soft piant? on new Leon (Black metallic)

CH1 · Nov 4, 2005

I've only had my Leon 5 months from new and am amazed by the number of paint chips on the front bonnet/bumper area. I know nothing can protect against stone chips but just feel its abnormally high wear rate considering the car has just turned 5 months old.

Was wondering has anyone else with new cars noticed lots of chipping? The colour I have is Black metallic.

I was considering Seat take a look at it, though I went to my local seat dealer and he said I should take it to where I bought it from as the procedure can be a bit long and if nothing works out take it back to the him. The place where I bought it at is another Seat dealer is 70 miles away!

danthemanwhocan · Nov 4, 2005

Alas, the paintwork on the Leon is utter b*llocks.

Mines peppered, and new ones appear every week which i notice when I wash it.

Totally unacceptable in my view, that new cars (mines 10 months old) are so easily chipped. When my service comes round, I'm gonna ask them to sort it under warranty, otherwise i'll set light to their forcourt in protest... [:@]

kiwi_cordy · Nov 4, 2005

ive got a black ibiza fr now too, going to wash it tomorrow so will see if ive suffered from this too.

WatchHill · Nov 4, 2005

Modern paint is crap. Since the enviro weanies made the industry use water based product it ain't like it was.
I believe that new car paint hardens over time, so you (in theory) are less chip prone as time goes by.

CH1 · Nov 4, 2005

Thats the problem when you handwash, polish and wax the thing lovingly it breaks your heart with all the chips you then come to notice. I had far less chips on my red alfa which I had from new also. Black is the worst colour to show any imperfections, it either looks stunning or plain dirty as I just discovered last weekend!

IMG]

after washing and polishing one half (drivers -Left side of pic):-

and overall after PB polish -sorry pic is a bit out of focus!

My last car 2 year old Toledo was Platinum Grey -didn't wash it much was great and I'm sure it had no where near the number of chips this new Leon has!

Steve_B · Nov 4, 2005

My old VW Bora was black and after 4 years only had a couple of stone chips, the front end of my LC however looks like someones cleaned it using a sand blaster and it's only just over 2 years old, mind you the cars covered in lime burn marks where some seagulls

decided to use it as target practice in the summer, so it's going in for a respray in the new year

Kam · Nov 4, 2005

Yep, when I sold my Leon, the bonnet looked awful, lihe I had driven through a stone chip storm! The guy who came to do some touch up elseware on the car was amazed by the amount of chips! To get it right, it needed a full respray!

My current Bora is the same age and mileage (ish) as the Leon but I have NO stone chips on the bonnet, just one on the windscreen.

Either the paint they use is shite or the aerodynamics of the car attracts stones to fly into the bonnet.

BagFullOfLeon · Nov 17, 2005

Now that you mention it, I think the paint on my new Black magic leon is rather soft too.

I had an insect spot on the boot of the car, miniscule thing, and I was washing it with a soft sponge and turtle wax. I washed over the spot with the sponge, and it must have come loose, becuase BAM! instant scratch! I wasn't even applying that much pressure....

I was pretty taken aback. Now I'm looking into whether its worthwhile treating the paint. But then people say you need to let the paint harden properly first before you apply anything like that. I wax it every second week anyhoo...

ianrawlins · Nov 17, 2005

As far as I understand it it's not the fault of Seat more the fault of the green/ health and safetry police. Apparently they're not allowed to use certain types of paint now. which has caused car paint surfaces to be utter crap.

Tallpaul · Nov 17, 2005

think it's bad now, wait til it's 3 years old!

CH1 · Mar 2, 2006

independant paint inspection?

Just an update on this thread incase anyone else with quite new (few months or less) Seats have any issues with paint. I took the car to my local SEAT dealer. They filed a report of all the chips, scratches etc and sent it to SEAT. I was told by the dealer SEAT either say 'yes' it is a fault (i.e paint is soft and vehicle is chipping etc very soon) or send someone to inspect the bodywork. In my case without even looking at the vehicle, SEAT said No and said its no fault.

I was then informed that I can do an independant inspection, according to SEAT its the dealer that arranges this. According to the dealer its SEAT?? The inspection however is not free, supposed to cost £100. Don't know if this is refunded if outcome is favourable or if its a loss all round....Anyone ever done this?

Tallpaul · Mar 2, 2006

AFAIK the paint on ALL mk1 Leons is sh*te, although some colours are worse than others. I'd only persue this if you think yours is genuinly worse than other cars, ie some sort of problem when your car was painted.

If you are just unlucky and have been hit by more than your fair share of stones then I don't see what SEAT are going to do about it.

The paint on my cupra had easily 10 times more stone chips in 40k/3 years than my current run-around has got in 70k/8 years!

Every black 3 year old Honda Civic i've seen (and i've looked at lots) has had hardly any stone chips on, irrespective of mileage.

mmfb · Mar 4, 2006

Me too. Blac Cupra R. I had "chips away" out yesterday to take a look. He said all I can do is dab paint into the holes. One of which is already showing early signs of rust.

Sorry chips away, I can dab paint into holes too.

So yes - full bonnet respray and armour fiend is the only solution i think.

jaybeee · Mar 9, 2006

mmfb said:
Me too. Blac Cupra R. I had "chips away" out yesterday to take a look. He said all I can do is dab paint into the holes. One of which is already showing early signs of rust.

Sorry chips away, I can dab paint into holes too.

So yes - full bonnet respray and armour fiend is the only solution i think.

Similar to me; with both the chip & chipsaway.

I'm lucky enough to only have one stone chip at the front of my bonnet (03 reg) the size of a small-finger's fingernail. However, it's beginning to show early signs of rust. Ideally I'd get it resprayed, but I've only just bought the baby and don't have money for that. Plus one stone chip sounds well lucky and doesn't really justify a total respray of the bonnet & wings (so I'm told).

So, I'm gonna try and repair/cover-up best as I can. Can anyone recommend some paint to use? It's 'Black Magic Metallic'.

Ol' Timer's thread here is useful and I may follow that, just need the paint.

Thanks

S3 AKR · Mar 10, 2006

mines peppered too. 20k miles and the middle of the bonnet edge, and front wings have a lot of spots. Front bumper doesn't though! Wierd.

I got a touch up pen and although not perfect, its less noticeable than the white underneath!

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soft piant? on new Leon (Black metallic)

CH1

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