Rock vs Prius...

Get some touch up paint from the dealer. Clean the spot up and dab it with the paint to protect the spot. Try and pick a day 40 degrees or warmer when you will not be out and driving for several hours. Cars are much better than they used to be but you do not want to give rust a leg up!

 

Bumper Plastic, Hood Aluminum, no worry for rust if on these! Fenders maybe.

 

Better than the window! Yep! touch up paint.

 

That would be the "bumper cover", which is plastic. And yes, it's black. You can touch it up anytime. It won't corrode. If you push on it you should be able to deflect it. If it is hard to push it's metal.

Be aware touch up paint is now "different". The tube has two ends, one with the water based colour coat, the other with a non-water based clearcoat. You put on the colour, let it dry, make sure it's smooth, (sand lightly if necessary with a tiny bit of very fine sandpaper stuck to something like a pencil), re-touch if necessary until it's nice, then apply the clearcoat.

Pearl S wears 3M vinyl, so most of these rock chips don't happen.

 

+1 on both counts

 

I have 50 or so rock chips on my car. You will get many more.

 

Rock chips are like odometer you wear on the the front - just in case the one in the car goes bad.

 

You mentioned the 5K service coming up soon. I just completed mine this week. I had the dealer disable the reverse beep. I now makes one beep. I could tell they did the alignment since the car drove much better.

 

Yep, I have a few of those after 17 months & nearly 25K miles. Nothing serious, though (knock on wood).

 

Got some of those chips already, and had to replace the OEM windshield already due to something hitting and cracking it.

Just past the 5K mark.

 

Sa

Same here.....just after 6k had to replace the windshield

 

Dang, are you guys drafting off 18 wheelers all the time or what?

 

Never saw what impacted the windshield while driving on the freeway @ about 60 mph. The impact scared the cr@p out of me though. I'm pretty sure it wasn't an ordinary rock or stone because those usually break apart when they hit and leave some dust. Whatever hit didn't leave anything behind. Must've been a bolt or nut, something metal and really hard maybe.

 

Or a good "quality" rock. Such as granite.
Pearl has a -dint- in the front of the hood about 2 mm deep. I saw it happen. I was very happy it happened. That rock would have destroyed the windshield. It also removed the paint and actually cut a bit into the aluminum hood. Did nothing about it as it was covered underneath by another panel, so I couldn't beat it out. Current owner still sees it.
I had 3M vinyl on a 3rd gen RX-7 and got a crushed rock about 1-1 1/2" off the hood. It tore the vinyl but didn't damage the hood or paint. Also got a largish rock off the wiper blade on that car. Broke the blade (carrier) but no damage to the windshield. I was very happy.

Life's a gamble. Place your bets.

 

I keep getting those 5k mile service cards in the mail. Only got 1200 miles on it and it's put away until spring It might be a couple or so years until I get to 5k miles. What do they do at that service interval?

Mike

 

Ah heck, that'll buff out

Mike