Stone chips and wheels

[Rjw76]

Good morning all,

I thought I would reach out to those of you with some detailing experience for some advice on a couple of cosmetic issues I’m having with my 2015 A3. When I bought the car earlier this year the bodywork was in really good condition for it’s age, but it did have few minor stone chips on the bonnet (which the dealer did a very poor job of touching up, but that’s another story and one to put down to experience!!). I do a lot of motorway driving, and despite being as careful as I can to avoid sitting close to other vehicles on either side and leaving a good gap from the car in front, I’m already getting some more bonnet chips... for those of you who maintain a perfect/near perfect paint finish, how do you avoid stone chips, and how do he deal with them when you do get them?

Second question is about keeping the wheels spotless - I’ve noticed recently a slight build up of very small (fraction of a millimetre in diameter) black spots - presumably tar deposits? Which I simply cannot clean off - I’ve even tried scrapping with my finger nail or a plastic blade, but even then most of them stay put. Is there a product to deal with these without causing harm to the wheel?

Thanks for any advice you can give me with these!

 

[Adam14]

Only way to minimise stone chips is to get them fixed and then have PPF applied to the front end, this will help massively to minimise stone chips from damaging the paint.

Other than that you can't avoid them, and PPF only protects the paint, stone chips will still hit your car.

Tar deposits on the wheel can be removed with any decent tar remover, autosmart Tardis is well recommended, I personally am currently using auto finesse, not much variety to tar remover so any high quality brand will do.

Sent from my HD1913 using Tapatalk

 

[Rjw76]

Thanks for the tips - do you, or anyone else here, have PPF? How does it affect the look of the finish? I.e. if you only have it applied to the bonnet (for instance) will it look different from the rest of the car all polished and waxed up?

 

[Adam14]

Thanks for the tips - do you, or anyone else here, have PPF? How does it affect the look of the finish? I.e. if you only have it applied to the bonnet (for instance) will it look different from the rest of the car all polished and waxed up?

You don't polish/wax PPF. It depends what PPF you get, the brand "xpel" is one of the best. It's essentially clear plastic but you can get different types which give a different finish (Matt, satin etc).

I don't have PPF, but my car is wrapped which gives a similar level of protection albeit with a colour change.

Sent from my HD1913 using Tapatalk

 

[Rjw76]

Thanks for that, I’ll take a look into it.

 

[RAF_S7]

My car is wrapped, and it’s been on the car since new - now close to 5 years and 60k miles with no degradation of the film.

There are (was...?) two main PPF brands: Xpel and Suntek.

I did a fair bit of research and went Suntek as it was the ‘clearer’ brand - Xpel had a slight orange peel effect at that time. Both have a manufacturer warranty when applied by a qualified and certified installer.

The market is now flooded with a number of different brands, and whichever one you choose, the effectiveness will depend on the skill of the installer.

Oh and it’s perfectly fine to apply polish and sealant to PPF. I do

John.