Chipex
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Good company, overpriced product
Great customer service, bog standard product. Probably just go back to normal touch up paint next time as I don't believe this is worth the price bump. Firstly, having attempted a handful of repairs now the paint match was spot on. The paint seems to be of a high quality so far and is holding up on repaired spots although they are only a few weeks old. The problems in my experience arrive in the application process. Chipex are selling this kit on the proviso that it essentially removes the time consuming prep (filling) and post-paint (sanding if needed, polishing etc.) steps. But this isn't the case in my experience. Only on 1 out of the 5 repairs I've carried out was the dilution mixture of any use at all. The others I had to give up using the process outlined in the instructions included in the kit and revert to using the paint just as bog standard touch up paint (deeper pits and chips need filling, then painting, then flatting and polishing). No matter how much you use, the solution and provided cloth will pull 90% of the paint out of the pit or chip if you follow their drying instructions. On 4 repairs, I went for 5 or 6 retries per repair. Same thing every time. Either the solution is too strong or does nothing or the cloth grips and pulls the blob of paint straight out of the hole. I even tried doubling the suggested drying time (this is the UK after all) - same result. The solution either removes nothing or all of it. Another minor gripe is that at £30+ for the basic kit, I can't see the value when you often need to repeat the steps you would with a normal £10(?) tube of touch up paint. You get one pair (in theory - in the tub) of 50p latex gloves, less than 10 plastic paint sticks (can't imagine they're more than 5p each), the paint, some solution, a small tube of basic polish and two very cheap cloths. The paint removal cloth is a bit of a gripe for me - in theory you would hope that this would be a very fine, non-shedding cloth like a tack or similar that doesn't leave anything on the surface or in the paint but in my experience if you don't use enough solution it leaves lint.... in the wet paint.... highly frustrating. I expected more of the cost to be in the solution and the application/removal cloth with is basically just a cheap, branded screen wipe cloth (not even a good, really tight weave one like you would get with new sunglasses). Overall, the paint is fine. But right now it feels like a very very expensive tube of touch up paint and a collection of random household items I could buy on eBay for about £3.
