Thin paint? Got quite a few chips already!

[Shermo]

Cleaned my car last night and noticed several chips on the bonnet and one on the bumper. The paintwork looks REALLY thin on this car, my old Peugeot 107 had way thicker paint than this.

 

The chips on the bonnet are a bit annoying as its a small cluster of about 5 chips, no idea what has caused that!

 

Only done about 3000 miles so far, hope this isn't a sign of things to come as I don't fancy getting stone chips repaired every few thousand miles!!

[Defenderben]

Not too sure its "potentially" thin paint.

It is more just bad luck that stones have hit you at a rate of knots:(

My mk2 has suffered just as bad and on most occasions I saw the dammed stones either coming at me flicked up by car/motorbike in front or saw them bouncing off my car not knowing where they came from.

Worst for my is when cars etc pull out around obstructions and flick all the stones up from the chevron area or centre of the road :(

And before people say your too close to the vehicle in front I've had stones flick up from vehicles way in front! Just sit there and cringe as you see it coming as there is no way to avoid them usually.

Edited 26 July, 2014 by Defenderben

[Shermo]

Just need a protective layer of dirt, or to not clean it. Then I won't know about all the damage The cluster of chips is the most annoying, must have got pebbledashed at some point but I don't remember any such event. Although I have 4x4 I haven't done any off road driving!

[Defenderben]

It could be worth considering getting some 3M clear wrap type thing done.

Local graphics company near me do it, gives you an extra layer?

[Shermo]

I had a ceramic coating put on which helps reduce chips, scratches and swirls... obviously nothing can prevent damage from bigger stones flying at you at silly speeds. I do quite a bit of motorway driving so I guess a stone flying at me at 70mph is effectively an impact at 140mph, bound to get a few chips :(

[littleade]

The ones on the bonnet look like they could possibly be from the same incident. I had something similar on the M5 when mine was new. A lorry threw up a large chunk of tarmac off the surface, which must have been breaking up. It then either seperated into smallerpieces when iit hit my car or when it got flung up by the tyres. I had my wing resprayed in the end. You might want to get some genuine touch up and use a tooth pick to slowly fill them in to prevent rust forming. I found it very annoying! Good luck

[Sarge]

I've had a single stone or other item strike several times and leave a row of marks. And it's not always from vehicles in front. Stuff going the other way or overtaking can throw crap at you too. Got the marks to prove it!

[Mence]

I reckon it's a touch of bad luck.

The paint is ok I reckon even tough I do have chips but mine is confined to literally a handful after 5.5k

[pipsyp]

Dont know if its just me but the VAG solid paint seems a bit more robust than metallic. Ive had three candy white cars in a row now and about the only thing that stonechips terribly is the front bumper being plastic....the paint on the bumpers is really thin.

I had a metallic black mk6 Golf a while ago and that was literally peppered to death after 3 years/50k miles.

[Leonblue]

Halton council (Runcorn) are very good at repairing their dual carriageways by covering them in small loose chippings. They then post a 10 MPH limit sign around those areas. If you then follow the instruction and drive slowly, then some t**t in an Audi or BMW (yes if the cap fits!) will overtake at 60 - 70 regardless giving your car the stony shower it didn't deserve! These chippings should be banned IMHO.

[RSmike]

I agree my candy white chips for fun after 10 skodas some quality has gone up and others severely down

[kalpat]

Halton council (Runcorn) are very good at repairing their dual carriageways by covering them in small loose chippings. They then post a 10 MPH limit sign around those areas. If you then follow the instruction and drive slowly, then some t**t in an Audi or BMW (yes if the cap fits!) will overtake at 60 - 70 regardless giving your car the stony shower it didn't deserve! These chippings should be banned IMHO.

Most councils use the cheapo tar & stone clippings method. Looks OK for a few weeks then starts to wear away. The local council has just done a stretch of road that I can't avoid & it isn't just t***ts in Audis & BMWs that drive at their usual speed.

[Leonblue]

Most councils use the cheapo tar & stone clippings method. Looks OK for a few weeks then starts to wear away. The local council has just done a stretch of road that I can't avoid & it isn't just t***ts in Audis & BMWs that drive at their usual speed.

No it isn't only Audi's and BMW's it's Range Rovers too   lol 

[harrysprout]

VAG paint is hard and chips easily.

[Matt Pez]

I'm on my 4th Skoda and can definitely say the paint on my MkI Octy was like stove enamel compared to the MkIII which seems almost as poor as the finish on a Ford!

Sent from my RM-885_eu_euro1_271 using Tapatalk

[morty]

nowt wrong with the paint on my Fords mate

[GTR27]

Of you want to see really cheap thin paint, go have a look at a Mazda. Not just speculation, detailers use a special tool to measure paint thickness, and Mazda are very thin indeed, some down to 70 microns. VAG cars are generally quite a bit thicker, and also have very hard paint. My o2 rs had very good paint, hoping the o3 is similar.....

[Matt Pez]

Morty, ewe must be lucky, I had a MkI Focus and a MkIII Mondeo and they both had very thin paint. In-law's also had several Fords and prior to MkIII Octy always commented on how much better the finish was on the Skodas.

[V6Jules]

I'm quite impressed with the paint finish on my vrs. Having detailed many cars I can say the orange peel is pretty low. I have a few annoying chips already but this is just bad luck, especially one I have on my a pillar. Like others have said the paint is fairly hard and thus chips easily. Very similar to my Passat which took some polishing to remove defects.

Measured my vrs at 130micron average, 70 from a Mazda is really pretty thin!

[ChrisRs]

Of you want to see really cheap thin paint, go have a look at a Mazda. Not just speculation, detailers use a special tool to measure paint thickness, and Mazda are very thin indeed, some down to 70 microns. VAG cars are generally quite a bit thicker, and also have very hard paint. My o2 rs had very good paint, hoping the o3 is similar.....

Only slightly thinner on a Mazda..The main difference is that Jap paint (Honda, Mazda, Subaru etc)..is softer than European manufacturers produce

VAG paint is not hard paint...its Medium...Hard paint is on BMW's and Mercs etc..

I have also measured the thickness of paint on a MK3 vRS Octavia...its no different to a Mk2

[GTR27]

Paint on euro cars (VAG, BMW, Merc etc) is around the 100-120 micron thickness, with jap cars around the 70-80 micron. You are correct that they are also much softer than euro cars. I havent had personal experience with BMW/Mercs, but had a fair bit with jap cars and VAG cars, so compared to jap cars, VAG cars are very hard paint. Most jap cars have paint like a butter scraping on toast...

 

Good to hear it's no thinner than a mk2.

 

EDIT: Agreed we are talking microns here, so both are relatively thin, but 100 microns compared to 70 in the scheme of things is quite a bit thicker! The clear coat thickness is what is important as that is what gets defects and needs to be "corrected" generally. (i.e. so thicker = better)

Edited 29 July, 2014 by GTR27

[GTR27]

Can't see the edit function now (does it disappear after a certain time?) but just like to say that i'm not a pro detailer, just know a few people that are, and bug them about info etc, to help me maintain my car. Learnt a little when I owned jap cars, and now i've owned a few euros, they are so much better for paint quality its hard to go back (even if we generally do get better prices on jap cars here in oz). I'm sure i've missed something out that's important/relevant, but i'll leave that to you detailers to correct me on

[fiisch]

I'm very impressed with thickness of paint after 6500 miles - only mark on mine appears to be someone brushing with clothing or the like (bloody neighbours) rather than stone chipping.

 

But then, my last car was an Alfa MiTo - the early models ended up with more chips than paint.... 

[V6Jules]

My wife's mx5 is so soft you can marr it with an old microfibre!

I've heard that BMW paint is very hard but I've never found it harder to polish than the vag cars I've done. I'm no expert by anymeans but I enjoy it and lots of friends at work have given me beer money to make their abused paintwork look better

[V6Jules]

On another note the black door pillars are soft as sh... And swirl so easily