Z4 - stone chips and glass chips
- Thread starter angus
- Start date
Half Colin
Senior member
Lots of Lotus owners use www.armourfend.co.uk or similar protective film. The Elise being so low at the front is particularly prone to stone chips and these films certainly work. I was going to use it on my Elise but ended up selling it. The idea was drive the car until the stone chips got so bad that it needed a front respray then install the film once the paintwork had been made good.
gannet said:
Actually the comment is not so daft. Most of the damage is caused by driving too close to the car in front, tailgating or similar on motorways, especially. Of course the odd freak stone gets flicked by cars travelling the opposite way and will take out anything regardless.
As above re the the car in front was given this advice buy a bodyshop when i had my front bumper and wing mirrors sprayed on my old car before show season trouble is you leave a nice gap and some twat will allways jump in when passing lorries i will go out to the 3rd lane when possible but sadly stone chips are part of low slung cars 
gannet said:I don't tailgate
Invariably I hear the crack on the windscreen as I'm passing other vehicles - especially HGV's as we are lets face it less than the height of their wheels...
Not for one minute would I suggest you tailgate.
Take a look at any motorway warrior car and look at the frontal damage on it. Most look like they have been sandblasted
Not a permanent solution, but I find the coloured wax polishes work well. For my Sterling Grey Z4 I mixed silver and black until it was slightly darker than the paint. I then apply a coat to the troublesome areas (front and back corners of sills and front bumper) and let it dry, then go over it again with another generous coat. Allow to dry and then buff the lot off. Works wonders, and with careful washing with a decent shampoo lasts a couple of months.
