Had the Vrs for about three months and done 2500miles and there's little chips and scratches all over, I've already had to have the bonnet resprayed due to a huge stone chip and the car is cleaned with the two bucket method every week. I though VAG paint was supposed to be stronger than most car paints but it's showing up loads of little chips, my last cruddy toyota didn't have any noticeable chips after 17k. Is this a fault with my paint or is it common to black magic as i can see me getting rid of the car if it's a standard problem as i've been quoted

Black does pick up the chips, or at least shows them more due to the colour.

I dont think its because the paint is thin or 'weak' as such. Other colours dont show up the chips that bad, like silver for example. I think its to do with the light undercoat/primer colours.

How close do you drive to the car in front? Can have alot to do with it, drop back a bit and give the stones a chance to fall.

I use Turtle Wax Black Chip stick and a decent wax (Swissol) This is fine on mine

This has been covered quite a bit if you do a search but the paint is "soft" and it's not just the black, mines the same with the red. Paints are now water based which will make them softer but other cars I've had are no where near as bad as the vrs.

The BM paint is slightly thicker than solid colours on a Fabia, 150 vs 130 micron average, it's the clearcoat that gets scratched and because of the black magic reflective qualitys scratches show a lot more.

The only way is slow the process is to have the car detailed then keep on top of it with acryllic top coats and washing / waxing.

Do a search on here or www.detailingworld.co.uk.

I use a black wax crayon to fill in the chips and it works pretty well. I will do this until there are too many. That's when I would consider touch up and if I make a pigs ear of it then last resort is respay.

VAG paint is harder than most but it still doesn't stop stone chips. Stones hitting your car at say 70 mph will always cause some damage regardless of how hard the paint is.

Last fabia vRS was black and like you say shows scratches swirls etc somat terrible. swmbo as just got a red octy and just like I found on my old mini this would appear to show water marks really bad under scrutiny. I have a yellow fabia vRS on order and hope this will be the solution :lol: In the meantime I have bought maguires nxt shampoo and wax to keep the marks on the red beasty at bay. IMO tho VAG paint does not have as good a finish as many other manufacturers, but in every other aspect the cars are superior!

Mines Yellow but with the base/primmer being White stone chips /scratches don't show/stand out...."Nice choice of colour postmanpat"

TBH I've found Black Magic paint pretty good, done 16,000 Miles with no noticeable scratches or chips, other than where fatherless person hit the wheel arch in a car park.

Fabis paint is certainly a lot better than on my previous car - Astra. There was some article a bit ago about Black Magic paint in Auto Express - I think it was damage from bird droppings.

It's really irritating as there's a tiny chip on the boot as well as a couple on the leading edge, i fully detail the car regularly but use carnuba wax so do you think a change to a proper sealant will help ??

I'm going to try some scratch x on it before breaking out the PC as hopefully it is just the clearcoat.

thanks for the replies

the ranualt clio I had was pearlescent black (v similar to black magic). it did show up scrathes,chips ect but I think it is to do with the colour of the undercoat and the fact that black will show the imperfections more.

When a bird did it's do on the car and was left a day (without being washed off) it would take the shine out of the paint which was very annoying.

I think there nothing wrong with the paint just the colour.

I mad ethe same mistake and bought a black magic VRS but tbh it looks the best when nice and clean.

All well and good staying further away but then your windscreen gets hit instead - admittedly you need to officially keep that safe gap though so you're likely to get hit on the windscreen anyway

I've got ALOT of stone chips on my bonnet, 8000miles and i could count over 10 chips on the bonnet itself, some of are rather large too. The odd thing is i dont remember hearing any of them, i would have thought for a stone to chip the paint in this way it would make a sound i would hear. I listen to 5live alot too so its not as if its loud music either.

19, drives a skoda and listens to 5live *wonders how he's got a g/f* lol.

*must be the torque :p*

oops double post, sorry.

*must be the torque :p*

Must be tailgating .

Edit: That reads as really harsh and was meant as tongue in cheek

100k VW golf.... in black.... bonnet is battered!! and the wheel arches being flaired to means thwey have taken the brunt as well!! so nope VAG paint aint all that good!!

Somebody said, that the colour on the black magic vrs is water based? Surely that cannot be true... I use paint most days, and when coming to clean my brushes at the end of the day after using oil based paint, i use white spirt, or brush cleaner.

To clean standard water based paint, is just normal water from that tap. When it rains, the water is a lot stronger that surely, when it rains the paint would fall of the car?

Are you sure its water based ?

Somebody said' date=' that the colour on the black magic vrs is water based? Surely that cannot be true... I use paint most days, and when coming to clean my brushes at the end of the day after using oil based paint, i use white spirt, or brush cleaner.

To clean standard water based paint, is just normal water from that tap. When it rains, the water is a lot stronger that surely, when it rains the paint would fall of the car?

Are you sure its water based ? [/quote']

hasnt it got preservatives and solids stuff to keep it all together

It is water based that's why bird **** burns in to the pain if you leave it on, years ago it did no harm...

It's not just black - my storm grey Fab is riddled with chips (as you can read in my sig). I'm afraid the 3 yr paint warranty is pretty pathetic compared to other marques.

I do find it annoying, but there's little one can do about it, unless the roads get cleaned better and the haulage industry smartens up its act. All these tippers ladled with stones, brownfield site waste etc. leave a trail of muck on the roads going into and coming out of building sites, refuse tips etc..

I'll definitely have another Fab, but will go for silver next time me thinks, so that the chips don't show up as much.

I haven't noticed the black paint on my Octy chipping though I have noticed swirl marks and very fine scratches. Its now covered 10K.

Now the paint on my Octy 1 vrs was another matter, I managed to brush a metal guard rail on the side of the road as I opened the door and the paint just fell off the edge of the door. When I looked closer I found I could scrape the paint off with my fingernail. The paint felt very soft, almost wet, like it had not long ago been sprayed.

Hmm, not wanting to hijack the thread but do chip sticks work fairly well on deeper scrathes / chips that don't completely PC out? Not got the nuts just yet to try the wet sanding technique taked about over on detailing world - want to try on a dead panel first!

VAG paint IS brittle. They are the only cars Ive had that have picked up as many stone chips ans swirl marks. The best car Ive had for NOT picking up stone chips was my last car a Renault Megane II !!!Tha car was c.r.a.p but the paint was superb! Mind you......You dont pick up stone chips in a garage workshop do you!!!

Motor industry moved to water based paints a few years ago because of the environmental and workers health issues of using oil based paints. The chemistry is more complicated but it's similar to emulsion paints being alot less robust than oil based gloss paints at home. However you will have noticed how many household gloss paints are now water based and you just wash your brushes in water.

You can get a film from Demon Tweeks that is completely transparent and stops chips on the paint. Not sure what it's called but it sounds like a good solution to avoid chips at the front and just behind the front and rear wheels.