Note: This is a sponsored post, meaning that the products were provided to The Gearhead Girl at no charge in exchange for a review. All opinions are of my own.
Imagine this: After driving your car down the interstate one day, you park in your driveway and realize that there are a few paint chips on the hood. Or maybe somehow you’ve managed to get a paint chip on a door handle. You hate the looks of it, so what do you do? Well, you get touch-up paint, of course.
One of the automotive touch-up paint systems on the market is by Dr. ColorChip. The company’s touch-up paint is OEM factory color matched, and you can easily figure out which color you need by using the drop-down menus for the year, make, and model of your vehicle on their website. You can also put in your paint’s factory color code if you know it, which you can find on a sticker inside the driver’s door sill.
Dr. ColorChip was kind enough to send The Gearhead Girl its Squirt ’n Squeegee Kit ($64.95), which the company claims is its best-selling kit. This kit can treat hundreds of paint chips. Inside the box is a one ounce bottle of the OEM-matched paint with a flip-top lid, a four ounce bottle of the SealAct Blending Solution, a clear and flexible squeegee, a paint brush, two micro brushes, a wiping/blending cloth, a microfiber cloth, and a nitrile glove to help protect your hand. Also included, of course, are instructions and application tips.
Using the Kit
On my Dodge Avenger SXT, there are a few spots that need some touch-up, but for this review I’ve opted to just take care of a spot on the front passenger’s door handle. My car’s paint color is Blaze Red Crystal Pearl, code PRH. Because I was just touching up this one spot, I didn’t really use the squeegee, though I can see where it would come in handy for heavily road-rashed areas.
The first step is, of course, to make sure the area you’re touching up isn’t filthy. Then, after shaking up the touch-up paint bottle a bit, dab (or squirt) a little bit of the paint onto the area next to the paint chip and then immediately wipe the paint into the chip. This technique is supposed to help eliminate paint blobs. Even though you’re supposed to dab it on the area next to the chip, whenever I would go to smear the paint into the chip with my finger, the paint would just end up on my glove. I experienced this when I was trying out the squeegee, too. So I simply put the paint directly on the chip with one of the micro brushes.
And then you wait a few minutes. I ended up waiting closer to 15 minutes before proceeding to the next step. The first couple of times I tried this, the touch-up paint just ended up being removed because it wasn’t dry enough. You can probably wait for up to an hour before using the blending solution.
Next, shake up the Dr. ColorChip SealAct Blending Solution and squirt some of it onto the wiping/blending cloth. Gently wipe the surface; you don’t really want to use a ton of pressure as you may end up removing the paint you want to keep. Continue to blend and buff the area with the microfiber cloth.
Thoughts
My first impressions? I like the Dr. ColorChip system, but it takes a little bit of patience. If you try to rush it, you’ll end up having to start over. It also may take a few attempts to build up deep chips—I had to do two coats for this one and may do another one later to complete it. And as you can see because of how I applied the paint, it ended up being a tiny bit “blobby,” though this may be fixed once I do that final layer.
I also like how much of the paint and blending solution are included in the kit. A little of each goes a long way. You don’t need a ton of paint to fill in one chip, of course, and you don’t need to drench the blending cloth with the SealAct solution. The paint is also an exact match of the original color and doesn’t require a clear coat.
I’m guessing that it would have helped if it were warmer outside when I was trying out this kit (it was about 55 degrees with a setting sun). Also, it might have further worked more favorably if this were on a flatter surface, which may be why the paint didn’t go into the chip properly during the “dab and smear” technique.
I’ll definitely continue to use the kit for the rest of the chips on my car in the future, especially on flatter surfaces, such as the hood. If you wish to purchase a kit like this, you may do so on the Dr. ColorChip website.
