My RS seems to pick up stone chips so easy. For the last 22 months I only got 3 or 4. But since I have been doing a lot of motorway and dual carriage way driving in the last 2 weeks, I've tripled the amount I've got since I

bought the car. Mostly small ones on the bonnet, which show up so easy on corrida red.

I have sorted them with the touchup paint, a fine artists brush and this

stuff called langka which acts like 3000 grit sandpaper and removes the

excess paint to blend the touchup in, but has none of the disadvantages of

scratching and only removes touchup. A body shop explained the paint on

vw,skoda,seat etc.. is a joke. The body is so heavily galvanised they

barely paint it. Explains a lot I suppose.

The paint is as soft as s***e.

I have more stonechips on the RS than i ever did on my old Cav GSi which had been to the moon and back

It's really the only complaint i have, i might well have a whinge to the dealers about it when i go to get the indicator lenses replaced.

I find the windscreens are really susceptible to stone damage aswell. Touch wood the new one is bearing up but the 'old' one had a couple of chips that I should've had repaired...

Jimmy,

The screens seem thinner than any other i've ever seen, also mine has a nice "arch" mark where some crap got stuck under a wiper blade :grumpy:

Have a few chips as well but nothing I cant live with.

Managed to touch in the chips on the front bumper, nearside rear passenger door, right wing, and door mirror ok. Hardly noticeable. But the bonnet has 4 or 5 tiny ones which are annoying. Local body shop will probably retouch them and sand them for me this week.

Ive started really waxing the bonnet, It now has 10+ coats of Mer and seems to have stopped picking up the little chips......

The problem with Mer is that it is also a paint cleaner and not the best thing to be using regularly on your car. Better off with something like autoglym super resin, one grand omegae glaze or 3m imperial hand glaze once every 3 months and every other month a coat of autoglym extra gloss protection or a good caranuba like one grand blitz or p21s. I usually put superresin on every 2 months, then a coat of extra gloss, then a coat of P21s and finally a coat of blitz. I reapply the blitz every 2 weeks. Gives the car a really deep shine, but doesn't help the stone chips.

its something thats winding me up no end at the moment, i've touched a few of them up but was thinking about something more long term.

Brothers g/f had a protection put on her golf gti a year or so ago and apparently thats worked pretty well helping to keep stone chips and bird doo doo from wrecking the paint so i might try that.

Meguiars scrath x is pretty good at removing cratches and small swirls in the paint but doesnt really touch the touched up chips... might give the local body shop a call to see if they have any recommendations.

The problem with Mer is that it is also a paint cleaner and not the best thing to be using regularly on your car.

Agreed...

What you should do is use Mer "neat" occasionally, and the rest of the time add a capfull or 2 to a bucket of water to use it as a wash & shine

As myself and others (Mr Kentish IIRC) have said several time, Mer is excellent if you know how to use it properly.

Swissol on the other hand is in a completely different league

Agreed...

What you should do is use Mer "neat" occasionally' date=' and the rest of the time add a capfull or 2 to a bucket of water to use it as a wash & shine

As myself and others (Mr Kentish IIRC) have said several time, Mer is excellent if you know how to use it properly.

Swissol on the other hand is in a completely different league [/quote']

Yep Geoff, Mer is excellent in wash and gives a nice finish. It's also good 'neat' ocassionally, like start of the summer to remove any tar and scratches that may come up. Skodas paint is very soft, I have a few scratches from stones in areas other cars wouldn't!

Might try this Mer. Sure sounds like less trouble then using separate glazes and waxes.

Does it fill swirl marks like some glazes or can it cause more. Shows up very easy on Corida red. What about scratches ?

When washing your car, do you now not bother with car shampoo and just use mer ?

thx

Please note the time tense here...

I have used Mer on my Superb for its first year, and before on the Octy for the 4 1/2 years I had it and it was very good.

However, I still got swirl marks and other marks on the paint, and occaisionally water like stains on the paint.

I have always hosed/rinsed the car off, then shampoo,ed then rinsed and then chamoised.

The shampoo would have been Mer and I would have put Mer liquid polish to wax the car as I washed, and not whiten the black trim.

However I am in the process of changing over to Swissol (my parcel has arrived, but I need to arrange suitable delivery again by the PO) and after chatting to Mark, his recomendation for shampoo was Autoglym.

Apparently Mer is slightly harsh a shampoo, and the polish is still abrasive even mixed in with the water.

Dont get me wrong here, I have always been very pleased with my results on both cars, but with the nice sunlight catching the large plainer panels of the Superb ,the surface marks in the paint/laquer we beginning to appear.

So to be sure I tried Meguires, and was suprised at how many of the marks "dissapeared" from the naked eye.

So having ventured, I then decided to go the whole way and go for Swissol.

Mer is ok, if used with water when washing, but now if I have the choice I will not use it and will now risk white marking my black trim (now wheres that peanut butter?)