Paint Chip Theory

[audi al]

I've had my IS250 for 9 weeks now and each time I wash it I see I am gathering more and more chips in the paint at an alarming rate.

I seem to recall from somewhere that the bonnet is aluminium, Is this right?

The reason I ask is that my last car (Audi A4) had a steel bonnet and in three years proved to be very resistant to chipping, but my car before that was a black Audi TT with an aluminium bonnet and that was just as bad at gaining paint chips as my IS .

Another thing I notice with the IS is that the bumper has gathered hardly any chips compared to the bonnet, I would have thought the bumper would get more.

I had a Merc A190 ( for a very short time) some years ago and the paintwork was very easily chipped.

It seems strange that the Merc, TT, and the IS all have dark paint but the layer exposed when chipped is white or at least very light colour.

Al

[Tango]

I've had my IS250 for 9 weeks now and each time I wash it I see I am gathering more and more chips in the paint at an alarming rate.

I seem to recall from somewhere that the bonnet is aluminium, Is this right?

The reason I ask is that my last car (Audi A4) had a steel bonnet and in three years proved to be very resistant to chipping, but my car before that was a black Audi TT with an aluminium bonnet and that was just as bad at gaining paint chips as my IS .

Another thing I notice with the IS is that the bumper has gathered hardly any chips compared to the bonnet, I would have thought the bumper would get more.

I had a Merc A190 ( for a very short time) some years ago and the paintwork was very easily chipped.

It seems strange that the Merc, TT, and the IS all have dark paint but the layer exposed when chipped is white or at least very light colour.

Al

The bonnet is aluminium and the bumper's plastic. I don't think the substrate makes any difference to the chips as it's paint that's the problem. My bumper has more chips than the bonnet, but you cannot see it as the plastic is black anyway so the chips don't show as much (in my case in the Cadoxton Slate).

Nissan has a chip resistant ceramic clear laquer (a subject I posted on some time ago), so when the time comes for a frnt end respray that's what I'll get it finished with.

[Gra56]

I've had my IS250 for 9 weeks now and each time I wash it I see I am gathering more and more chips in the paint at an alarming rate.

I seem to recall from somewhere that the bonnet is aluminium, Is this right?

The reason I ask is that my last car (Audi A4) had a steel bonnet and in three years proved to be very resistant to chipping, but my car before that was a black Audi TT with an aluminium bonnet and that was just as bad at gaining paint chips as my IS .

Another thing I notice with the IS is that the bumper has gathered hardly any chips compared to the bonnet, I would have thought the bumper would get more.

I had a Merc A190 ( for a very short time) some years ago and the paintwork was very easily chipped.

It seems strange that the Merc, TT, and the IS all have dark paint but the layer exposed when chipped is white or at least very light colour.

Al

The bonnet is aluminium and the bumper's plastic. I don't think the substrate makes any difference to the chips as it's paint that's the problem. My bumper has more chips than the bonnet, but you cannot see it as the plastic is black anyway so the chips don't show as much (in my case in the Cadoxton Slate).

Nissan has a chip resistant ceramic clear laquer (a subject I posted on some time ago), so when the time comes for a frnt end respray that's what I'll get it finished with.

My car is 2 months old and is covered in chips on the bonnet and bumpers after 7000 miles. We also have a 3 year old Audi A4 which has covered 85000 miles from new and has very few chips compared with my Lexus. Hate to think what the Lexus will look like in 3 years.

[Scarlet Pimpernell]

Ditto to all...15500 miles...

We have a '56 plate Nissan which is used as a shopping trolley - and it still doen't have barely a scratch on it!! We use it all of the time in town. Can you believe we even put it through Auto washes now :o 'cos I'm confident any "scars" can be so easily dealt with...!!!

The Lexus is Garaged, had all paint treatments known to man, washed using 2 bucket, MF's etc etc, and it is absolutely peppered all over (Bumper worse than bonet). Even the slightest graze with a coat zip down the side can scratch it. And it goes straight through to white primers!!

I've gotten the touch up paint from Lexus and use it with Cocktail sticks to dab paint into chips, and masking tape and brush supplied for scratches. Let it dry for a few hours and gently "cut" out any "over painted" areas. Needs a lot of patience, but works.

I had an article in a local free rag about how good Lexus paint finishes are I'll see if we still have it, scan it and post it...

PS - no word of a lie, the Lexus at 19 months, 15500 miles is worse by a factor of 2 compared to my 2002 Audi A4 which had almost 50k and almost 3.5 years from new....the Audi had "Black plaggy" bumpers lower down, but the bonnet and front wings had one or 2 very small chips on it. There were almost no scratches anywhere else.

The lighter colours hide it all the best. Stick with Silver, Brechin, White or Caspian...

[Matus]

I have 21.000kms and I had 3 chips on bumper, app. 7 on bonnet, 2 on LH wing (? whats the english word? I mean the thing which is over the wheel) and 1 on RH wing.

I have lexus repair kit - metallic colour and clearcote. I took me about 2 hours to fix it all, now it is unvisible from 1m.