Ding in my paint - advice needed

A county road crew was trimming the grass near the road, and right as I drove by, a string trimmer fired a rock at the passenger side door of my 2009 black Cayman 2.9L . I know I will get no satisfaction from the local government, so I believe I'm on my own for this fix. Has anyone had success with some of the ding repair kits? This one is a bit deep. Any other advice?

First off that mark Looks like rock scuff still on the paint and that should buff off. If you’re not comfortable contact a PDR guy, if you don’t know one find a trusted local body shop . It’s hard to tell if it’s dented there is so much material scuff… clean it off with soap water and try running a wax pad over it and remove that scuff down to the paint. You won’t hurt anything with wax.. Report back.. if you were here I could have that fixed in 10 minutes tops

It's difficult to judge the paint damage from that one photo. If it's a skid /scuff as GT3 noted it may come off with clear coat safe compound. If it's chipped down to bare metal it's not going to polish out. A PDR guy will brush touch it or you can do it yourself, with a repair like that, it's likely going to be a reoccurring issue. If you're really fussy and upset about it, the proper repair and permanent solution is to have a body shop spot it, blend it and clearcoat it. IMO, Dr. Colorchip is more marketing than truth, went that route on my 986 , I was not impressed.

Thanks all. It is a chip in the paint but it doesn't look like it's all the way down to metal. I did clean it with soap & water and some dirt / rock dust came off, but there's still a good amount of paint chipped off. Good to hear about Dr. Colorchip - I was considering that but it seemed like it would be too good to be true.

If it’s not down to the metal then the clear chipped not the paint..

I'm not sure if this is a terminology point or not, but I'm seeing white underneath the black paint. I assumed it was primer, and that the paint was chipped down to the primer. Is the color embedded in the clear? I'm having a bit of trouble getting good focus with my camera, but here's another shot after wiping with wash & wax. The car is an '09 that I've had for about 1 1/2 years, and the paint is by no means perfect, so I'm not fussy about the paint, but this chip is big enough where I want to address it. Either way, it doesn't look like it's going to buff out, and it is chipped a bit, so hitting it with touch up paint alone would address the color but not fix the ding in the surface of the paint. I'll look into PDR and talk to my Porsche mechanic to see what other options are there, since Dr. Colorchip doesn't sound like a good answer. Thanks

Ya that tough although with a little grit you’d be surprised what can be done… you have a trusted body shop?

By the appearance of the second photo that is not going to rub out, it's below the color.

So I don't think you have a ding there unless the metal's actually bent. It looks like just a paint chip, and a pretty tiny one at that. In my experience body shops won't do spot repairs because the blending is too hard. To do a proper repair you'd need to do a bunch of sanding and make a bigger area, and it would probably end up looking crappier after the blend than just using touch up paint on the current damage. I am pretty lackadasical about stuff like this, so I'd probably just dab on some touch-up paint, wet sand very lightly with 2000 grit, hit it with Meguiars Ultimate Compound, and call it good. If you want a better result, call around local PDR guys and have someone else do that, but with a bit more skill. Speaking honestly, from the close-up the paint doesn't seem to be in that great of shape anyway (I mean, it's a 14 year old car) so probably not much point in spending a lot of money or effort on a small chip like that. Embrace the entropy, and when it gets bad enough overall to justify it just respray the car.

They don't want to spot something like that because it's too small a job to tie up shop space, no value low profit. My friend's shop in NY has a paint camera, a good shop can use that and experience to match even sun faded paint, they are artists at it. Otherwise, a one panel spray would be obvious and apparent.

Yeah, probably an element of profitability as well. Also I think with it being a Porsche they were worried I was going to be pissed if it didn't come out perfect. One shop told me "if this were an old Toyota I'd do it, but on this car I don't think you'd be happy with the results". I probably would've been, but that's me and like I said I'm not super picky about aesthetics. Good body work is truly an art. I'm no pro mechanic, but I'm pretty darned good with mechanical stuff and I can do even pretty serious maintenance and repair tasks on my cars. Paint and body work, though: man, that takes some real expertise to do right.

It’ll need to be repainted for sure… buy a chunk of gloss black vinyl and cover it until you can properly address it

1. Clean properly and degrease 2. Get some touch up paint in the correct paint code and apply sparingly with either a tiny brush or even the tip of a toothpick, just dabbing it in to fill the color, but NOT the entire chip. 3. Using a clearcoat pen (you can get them at walmart or where you get your touchup paint), dab on clearcoat until you have an excess of clearcoat buildup, might need a second application depending on the depth of the chip. 4. Once dry, use a tiny piece of 1500 wet n dry sandpaper tightly wrapped over something very flat and square edged (I've used the side of a square punch, an old iPhone 4 might also work) wet sand gently and carefully to knock off that excess height of the clearcoat you built up. 5. Once you have it flush (feeling with your fingers and visually with the wet reflection), use some 3000 to remove the scratches from the 1500 and "blend" with the area around. 6. Use some polish to make the entire repair completely disappear. I used this method to good effect on my dark olive metallic paint, using the clearcoat is the secret to having it disappear. Don't just fill with paint. Cheers, Julian

Thanks, Julian! Very helpful.

Looks like a simple touch up buy from AutomotiveTouchup.com perfect match in my experience with Porsche colors. Skip the clear coat for touch up from them it’s already got some mixed in. Buy 1500 and 2000 grit sand paper and wet sand it after a week and decide then if you need another coat of touch up. I would sand it down to the grey primer and paint there. It’s an art but if you mess up just sand off and try again if you can’t figure it out take it to a pro. Do not use the brush that comes with the touch up that will less to disaster buy MICRO detail swabs and do a few light coats 30mins be coats don’t worry about the crappy texture the sanding will make it smooth focus on layers of paint better to have a it too much than too little as again sanding will level it

I have a similar chip. I did a quick hand polish and then touched it up with a needle and agate grey paint. It’s not that good but at least it’s covered from the elements for now. Did some research and what you will need to do is to sand down the chips edges, which makes a nickel to quarter size mark around the chip. Then add the paint followed by clear coat to the chip to get the level of paint slightly above the level the remaining panel. After fully cured, you can compound or polish to level. This will give the best result. It’s labor intensive and scary to make an even larger mark on your car, but it will work. Roads suck here in NY and I will be waiting until I get some more chips and then give it a try. Good luck.

When, many years ago, raced sailboats, when I got a tear in a spinnaker a friend would say, "oh well no worries it's a character mark."