This is not something you should tackle for a couple reasons. One you have never done it before and will have little luck matching all the little touch up spots with the rest of the finish. Two, if there really is rust from the metal being exposed, it needs to be removed and treated so it will not come back. Three, if the least little stone will chip it, it needs to be repainted, period. The paint was not cured properly or the surface metal or primer was not applied properly. It needs to be redone. Honda should cover it but doesn’t sound like they will.
Around here, they get about $150 - 200 per panel to refinish so it really doesn’t need to be that expensive. When they refinish it, then have them apply the 3M brand clear protective coating on the front. It would take a big rock to chip that and you can hardly tell its on there. A lot of Acura and Honda dealers push this stuff because of the shape of the hoods.
This really should be covered under your whole car warranty. They warrant that the car is well made and without defect, and you are showing them defective paint. You say you drive it in the Winter, but then so does everyone else. You say you may have encountered road salt, dirt, flying gravel, etc., but so does everyone else. Honda is obliged to build a car that can withstand normal use, and it sounds like they failed to do so. Take the service adviser to the window, show him cars going by, and ask him if those cars are better than a Honda because they don’t have rusty hoods like yours. Cars are made to be used, and used in Winter, on dirty roads, in adverse conditions, in the sun and rain, in deserts and foggy mountains. They are used in cities and country roads, and they are warranted to be fit for that. Yours failed. Your FIT is not fit. That’s Honda’s problem, and don’t try to fix it until you have pushed up through the regional rep and farther. Once you try anything to fix it, the warranty is void.
Well, I spoke with two different body shops about doing it myself as I am not really ready (financially) to have the whole hood repainted (they said that is what they would have to do). One said to just use the touch up paint without any sanding or priming, and the other said to use a sharp knife to scrape off the rust, then apply Extend and paint it with the touch up paint. I am thinking of just using the touch up paint, but thinning it out a bit and using a very fine paint brush, not the brush that comes with the paint, as the first shop suggested. Both do not think it’s rail rust, but thought it would be worth using the clay bar to see if I can get off some of the other stuff that is on my hood.
I know I will have to take it into the shop eventually but I would like to prolong the inevitable for at least a little while
Andrea, when I get a chip on the hood of my 98 Civic, and it starts to rust, I use a product called “rust converter” that I buy at Walmart’s automotive department. It converts the rust to a primer coat. Then I apply a little touch-up paint on top after the primer coat dries. If your problem ends up really being chipped paint, this might work for you.