[Neil007]

The SUV in front of me kicked up a rock which bounced off my front window pillar. It took a medium-sized chip out of the paint of my Vermillion Red 2011 328i x-drive all of two months old. I had read about Dr. ColorChip and seen their YouTube videos and thought I would give it a try. So, I ordered from their site and had it about a week later.

On close examination the medium-sized chip was surrounded by two minuscule other chips. The first application took away the two real small chips but did just about nothing to the main chip. I tried again, let it dry a while after the smear. Still about the same. The Dr. ColorChip just simply did not work for me and perhaps my expectations were too high. But my car was nowheres near as beat up as the cars they use in their demo videos so I don't think it was an unreasonable expectation this would work.

No matter how I apply it (dabbing and smearing), the paint just 1) does not fill the chip and 2) is not really a good color match probably because this is a metallic paint. All I can say on the positive side is that it did do a better job than a paintstick might have done. And, it did leave the car maybe 10% better than it was. But I had heard such incredible reports about this that I am just flabbergasted it could work so poorly for me.

Anyway, I'd say this was $50 down the toilet!

[ChuckBMW3]

Hmm, thanks for this review. I've been debating whether or not to purchase Dr. ColorChip and this is reason enough to opt against it. Do you have any pics/could you take any pics that would capture the poor results?

[Neil007]

This is a shot of the chip from a distance so you can see the position of it and the relatively small size. This was before any work was done on the car.







This next picture is a closeup of the chip before any work was done.



Then this is a closeup of the chip after about five applications of the materials over a ninety-minute period. As you can see the chip is just about as noticeable although two tinier chips have just about vanished. But the material used did not function as any sort of real filler to the main chip. Also, the color is certainly darker than the rest of the car and not nearly as metallic (after many minutes of shaking and reshaking). All that can be said in the treatment's favor is that at least the chip is not now to the bare metal and is not shiny! Still, I expected a LOT more out of the product.



Oh well, the first time the car goes to a body shop I know what to ask them to do extra.

[itsmeek]

Originally Posted by Neil007

This is a shot of the chip from a distance so you can see the position of it and the relatively small size. This was before any work was done on the car.







This next picture is a closeup of the chip before any work was done.



Then this is a closeup of the chip after about five applications of the materials over a ninety-minute period. As you can see the chip is just about as noticeable although two tinier chips have just about vanished. But the material used did not function as any sort of real filler to the main chip. Also, the color is certainly darker than the rest of the car and not nearly as metallic (after many minutes of shaking and reshaking). All that can be said in the treatment's favor is that at least the chip is not now to the bare metal and is not shiny! Still, I expected a LOT more out of the product.



Oh well, the first time the car goes to a body shop I know what to ask them to do extra.

fixed?

[Neil007]

I am using Rapidshare as the server for these images and I notice it is https instead of just http. If you right-click on the blank images above and choose to open in a new window then Rapidshare will display them to you. I can't figure out how to get around this and right now Rapidshare is my only server choice. And I think the secure server is screwing things up. If you can't view these I can email them to you.

[kjang]

There you go

My opinion is that because the chip has raised edges, you would have had better results by sanding the edges down first. In my experience, dr. colorchip reduces the eyesore, it does not eliminate it. One reason is because it does not have a clearcoat layer to blend in with the surrounding paint. That's why it works best on dark colors (harder to tell color difference)

[Dr. G]

Yeah that's what it does haha the website specifically states that, that is what the product is meant to do. It pretty much just colours your chips in. On a black car that shows white dots everywhere when it has chips filling them in will make the car look flawless from a couple feet away. Up close you see all the chips except now they are paint matched.

There are other chip repairs systems that use a filling substance first to bring the chip level upto the level of the paint, and then you put the touchup paint on so that the chip is now colour matched, and it is leveled with the rest of your paint so you don't see a depression.

You could try layering it, but dr colorchip is so thin it build up too well in a chip and the level of the paint will keep going lower once it cures... I think it goes down 85% or something.

If you had smaller chips that were just showing white primer through it would work like a miracle product.... how long did you let it sit? I know they say you can let the paint sit for only a couple minutes, but I know some people who said they had WAYY better results letting it sit for 2 hours.

Also when removing it, apply NOOOOO pressure or you start pulling the paint out, just let the sealact solution remove the paint.

Not sure if you already did all that, but it might help get better results if you didn't.

[Dr. G]

And looking at the size of the chip I see why it didn't work too well. Dr Color Chip should be Dr Color Road Rash instead haha. It doesn't really work on chips too well, but it works better on those little tiny dots you get on your hood if you have darker colored cars, cleans them up and has amazing results.

[Neil007]

Thanks for reposting the pics. I understand the problem but I did feel that the chip was about as small as chips get so.... On the other hand, yes, if the company was called Dr. RoadRash I would not have tried it and would not have been upset LOL. I may try one more coat tomorrow and let it sit more than the 15 minutes or so I was using. Not sure of the 2 hours tho as the instructions do say not to let the paint sit very long or you risk clear coat damage around it. On the other hand I can see that no matter what it will never be even near to perfect and so may just go with it. At least it does look better without the actual metal showing and, at this point, I am sure I am the only one seeing it. But I DOOOOOOO see it! LOL. Thanks all for the replies.

[ideliver]

It doesn't fill...for that result you will need to layer the BMW touch up paint and wet-sand and the clear and wet sand again. Then polish

[clawr80]

I just ordered some in sparkling graphite....When I receive and apply the paint, I will post a before and after. My scratch isn't very big to begin with, so I am holding out hope that it does the trick.

[wdbimmer]

Originally Posted by clawr80

I just ordered some in sparkling graphite....When I receive and apply the paint, I will post a before and after. My scratch isn't very big to begin with, so I am holding out hope that it does the trick.

I am interested to hear how the dr color chip went with the sparkling graphite. I am thinking about trying it too on the hood....a lot of road rash on my 330. Any info or reccommendations would be appreciated!