Bloody annoying stone chips.

[Skyl1n3]

Just finished washing the car and I couldn't help but look disgusted at how bad the front end looks now, all over the bumper it's just countless stone-chips with the white underneath sticking out it looks hideous.

 

She'll be 3 years old at the end of the month and done roughly 25,500 miles but jesus christ I don't see how it can have chipping this bad;

 

 

What's the best service to use to rid myself of these and what's the best protection method to avoid these in the future?

[blueR36]

Full re spray , (around 150 pounds) of the bumper , don't take to a mobile one as you need oven cutting . Only way to prevent it is clear vinyl wrap or don't go out ! Yours does look bad for mileage , motorway miles ? And don't travel too close to car in front

[philbes]

After 37K miles in just over 4 years my black car has numerous stone chips that allow the white/grey primer to show through - mainly on front 1/3 of the bonnet and the lower front bumper moulding.  Less than on your car but each stone chip is larger.  As my previous Honda Civic had only a couple of stone chips after 7 years and 85K miles I can only assume that the Skoda's paint is of poorer quality than the Honda.

[xman]

This is why you should buy a silver or white car.

Quite frankly I cant anything on that photo, do you have OCD? Our cars generally are covered in the front with squashed bugs or blood streaks.

Its only a fabia.

Edited 5 June, 2016 by xman

[Gizmo]

I have yet to notice a single stone chip on my Business Grey Superb (just under 10K miles) I do wonder if the Crystal Serum has anything to do with this??

[Skyl1n3]

Full re spray , (around 150 pounds) of the bumper , don't take to a mobile one as you need oven cutting . Only way to prevent it is clear vinyl wrap or don't go out ! Yours does look bad for mileage , motorway miles ? And don't travel too close to car in front

 

Yikes, well I guess I can only let it get worse before I decide to do that.

 

After 37K miles in just over 4 years my black car has numerous stone chips that allow the white/grey primer to show through - mainly on front 1/3 of the bonnet and the lower front bumper moulding.  Less than on your car but each stone chip is larger.  As my previous Honda Civic had only a couple of stone chips after 7 years and 85K miles I can only assume that the Skoda's paint is of poorer quality than the Honda.

 

That's what I found out as well, loads of other people have had cars for up to 10 years and have maybe a few stone chips but these just love to chip it's ridiculous

[Skyl1n3]

This is why you should buy a silver or white car.

Quite frankly I cant anything on that photo, do you have OCD? Our cars generally are covered in the front with squashed bugs or blood streaks.

Its only a fabia.

 

It may not look that bad on the photo but in person it's easily visible, and I don't mind dead bugs e.t.c because they come off through cleaning, and because it's not a Lamborghini I shouldn't worry about the shoddy paint Skoda use? :|

[xman]

Ask if it covered by skodas paint warranty (3 years iirc)

[Gizmo]

Ask if it covered by skodas paint warranty (3 years iirc)

 

For stone chips??

 

They are wear and tear.

[xman]

If you have good reason to believe the paint is sub standard, you can ask your dealer to check it and submit a claim to Skoda Uk.

If not, then just accept it, its not a Lambourghini, which probably does use better paint. But they cost a lot more than £150 extra. £150 for a bumper respray after 3 years is not even the cost of oil over that time.

Most people wouldnt notice it, or maybe they would have it resprayed at 5 years, as part of a mid life tidy up.

It may be where you live, the road conditions, even just a couple of times driving over freshly resurfaced roads, maybe you drive like a crazy vrs driver. Its just life.

Ive been moaning that my son borrowed my Alhambra and a stone thrown up by a passing mad white van man cracked my heated windscreen. Now I have to pay £75 and check Autoglass fit a good quality heated screen instead of a bog standard cheapie.

But thats life....

[TheInsanity1234]

After 37K miles in just over 4 years my black car has numerous stone chips that allow the white/grey primer to show through - mainly on front 1/3 of the bonnet and the lower front bumper moulding. Less than on your car but each stone chip is larger. As my previous Honda Civic had only a couple of stone chips after 7 years and 85K miles I can only assume that the Skoda's paint is of poorer quality than the Honda.

I think paint quality for Skoda cars are much poorer than for other manufacturers, as my mum's Yeti is only 4 years old with about 63k miles on the clock, and it's got a lot of paint chipping all over the front and sides too.

My Citigo is only 4 weeks old this Wednesday and already had to respray the bumper myself due to reversing it into a bush (possibly concealing a wall) resulting in quite a lot of damage.

Also, there is a lot of scuffing and a couple of scratches on the roof after I tried to wipe off some dried bird poo (I put plenty of water on it to prevent paint from getting scratched)

Oh well, I might be taking it to Liverpool with me so I probably should quit caring about the paintwork

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[xman]

My Citigo is only 4 weeks old this Wednesday and already had to respray the bumper myself due to reversing it into a bush (possibly concealing a wall) resulting in quite a lot of damage.

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Dont think thats down to paint quality..

A guy who comes up from Brighton often comments that my elder sons 4 year old octavia (76k mainly b roads) and its predessor 11 year old fabia (140k) look so pristine compared to his expensive company mazdas re stone chipping.

Other sons fabia se now on 50k and I dont think Ive seen stone chipping up front. Mainly long motorway journeys.

Neither wash their cars, I do, and not very often at that.

Maybe excessive / incorrect washing is a factor. Never use a pressure washer or polish. Polish cuts the lacquer off.

[Ootohere]

Much more likely to be a matter of where you live and drive and what gets thrown at the front of the cars you are driving because there is nothing particularly wrong with the Skoda metallic Paints being used on MK2 Fabias.

 

Solid White or Red are easier and less noticable to touch in stone chips on, or Meteor Grey, 

but many cover high mileages and have no issues.

 

If you do have a paint finish that does seem to be very easily damaged then check the Paint finish is the Factory Finish and not a repaired job within the Factory or from In Transit damage.

[larsberg]

Maybe excessive / incorrect washing is a factor. Never use a pressure washer or polish. Polish cuts the lacquer off.

It would be pretty horrid if the paint can't handle a little pressure washing. And polish is supposed to cut an extremely small layer of lacquer off, there should be more than enough for this not to be a problem..

[Guest BigJase88]

Cheap paint.

Mines chips at the sight of a stone.

My old bmw was approaching 100k and had less chips than my 9k mile fabia!

[MillsyVRS]

I visited a local but well recommended body shop to see what they'd charge to sort out the front end of all stone chips and couple of little scuffs underneath where it was caught on a friends drive once. £500 was the quote.

Decided the stone chips can stay (and there is quite a lot) as they're only going to reappear before long and I would have wasted £500. The most painful thing is when a gritting lorry comes past in the other direction and there is absolutely nothing you can do to avoid getting showered in grit.

[blueR36]

This is why you should buy a silver or white car.

Quite frankly I cant anything on that photo, do you have OCD? Our cars generally are covered in the front with squashed bugs or blood streaks.

Its only a fabia.

. If you can't see them you should have gone to spec savers .

[Lee]

Have a look at the Chips Away service.

 

https://www.chipsaway.co.uk/

[TheInsanity1234]

Dont think thats down to paint quality..

A guy who comes up from Brighton often comments that my elder sons 4 year old octavia (76k mainly b roads) and its predessor 11 year old fabia (140k) look so pristine compared to his expensive company mazdas re stone chipping.

Other sons fabia se now on 50k and I dont think Ive seen stone chipping up front. Mainly long motorway journeys.

Neither wash their cars, I do, and not very often at that.

Maybe excessive / incorrect washing is a factor. Never use a pressure washer or polish. Polish cuts the lacquer off.

Well obviously that bit isn't, but it did cause a lot of damage to the paintwork whereas someone else I know who had a Peugeot did the same thing I did, but their car came away with relatively little damage, nothing that t-cut couldn't sort.

So the paint is definitely thinner!

However, their car was metallic black and mine is solid red so that may account for some of the difference.

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[Skyl1n3]

The most painful thing is when a gritting lorry comes past in the other direction and there is absolutely nothing you can do to avoid getting showered in grit.

 

Oh god I had that experience, except it was in-front of me on the motorway spraying f**k-tons of the stuff everywhere and just hearing it all hit my front-end was so painful I was bordering on weeping, but luckily I wasn't going as quick and I just ended up with a load of salt in and around the black grill which I promptly cleaned off, ******s.

[larsberg]

Well obviously that bit isn't, but it did cause a lot of damage to the paintwork whereas someone else I know who had a Peugeot did the same thing I did, but their car came away with relatively little damage, nothing that t-cut couldn't sort.

So the paint is definitely thinner!

However, their car was metallic black and mine is solid red so that may account for some of the difference.

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Metallic black shows stone chips extremely easily, our superb is peppered with it. Hell, maybe it's poor skoda paint after all..

[Ootohere]

'T-CUT' as in the Rubbing Compound does not help with Stone Chips if you mean a chip in the paint and you see the coat under the Colour Coat. ie the paint has gone.

All T-CUT does is actually remove more Top Coat / Lacquer / Colour coat in the near area meaning even less thickness of coating.

 

If you touch in the exposed chip with a needle or coc-ktail stick then a little flatting back with T-Cut just where the new paint is high is another matter.

 

Rubbing out and blending in scratches is something else,

as is 'Car Colour Waxes' and Products that disguise the chip without thinning 

the surrounding paintwork.

[SlushBox]

Spent all day on my 08 Flamenco red Fabia Combi , with new Skoda touch up  & Farcler scratch romove paste. . Score   32 stone chips & 5 visible scratches . Not to mention  6 Supermarket parking scars .......I'm an ex motor vehicle spray painter ( Long Long ago )  At least now they don't stand outto the casual observer