How chipped is your paintwork?

[monkeyhanger]

My 9 month old Red Polo GTI+ seems to have suffered a horrendous amount of chips to the bonnet, front bumper and even a few on the lower crease of the rear passenger door. I'd say more than my 4 year old Golf R had.

The paint seems extremely thin compared to the metallic paint on my Golf R. The red paint does have good opacity, which is probably why VW seem to put it on at half the expected thickness. Considering that "solid" paints now have a lacquer coat on them like metallic always have, the thickness is shocking.

I have the VW touch up pen set, which is a faff to get a decent finish quickly. The coloured paint really needs to go off over a few days before you put the lacquer on. The lacquer goes on really thick, but shrinks back a lot.

So I got one of those Chipex sets. The paint goes off really quick, but I just cannot get the paint flush with the surrounding paint - the levelling solvent does not seem to dissolve the excess quickly or easily. I will probably have to rub it down with some 4000 grit paper once it has properly cured.

I'd say that the car has suffered about 30 chips - most down to the white primer. I'm not a serial tail-gater, and only about 20% of my meagre 7000 miles per annum are done at motorway speeds.


I hope the white paint on the wife's incoming GTI+ is thicker.


Anyone else noticing a crazy number of chips with red paint or any other colour?

[Steve_2019]

I think lot problems these days with car paint it’s water based it’s not so strong as the old oil base paints of years ago.

I gone for a white polo as I’m hoping the paint won’t show the marks like darker coloured cars and also the stone chips won’t show so bad specially when I fill in the stone chips with the touch up pen.

[monkeyhanger]

I think lot problems these days with car paint it’s water based it’s not so strong as the old oil base paints of years ago.

I gone for a white polo as I’m hoping the paint won’t show the marks like darker coloured cars and also the stone chips won’t show so bad specially when I fill in the stone chips with the touch up pen.

I'm aware of the issues of water based paints, as I've had 5 new VAG cars since the change from solvent to water based paint. Comparing water based to water based, the red paint coat seems significantly thinner than my other cars paint coats. Presuming they spray less on the red cars because the colour is so opaque unlike a semi-translucent metallic paint that probably requires a thicker coat for depth of colour.

Anyone else getting a lot of chips in any particular colour? I had almost none in the first 6 months of ownership, now I'm getting 2 a week on average.

[SRGTD]

I seem to remember reading on one of the VW forums recently (sorry, can’t remember which one), that VW may be using less paint per car now than they used to. If they are, it’s an easy way to cut production costs without this being visible to the customer, until some months after taking delivery of their shiny new car that has become peppered with stone chips.

As Steve_2019 has said, environmentally water based paints seem to be less durable than the old school cellulose paints that used to be used many years ago. However, car manufacturers have been using water based paints for many years now, so an increased susceptibility of VW paint to stone chips compared to, say, a two / three year old VW is more likely to be as a result of less paint being used, so thinner paint coverage on the car.

I’m not sure when VW started using water based paints, but I’m now on my 4th VW and the last 3 will have had water based paint. They’ve all fared pretty well as far as stone chips are concerned and the paint seems to be pretty durable - my current 2016 Polo GTI has covered 19k - 20k miles and has picked up very few stone chips. I do very little motorway driving and I always leave a large gap between me and the car in front, which probably helps.

Paint colour choice and ease of repairing stone chips (or any other bodywork repairs for that matter) and getting a good colour match is a big factor for me when choosing the colour of my car. This is one of the reasons I’d never have a metallic silver car, which historically, used to be one of the most difficult colours to get an accurate colour match on if paintwork repairs were necessary (might no longer be the case with modern spectrophotometer paint matching technology though).

I’ve already decided my next car (probably a Polo GTI+) will be Pure White, White is quite a forgiving colour when it comes to repairing stone chips, or seeing them in the first place with the light coloured primer used by VW. The exception is stone chips on the plastic bumpers, where I think the plastic is black before it’s painted. However, repairing stone chips on the bumpers of a white car is still relatively easy IMO. White is also much better at hiding swirl marks if you entrust washing your car to one of the many £5 hand wash outfits or (God forbid) you let the dealer wash your car when it’s in the dealer’s for servicing or repairs!

[monkeyhanger]

About 10 years ago, the VW showrooms had a campaign that read "have you ever noticed that a used VW rarely looks its age?".

I doubt they'd be able to use that now if my stone chips are anything to go by.

I'm not sure why I've had 6 decent months and 3 poor months in relation to stone chips. Maybe there are more stones in the road now, as our roads crumble from disrepair? The paint is incredibly thin in the chips weight reduction rather than VW being cheap?

If this car looks like crap at a few years old, I may not buy another VAG.

I'd buy that regenerative clear wrap for the front end if it wasn't more than the cost of a front end respray.

Maybe sticking with a thicker metallic paint job is the way to go.

[Andy Beats]

Haven't noticed my black bonnet chipped yet, but I'm not exactly a high mileage driver.
Around 8000 miles per year.

[joe6]

I have a white 6C and one reason for the choice is the ability to touch up chips and get a good colour match easily. Generally solid colours are easier DIY for a good colour match than metallic. Had a red Scirocco and that was also relatively easy DIY. I generally use original T Cut to blend old and new after a couple of days to allow the paint to 'cure'. The wife's hairdryer also comes in handy to help cure more quickly

[vc-10]

That definitely doesn't sound right. My last car was a 2016 Skoda Fabia, in Corrida Red, which I think is the same shade as the Flash Red/Tornado Red on VWs. It's certainly a bright, non-metallic red! Handed it back after 27,500 miles, and there were only 2 stone chips on it. I don't tailgate but do a fair amount of motorway driving. with the exception of those two chips and a very small scrape from some a**hole in a supermarket carpark on the rear bumper, the car looked brand new inside and out when I handed it back.

[steeve]

Paint certainly seems to not only chip easily but show marks easily too.

Pretty poor in my opinion. The paint finish was very poor when delivered, we were so close to rejecting the car. But I managed to polish it to an acceptable standard.

[SRGTD]

Paint certainly seems to not only chip easily but show marks easily too.

Pretty poor in my opinion. The paint finish was very poor when delivered, we were so close to rejecting the car. But I managed to polish it to an acceptable standard.

Paintwork that’s prone to chipping and marking easily isn’t just a VW thing and this issue comes up for discussion quite often on other forums too. Thin paint also seems to be an issue with some manufacturers - Fords are often criticised on forums by their owners for having thin paint coverage that’s prone to chipping.

Poorly prepared paintwork as part of the dealer prep on a new car is disappointing though and shouldn’t happen, but unfortunately it does. I’ve read on a quite a few forums of owners instructing the dealer to do the bare minimum to their new car’s paintwork - just removing the protective transit wrapping. On collection of their new car, the owner then takes it to a professional detailer to carry out a new car enhancement detail, or if the owner has the knowledge, skills and equipment, they prep the paintwork themselves. This shouldn’t be necessary but unfortunately, many dealers don’t have the skill - and don’t allocate sufficient time - to prepare a new car’s paintwork correctly. I’d advise owners to never ever allow the dealer to apply paintwork protection to their new car - even if they throw this extra in for free; the majority of a dealer’s valeters/car cleaners don’t know how to decontaminate a car’s paintwork, nor do they allow sufficient time to apply the paintwork protection - probably a couple of hours for what would take a professional detailer 1.5 - 2 days if done properly.

IMO stone chips are an unfortunate inevitable consequence of car ownership, not helped by the poor condition of many roads, cheap surface dressing methods used by many local authorities for road resurfacing, and modern ‘environmentally friendly’ water based paints used by car manufacturers. Maintaining a good distance from vehicles in front, and reducing speed on newly ‘dressed’ roads can help reduce the risk of stone chips. PPF is probably the best form of paintwork protection, but it’s expensive, and can suffer from discolouration with age and the edges of the film lifting and becoming dirty over time - you see these dirty edges and discolouration on some cars where some car manufacturers apply small sections of clear protective film to their cars on areas that are particularly vulnerable to stone chips (e.g. the leading edges of ‘flared wheel arches). It shouldn’t be overlooked that PPF can also be damaged by stone chips too. There is a ‘self healing’ version of PPF but I don’t know how well it ‘heals’ after being damaged - probably heals better from minor scratches than from stone chip damage.

[S_94]

I'm hopeful I'll be picking up my GTI+ next weekend. Would you guys recommend taking it straight to a well rated detailer for them to prepare the car?

I don't know much about this sort of stuff and wouldn't really know what to ask for.

[monkeyhanger]

I'm hopeful I'll be picking up my GTI+ next weekend. Would you guys recommend taking it straight to a well rated detailer for them to prepare the car?

I don't know much about this sort of stuff and wouldn't really know what to ask for.

Depends how much you want to do yourself, how much you'd be prepared to spend, and how perfect you want it to look.

The surface coatings aren't going to prevent stone chips, when they're chemical based and maybe 20 microns thick. They will prevent bird crap scarring your clear coat nake the car easier to clean and keep it cleaner a little longer, with a deep shine.

I use the G-Techniq range - 2 coats of C2V3 every 6 months on the wheels and bodywork keeps the paint surface feeling like it's teflon coated, nothing really sticks to it, so cleaning is an easy wipe off. Most importantly, it is easy to apply.

I didn't really find my Red GTI+ had any noticeable amount of iron contamination when I used G-rechniq's version of Iron X Iron fallout depends on how the cars are transported. All the Wolfsburg built cars are exposed on a train to Emden and Iron from the train tracks/wheels embeds itself into the paintwork. I doubt the SA Polos catch a train, as there was only purple residues from the wheels (a cause of disc brake dust, most likely), and not the bodywork itself.

[S_94]

Thanks mate. There's a local detailer close to my area who are highly rated so might just have a chat with them to see what they recommend.

[roywolfey]

I've done around 11K Motorway Miles and can find only a cluster of 3 tiny chips on the leading edge of the bonnet, but they are hardly noticeable. I did have the Car Ceramic coated on Day 1 and I wonder if this has helped keep the chip count in check.

[Dark_cze]

Did not notice any chip on mine with 12 000 km except for one tiny dot at windshield It was mostly my fault since I was too close to truck in front of me.