Black paint and stonechips - i hate winter on British roads

[hopeless]

Really p%ssed off about the number of stone chips that i've got on my bonnet this week.

The M4 is covered with the remnants of gritting sessions and all manner of debri.

i am also not impressed by the quality of water based paints (not just audi) as my car is peppered with stone chips.

i'd spent hours cleaning and waxing my car a couple of weeks ago and now i feel i shouldnt have bothered.

I had a mk4 black golf vr6 that i did 160000 miles in and the bonnet looked nowhere near as bad as the bonnet on my car now.

So my questions are...

1) Is audi paint worse than other manufacturers

2) is there any way of protecting the paint that doesnt involve anything a stupid looking as a bonnet bra


I'm loving the irony of the Audi quattro advert on Tv at the moment showing an Audi racing along on snowy griity roads to demonstrate the legendary quattro ability. Just doesnt show you that they need a respray after each winter drive.


Before anyone asks i dont tailgate.

 

[MA3RC]

Audi paint is considered to be hard (Along with most if not all German cars), Fords would me medium and Japanese soft.

It's a nightmare, you could always try a stone chip repair kit from Halfrauds.

Also you can get clear car wraps (sort of like cling film) which would protect your paint

 

[hopeless]

The clear wrap is looking more and more like the way forward for winter but i thought that stuff like the 3m Ventureshield was expensive and needed the paintwork to be perfect before application. As well as lasting for 5 years and not being a seasonal thing.

I've no worries about paint as i got a main dealers body shop to mix me up some matched paint and a clear coat. I generally mix the paint and clearcoat and apply that to stone chips and then use a festool de nibbler thing to bring the paint level. i'm pretty good at it by now as the car is a daily driver but i'm getting fed up of having to do it.

 

[a3Tex]

Whereabouts do you drive mate? I live in Bath as well but only really go out to the M4 or south on the A36 or 37 and it's not that bad? It's probably more to do with the fact that it hasn't stopped raining here for 3 months so the amount of debris running into the roads is at an all time high.

 

[hopeless]

Whereabouts do you drive mate? I live in Bath as well but only really go out to the M4 or south on the A36 or 37 and it's not that bad? It's probably more to do with the fact that it hasn't stopped raining here for 3 months so the amount of debris running into the roads is at an all time high.

Just a46, m4 then a38 to filton. You're right about the amount of debris on the road its everywhere, wasnt this bad last year. Dont like driving the car in rain now as this just chucks the grit and gravel at you. i find myself taking the ring road more often now (as much as i hate it) because i get less damage to car. Although the driving skills of some leaves a lot to be desired on the 4174.

 

[a3Tex]

That A46 is terrible. I go up by the racecourse then cut across Gorse Lane but I don't know if that would solve the problem. Half the time it's like I'm driving up a ****ing waterfall.

To be fair, I used to do it in a Corsa. Was a lot less fun then.

I'll check the paint on mine tonight, I haven't given it an awful lot of attention.

 

[Toadoftoadhall]

The clear wrap is looking more and more like the way forward for winter but i thought that stuff like the 3m Ventureshield was expensive and needed the paintwork to be perfect before application. As well as lasting for 5 years and not being a seasonal thing.

I've no worries about paint as i got a main dealers body shop to mix me up some matched paint and a clear coat. I generally mix the paint and clearcoat and apply that to stone chips and then use a festool de nibbler thing to bring the paint level. i'm pretty good at it by now as the car is a daily driver but i'm getting fed up of having to do it.

What is the festool thing you mention? I just got a chip on my estoril blue brand new S3 and just found out audi dont do a touch up paint set!
any tips or guidance would be welcome.

 

[hopeless]

The festool is a small hi carbide steel square block that has very finely toleranced edges, which are also very sharp. So if you get a blob of paint over the chip and it needs to be levelled to the surrounding paintwork you can use the tool to scrape the excess paint off. Paint needs to be dry and cured, the edge of the tool is so sharp it will shave small amounts of paint off. You do have to be very careful with surrounding paint. Best to put a blob of paint somewhere other than the car, wait for it to dry and see the best technique for scraping the paint. Dont try it straight away on your car. The festools are quite pricey though, got mine from amazon.
Dont ever use the touch up pens or whatever come with the touch up paint to apply the paint. use a coctail stick and mix base coat with clear coat together. Try paints 4 u, thats where i got my panther black paint when Audi didnt have any.
There loads of info on the detailing forum regarding the different methods of dealing with paint chips.
Hope this helps.