Stone chips....help!

[acs87]

Hi everyone,
As you can see in my picture i own a red leon FR TDI which i love to bits. Over the past few months i have been driving rather alot of duel carridge-way miles and as a result of this it would seem i have aquired a few (but still very annoying) stone chips on the front bumper, bonnet and wing of the car. They are not THAT serious and walking past the car most people would bearly notice, but it bothers me because i know they are there and see them everyday!!
My first question is what is the best way to repair them myself?? and how can i try to prevent this happening again?will a good few layers of wax be able to withstand the stones? Thanks

Alex

 

[D3DNA]

Best way to sort out chips is to get the panels resprayed for the best results but as many cant really afford to go to that extent. A chipsaway type service can fill and help remove them for a fee or if they are very minor you can try and polish them out yourself.
As for the wax, its unlikely that a wax will help prevent stonechips but their are a few products which you can use to prevent this. One being a film of plastic that goes over the most stonechip prone areas, one such company is Armourfend. I have seen very good results especially with higher end cars such as TVRs and Porches where its saved having to get £1000's on a spray job.

 

[Pabs]

dude, you'll just have to get used to it.

I do 130 miles a day, of which 100 are motorway miles. Car is battered with stone chips - had a new fog like 2 weeks ago and a new windscreen last week. All because of stones

The SEAT paint is very hard, only real thing u can do is get a respray at the front end - but the stone chips will reappear.....

I'm thinking i might get a respray of the front end in the summer. Just depends on cost really.

 

[Reg]

The SEAT paint is very soft, only real thing u can do is get a respray at the front end - but the stone chips will reappear.....

Quite the opposite Pabs, VAG paint is hard. But that also makes it prone to stone chips because its brittle and upon impact it chips away, rather than a softer paint which might be more likely to take a little of the impact before breaking. Pretty much all paint will chip easily when hit by a stone, I think its more to do with the shape of the car. Waxing will not help, its simply not hard enough. D3DNA is right about the Armourfend stuff, or possibly one of those ugly 'nose bra's' that the Americans use a lot. But look ridiculous.

 

[Pabs]

damn, i knew it was hard and not soft... don't know why i typed that! oops. Sorry

 

[joonspoon]

I'd go for chipsaway. I've used them and the prices are pretty good.

http://www.chipsaway.co.uk/

Don't think there's anything you can do to avoid getting chips in the first place.

 

[C7SS]

Chips away aren´t too bad, but after the repair I could still see the areas affected, maybe just something with matching Ovni yellow?
I think the best thing is to live with it as long as you can or until it starts to rust and then get a GOOD respray. Best of luck

 

[Reg]

Christ, don't leave it until it rusts! What a dumb ass thing to say!

At least get a proper touch up paint from Seat, carefully clean the area and dab a tiny spot of paint at a time into the chip. Don't use the brush they supply, just use a tooth pick or something. It might need a couple of applications to build it up (let it dry in between), but it will at least protect the metal underneath and take your eye off of the chipped area. An alternative to a respray is to wet sand the area - but I would not advise it unless you really knew what you are doing.

 

[satilaboy]

how much would a full respray set you back??? Matt Black???

 

[Reg]

If you mean a whole car to be sprayed, in its original colour, you're probably looking at £2500+ (at least thats what I was looking at for my BMW a couple of years back). To go for a totally different colour will be loads more because there if more work involved, to do it properly.

And a matt paint - I wouldn't do it! The little experience I've had of matt paint on motorbikes is that its a nightmare to keep looking nice!

 

[satilaboy]

i thought it would be expensive. i saw a nice audi tt in matt black once. looked cool as

 

[D3DNA]

My mate has a Vauxhall Tigra he's spraying black, from red and even though he's done most of the prep work himself plus taking off the panels he is looking at a good £1500 for the paint, booth and labour costs alone.

 

[scottzedal]

Why can't the bottom coat ( presume it's primer) be the same colour as the top coat?

Most stone chips don't go down to the metal just chip the gloss.

This way they wouldn't be so noticeable??

 

[D3DNA]

Scott, your theory is sound but on a mass produced car the primer tends to be either white or grey because it allows the painter to see where he/she has sprayed on a coat of colour. Also its cheaper to get white and grey primer than a coloured variant.

 

[scottzedal]

Scott, your theory is sound but on a mass produced car the primer tends to be either white or grey because it allows the painter to see where he/she has sprayed on a coat of colour. Also its cheaper to get white and grey primer than a coloured variant.

Yeah thought it had to do with money but the painting side makes sense too.

Be a good idea though and would be great for my black LCR

 

[acs87]

thanks for all the replys. much appreciated. from what you have said it looks like i will just have to put up with the chips for now and when it gets worse i will have a look into chipsaway in more thourghly. the good news is that none of the current chips are down to the metal, just the primer, so there shouldn't be any risk of rusting, yet! and i will make sure this doesn't happen!
thanks again

Alex