Paint wear and tear?

[Sootchucker]

I hear what you are saying about white cars. My previous Deep Black Pearl MK5 Golf, looked pretty poor after 3 years or so, with the black paint showing numerous hits in the front bumper and leading edge of the bonnet.

My current Candy Scirocco by contrast (approx 2½ years old and 20k miles), has pretty much remained stone chip free (except one small one on the nearside front a few weeks after delivery, but it was kicked up by a truck and was quite a stone - touched up immediately.

I hope my GTD looks this good after 2 and a bit years....


AGE_2072 by Sootchucker, on Flickr

[mcmaddy]

I suppose at the end of the day it's how well the paint is looked after. No polish, wax or washing will mean less coats for a stone to get through. properly looked after paint will limit the amount of chips but not all.

[Gryzor]

I suppose at the end of the day it's how well the paint is looked after. No polish, wax or washing will mean less coats for a stone to get through. properly looked after paint will limit the amount of chips but not all.

I'd have thought that if a stone is traveling at a rate and angle to cause a chip, it will take more than a few coats of soft wax to prevent it happening.  Careful driving (and a good amount of luck) will probably help far more.

[mcmaddy]

From my own experience with a black magic seat Leon fr I was either lucky with stones or the fact I lavished it with washing and waxing love every weekend meant I had no stone chips in the two years I had it.

[CraigW]

I suppose at the end of the day it's how well the paint is looked after. No polish, wax or washing will mean less coats for a stone to get through. properly looked after paint will limit the amount of chips but not all.

I'd have thought that if a stone is traveling at a rate and angle to cause a chip, it will take more than a few coats of soft wax to prevent it happening.  Careful driving (and a good amount of luck) will probably help far more.

+1 no amount of wax will prevent stone chips.

[mcmaddy]

I must just have been lucky then 

[JoeGTI]

I think a lot of it is luck coupled with what roads you drive on, how close you follow cars in front, etc... but mainly plain luck. If a truck in front of you throws up a few stones, no amount of wax or polish is going to stop those stones pebble dashing your bonnet!

[Gryzor]

I must just have been lucky then 

Of course! Wax might affect "some" very light stones that skim over the surface, but that's it.  Driving down a motorway, if you tailgate and the car in front kicks up a stone that you drive into, that's your own fault for driving so close.  However, if a car on the other side happens to kick a stone over into oncoming traffic and it hits your car, that's just being in the wrong place at the wrong time - a few mph faster a mile down the road and it could have been the car behind that got it!

[ajmoir36]

My windscreen was taken out by a stone from a passing car on the other side of the road. Just unlucky.  Was trying to figure out the best way to treat them the other day.