Fixing small rock chips?

[Tipo815]

I'm sure I'm not the only one that has experienced small rock chips around the cowling and/or along the leading edges of the wing. My question is this. Do you just ignore them or do you touch them up? If you touch them up what do you use?

My initial thought was just to get some white automotive touch up paint and dab each little rock chip to make them less noticeable. Then I thought about my boat and the small tube of touch up gelcoat they sell at West Marine that has worked well on small chips in the boat's fiberglass. Alot more durable and dries with a similar texture as our plane's exterior.

Has anyone ever tried a dab of gelcoat repair for rock chips? Any reason not to? We're talking tiny pin point rock chips and not anything major. Anyone try anything else that seems to work?

[Gasser]

The gell coat spot fix sounds interesting and worth a try. I've heard in other threads of people using white appliance epoxy touch up paint with good results.

[Twcostanzo]

I took my oil cover off cowl and took it to a auto paint supplier and he match it. Then touched up chips with a q tip and it blended really nice you can barely see them now
Hope that helps
Tom

[carym]

The gell coat spot fix sounds interesting and worth a try. I've heard in other threads of people using white appliance epoxy touch up paint with good results.

I used this on several large areas on my ice shield that got damaged by ice flinging off the prop. After sanding it dried and I sanded it down, you can't even tell there was any damage. The paint matched exactly. I also use this for the tiny chips on the cowl.

[Eric N]

Very late reply to this thread, but my '05 DA40 has these little dings all the way out to the tip-join, pretty much confined to the seam between the upper and lower wing shells; I doubt that the prop could fling the rock out that far. The factory sent me the Imron paint formula, but that's pretty nasty stuff and I'd like to find a "touch-up_ solution as well, but have perhaps 50 or so very small chips to deal with. There's also a black "smile on the upper front nose wheel leg where it must occasionally touch the adjacent fairing. A very experienced pilot friend told me that flying in heavy rain can cause leading edge paint loss, but don't know if this true or not. I don't know what vintages of aircraft the paint formula applies to but I'd be glad to post it or send it if I can figure out how to do it--PM might be easier.

[krellis]

Eric,

We have the same issue on our 2010 XLS. We did not have any problems like this on our older DA-40. It is apparently a known issue and it's a production defect from the factory. The "filler" that is used at the upper and lower skin seam (I think the actual term is balloons) pops out and takes the paint with it. Supposedly the permanent fix is to wire brush the seam and mix up a balloon/resin paste, fill in the seam, sand and then repaint. What we have done instead is to buy matching paint from Dr. Color Chip (drcolorchip.com) and use the kit for touch up. Not perfect, but the idea of repainting the wing is not acceptable right now. What is most frustrating is that the defect has really only showed up on the right wing. The left wing is nearly perfect.

[Charles]

Interesting, I've got the exact opposite problem. Right wing is clean but left wing has composite exposed all the way along the leading edge and I need to do something about that soon.

Any idea where I can get more details on the filler to use or the procedure to fix this?

[CFIDave]

For small chips in the paint I've had good luck with white appliance touch-up paint sold at Home Depot in the US:
"Rust-oleum Appliance Epoxy Touch-Up"

It comes in a small bottle with a paint brush built into the cap for easy application, and the shade of white matches Diamond paint perfectly.

[Tommy]

For small chips in the paint I've had good luck with white appliance touch-up paint sold at Home Depot in the US:
"Rust-oleum Appliance Epoxy Touch-Up"

It comes in a small bottle with a paint brush built into the cap for easy application, and the shade of white matches Diamond paint perfectly.

Yes. That's exactly what I have done and it works well.