Washing the car today, keep noticing little black spots looking like dirt but when I feel them I can feel that they're holes in the paint surface.

I know Fiat sell those wee paint touch-up pens with the exact matching colours of our Panda's, and I'm also aware there are many other brands who can mix the paint too with the VIN to probably the same standard but with slightly different tools / application processes.

It all seems a bit like I'd screw it up too easily if I went to try it, so I'm asking if any of you have repaired stone chips on your Pandas and how you found the process?

I'm planning on buying the genuine Fiat £18 touch up pen unless any of you have anything bad to say about it!

Attached as many photos as I could today of various chips (There are many more) some are quite small, others noticeable from a few steps away just.

My big fear is that they'll rust and go brown like one of our old Corsa's did which could result in a rust outburst in the next 5 years I hope to get out of the Panda. I'm not sure how many of these chips the little touch up pen can repair and whether I get all the chips done will depend on this as the £18 per pen may creep up. I must stress these are mostly TINY holes that haven't turned brown yet. All recent from the last owner (my sister) who drove too close and too fast behind others probably causing dirt and stones to chip all over the place!

I'm slowly trying to polish up and bring a little love to the Panda as it's my first great car and I enjoy driving, washing and owning it. Little touches like this are something I look forward to getting down to detail with to preserve my car!

Thanks again forum!

* Attached photos *

Plastic bumpers don't rust.

* turns red * My head is away with it!


Though there's an extensive amount of stone chips on the door / body panels still :-(

Handy about the bumper because it's by far the worst affected!

SB1500 said:

* turns red * My head is away with it!


Though there's an extensive amount of stone chips on the door / body panels still :-(

Handy about the bumper because it's by far the worst affected!

Click to expand...

Sorry I couldn't resist! :devil:

The touchup pen won't fix the bumper.
Get an aerosol made up with your colour code, and spray the affected area.
Plenty of guys on here who'll give you a run through on how to do it.
I've done this successfully several times now.
The stone chips are gonna be harder to disguise, unfortunately.

To be honest, the visual appearance doesn't bother me, I'm just worried about rusting coming from the chips on the metal.

Good idea about the aerosol I will get on the ball of looking that up Bumper is a bit desperate to be honest

Sweetsixteen said:

The touchup pen won't fix the bumper.
Get an aerosol made up with your colour code, and spray the affected area.
Plenty of guys on here who'll give you a run through on how to do it.
I've done this successfully several times now.
The stone chips are gonna be harder to disguise, unfortunately.

Click to expand...

SB1500 said:

...I'm just worried about rusting coming from the chips on the metal...

Click to expand...

Not likely to turn to rust spots: the Panda (like most cars these days) is fully galvanised before being painted and so these will 'self-heal' as the zinc coating 'creeps' overs small marks. Touch up paint will leave a raised 'blob' which can be more unsightly...

More important to prevent rust is a good blat with a hose around the wheel arches (especially the rear, where the plastic liner holds mud (and so water) against the edges, and the rear suspension - as someone else on here showed recently, mud traps water that rusts the spring seats at the rear.

Herts Hillhopper said:

Not likely to turn to rust spots: the Panda (like most cars these days) is fully galvanised before being painted and so these will 'self-heal' as the zinc coating 'creeps' overs small marks. Touch up paint will leave a raised 'blob' which can be more unsightly...

More important to prevent rust is a good blat with a hose around the wheel arches (especially the rear, where the plastic liner holds mud (and so water) against the edges, and the rear suspension - as someone else on here showed recently, mud traps water that rusts the spring seats at the rear.

Click to expand...

That's good to hear, just that one of the older chips has turned brown over time :-(

And I will pay special attention to the rear wheel arches, I did notice sticking a hose up there made big chunk of mud drop out of nowhere so I'll be sure to keep that up.

Would those under car auto-washes get into that area?