’t cheap – it’s a costly investment. Instead of paying to repaint your entire vehicle, you can use a car paint chip repair kit to fix the problem spots on your own. With low prices and only a small fraction of the cost of a traditional paint job, you can restore your vehicle’s exterior on your own. Plus, you won’t have the added expenses or frustrations of having to leave your car at the shop for days or a week until the work is finished.
- Easy to apply. Because car paint chip repair kits are designed to be used by every and any vehicle owner, they’re super simple to apply. These kits come with step-by-step instructions, and you don’t need any kind of expert experience in order to use them. Even if it’s your first time attempting to repair chipping or chipped paint, you can turn to one of these kits and master the repair process in very little time. You can even have your car’s paint looking like new in the space of a weekend afternoon.
- Protect your paint and body. While a chip repair kit is designed to restore areas of chipped vehicle paint, these kits can also offer two more significant benefits. They can seal your exterior paint and prevent the metal body underneath from developing rust. Every car features a layer of clear coat over its paint job, which helps protect the paint and keep rust from eating away at your car body. When paint starts to chip, the entire exterior of your vehicle is suddenly at an increased risk of these dangers. But when you apply a chip repair kit, you’ll also restore the lost clear coat and reinforce the protection your car needs.
- Versatile. Available in different formats and styles, paint chip repair kits make it easy to fix your vehicle’s exterior. You can choose from brush-style kits, paint pen kits, or even kits with multiple applicator options and convenient sealants packaged together. Instead of searching around for separate components, you can fix everything with one kit or one single tool.
Types of Car Paint Chip Repair Kit
Touch-Up Paint: Brush Tip
You are probably most familiar with this type of chip repair solution. Many people order their vehicle’s specific paint color from the dealership, and it comes in the form of a brush tip applicator, similar to nail polish. Brush tips are great for applying touch-up paint to larger chips but can often take a skilled hand to correct smaller chips such as in the case of road rash. Road rash simply describes the multiple small chips that can occur on front bumpers, fenders, and hoods where pebbles have worn away at the paint over time.
Touch-Up Paint: Pen Tip
More common than brush tips, pen tip touch-up paint applicators are much easier to use. A bit like a Sharpie pen, they direct flow of the touch-up paint to a precise point, which addresses the biggest challenge faced by inexperienced car owners who buy a brush tip applicator. However, pen tip applicators take longer to fill in larger paint chips. Whereas brush tip touch-up paint can last a while if properly sealed, pen tip applicators dry up much more quickly.
Kits
Car paint chip repair kits combine the entire process into one package. Simply applying the touch-up paint to a paint chip isn’t enough. The paint then has to be sealed and blended into the surrounding paint for maximum results. Car paint chip repair kits will include not only the paint itself but typically applicator tips, a sealant of some kind, and an agent to remove excess paint during the blending process. You should be able to address a paint chip from start to finish with a complete paint chip repair kit.
Pricing
- Under $20: If you don’t want to spend a lot, you can find plenty of car paint chip repair kits for under $20. From single paint pens to more in-depth kits, you have a lot of options within this budget price range.
- $21 to $39: Step up to this slightly higher price category, and you’ll find even more extensive options. Typically, for $20 or more, you’ll find multi-part kits that include everything you need from paint to sealant to additional accessories that make the repair process a breeze.
- $40 and up: The most expensive paint repair kits will run more than $40 in price. In this price range, you’ll also find auto-specific sets for luxury vehicles, like chip repair made just for BMWs and Mercedes. The fancier your vehicle is, the more expensive a custom kit may be. However, for this price, you will get everything you need in a comprehensive chip repair kit.
Key Features
Step-by-Step Instructions
A car paint chip repair kit is pretty useless if it doesn’t come with instructions that tell you how to prep, apply, and finish the job with its components. Even if you aren’t completely new to vehicle paint repair, it’s a good idea to choose a kit that walks you through the process so you don’t make mistakes (or an even bigger mess out of your car’s exterior paint). Check product reviews and the kit description to make sure instructions are included so you won’t be at a loss as to how to apply the products once your kit arrives.
Paint Color Match
You don’t want to pick just any car paint chip repair kit or product—only certain ones will actually match the exact color and sheen of your vehicle’s current paint job. Every automaker has different shades of popular, common colors. And while black seems pretty straightforward, for example, the exact shade can vary pretty noticeably from vehicle to vehicle. Make sure you choose a repair kit that includes the right paint color, or as close of a match as possible, to the make and model of your vehicle. Plenty of kits are made for specific brands or vehicle models, which allows you to find just the right fit pretty easily.
Sealant or Clear Coat
While the paint included in any repair kit is hugely important, you also want to think about sealant and clear coat. Not all chip repair kits include these extras, but they’re critical if you want to protect the newly repaired areas. In order to get a flawless match, you’ll want to make sure you have sealant and clear coat included in the kit. These additions do cost a little more, but it makes repair work a whole lot easier as you don’t need to shop separately for individual products; you can do the job all at once, with everything on hand and packaged together.
Other Considerations for the Best Car Paint Chip Repair Kits
- Close (Enough) Match. Depending on the age of your vehicle and a variety of other factors, the paint will weather differently and may vary from panel to panel. Cars that have been in the direct sunlight will fade sooner than those kept covered. Matching the brand-new paint within the paint chips to the weathered paint around it could prove tricky.
- The Extent of Paint Damage. A few paint chips here and there should be pretty easy to address in the span of an afternoon, but if your vehicle’s entire hood and the bumper is pitted to the point where it looks sand-blasted, paint chip repair kits may not be the best use of your time and funds. You will probably have to repaint the panel completely, live with the damage, or come up with another solution altogether.
- Unique Paint Jobs. Repairing paint chips on a vehicle with a custom paint job gets complicated. Depending on what type of paint is used and how well you know the original painter, you may or may not be able to buy a container of touch-up paint. This is something to consider both before and after having your vehicle custom painted.
Tips
- As you fill in the paint chips on your vehicle, make sure you have adequate lighting. This will help you not only to make sure you are filling in the chips completely but also allow you to address all of the paint chips in one go, rather than seeing a few pops up after you are already finished.
- To understand the difference between brush tip, pen tip, and applicator tip styles, draw a crude circle on a piece of paper to mimic a paint chip. Now borrow some nail polish and attempt to fill the circle in completely. Do the same with your pen tip and applicator tip, using nail polish or another solution for the applicator tip.
- Preparing the paint chip is crucial to the final look. The best way to prepare your paint chips is to use a microfiber rag and isopropyl alcohol. The alcohol will remove any oils sitting on the surface of the paint, effectively drying out any moisture that would prevent the touch-up paint from adhering completely to the surface.
- Use car paint chip repair kits on painted surfaces only. For repairing damage to your wheels, seek out a specifically designed wheel repair kit that matches the wheels on your vehicle. Though they must be equally durable, car paints differ greatly from wheel paints.
- If you have never applied touch-up paint before, pick a spot on your vehicle that is relatively unobtrusive. The undersides of the rear bumper and/or running boards are ideal. Perfect your technique in these areas before you tackle larger panels.
- At some point, you may have to decide whether applying touch-up paint or having a uniform painted surface is more desirable. In terms of the lifetime of the paint itself, touch-up paint is more advantageous because it will protect the entire panel from rusting. However, an uninterrupted color scheme may be of higher priority.
- Before filling in scratches with touch-up paint, stop by your local detail shop or speak with the head detailer at your local dealership. Buffing may correct a lot of the scratches on your vehicle unless they are deep enough to require additional paint. Detail experts should be able to tell you which route is the best.
- After you have applied touch-up paint, wait at least 30 days before waxing or buffing the exterior of your vehicle. The paint may look as if it is set up after a few hours but it needs time to adequately adhere to the surface beneath.
FAQs
No. Most kits simply come with the materials necessary to fill in paint chips, rather than sand the paint itself. Paint scratch removal may require sanding in some cases, but you shouldn’t have to break out the sandpaper if you are just filling in paint chips.
While paint chip repair kits can do a lot to fill in larger holes in your vehicle’s paint, they can’t do anything to repair damage to the metal underneath. Dents, dings, and any disfiguration of the sheet metal beneath your vehicle’s paint should be addressed first by a body shop before you even think of touch-up paint.
Depending on where you are located and what’s available, you may be able to source paint chip repair kits locally. However, you are more likely to find both the correct paint and a better price online.
Yes, it is! In fact, really all it takes is a bit of practice. As long as you are able to apply the touch-up paint and cover the chips, blending is the only hurdle left. And whether or not you are able to blend the paint completely, the panel will at least be sealed against rust.
We don’t recommend you use sandpaper in this instance. In fact, it’s best to use a paint remover or lacquer thinner to remove the transfer paint first and then address the damage beneath afterward. Sometimes you may get lucky and find there’s no damage beneath at all.
Paint chip repair kits are designed to fill in holes in the paint, so anywhere this occurs, it can be applied. Paint chip repair kits can be used to fill in deeper scratches as well.
No, not necessarily. Most of the tools you’ll need are included within the paint chip repair kits, at least those we picked above. You can certainly purchase additional materials if you choose but they are not necessarily required.
Spray paint does not necessarily look as finished as traditional automotive paint. The differences depend on which type of appearance you prefer as the owner of the vehicle. Spray paints are typically not protected against wear, while automotive paints are covered by a clear coat.
If you are going to apply touch-up paint in a scratch, make sure it’s not something that can be addressed with a buffer instead. Deeper scratches require touch-up paint for complete correction but may require sanding as well depending on how deep they go.