I have just joined the owners club. I am collecting my first Mazda MX5 from a dealer tomorrow. It is metallic red and when I looked at it the main obvious downside was some stone chips on the bonnet (it has done 60k miles). It is a MK 3 (2007 coupe) with NC chassis number. I saw in the users area a discount on a paint chip system called chipex (http://www.chipex.co.uk/). I am guessing members have used it. Does it work well and should I try it?
Yes I have used it and if you take your time and I mean REALY take your time and maybe redo a few a couple of times it makes invisable repaires, I used it on my metalic Alfa and i’d give it maybe 8.5/10
Thanks Dickymint - it sounds like hard work & I wonder if I have the patience! Maybe I’ll give it a go - I wonder if others have better recommendations?
If the chips are large and deep, say over 1mm. diameter and through to the metal, then they need to be painted. If they are smaller then waterproof lipstick provides an excellent disguise and much less obvious than a blob of paint.
Regards Geoff Peace.
You dont get any blobs of paint :), you get a special liquid that kida eats the drying paint and you wipe it flat so when I say invisable you can look as hard as you can and you will not see the fix, on the big chips its better to fill the chip with filler then wipe over with your finger so its lower that the surface on the bigger chips you may see a faint ring around the chip but you would have to get really close to see it 
I have just ordered it so I will give it a go maybe next weekend - so I can try some video but it will have to be iPad or iPhone as my daughter has taken my camera on holiday with her!
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Well, I watched the video, but I am still very sceptical. I would like to see some photographs of a real before and after, rather than an advetising video. If only everything was as easy as the video says it is. I am yet to be convinced. Has anyone taken any photographs?
Regards Geoff Peace."
If the weathers nice this week i’ll do a chip or 2 and take some pics 
The only other bit of advice i’d give is wipe the area with alcohol first to remove wax and stuff
Thankyou. The ‘before’ and ‘after’ photographs would be very interesting.
Regards Geoff Peace.
I too would be interested in the results as mine could use some attention
Well - I had a go with Chipex and it is quite good but not outstanding. The paint is a good match for the copper red of my car which had lots of chips. It comes with some neat small ‘brushes’ which are like pads on narrow sticks. I bought the ‘rash’ version to get lots of paint and 10 of these brushes. They go hard after use though so will be difficult to re-use. You also get a small sponge and j-cloth type cloth to wrap around it and the clever bit is the blend you use on this. It is 4-Methylpentan-2-one Methyl Isobutyl Ketone. This is used to rub off excess paint and blends the paint (except chip) into the existing paint. The effect from one angle is a perfect blend but from other angles you can see the indent of the chip. You also get polish & a nice microfibre cloth & surgical gloves as well. It is not cheap at £40 but perhaps worth it, though no doubt you could get the constituents cheaper. I think this is certainly better than putting lipstick in the chip (as others have suggested) and us close enough to a good job for most people and makes the chips less obvious.
I plan to go to the national meet in Sandringham in September and will be happy to share results there as well. I will try to upload iPhone photos in the next few days.
Sorry chaps, I can’t see how one can easily upload pictures to this post area. Unless I put them on dropbox and share a link?
The image needs hosting first in your own webspace or photobucket etc. Then copy/paste its URL into the Insert/Edit Image box using the tree icon next to the smiley in the message box
Here is the link to the pictures on flickr - I wonder if it works from the URL. The images are not really conclusive.
not seeing the image 
[quote=dolphinboy400]
not seeing the image
Likewise, neither am I!
Regards Geoff Peace.
Chaps the link using the icon does not work but this should: http://www.flickr.com/photos/96286139@N04/sets/72157635144105936/ - copy this whole link string to your browser. The images are jot great as I had to do them on my iphone. If you are coming to Sandringham for the annual meet then I will be there. I’ll bring the chipex kit.
I have tried that! No joy. Sorry!
Regards Geoff Peace.
Chaps,
Here are links to the pictures done from my iPad - maybe one of these works? (Sorry for the hassle.)