soft paint

jabber

jabber

Veteran
 Hampshire
had the zed for a month now is already booked in for condensation in the rear lights and dancing windows. i have noticed the number of scratches i have accumulated on the car the latest being scrape on the bonnet after a visit to the supermarket that is going to require a visit to a body shop to have sorted, i've never had a car get so many scratches in such a short time makes me wonder if the paint on todays cars is softer than it used to be, i had a 93 e30 convertible with less and it had done 130k miles
 
My last car (a DC5 integra) was a wreck not long after I bought it. I’ve been surprised at how the Z has held up.

I don't drive as much now and am very careful where I park. So far I have a small stone chip on the bonnet and have had the car since Sept. Thankfully titanium silver appears a good colour to hide stone chips.

I did post a while back about a scratch on the windscreen and I think it is definitely softer glass than my previous car.

I realise I may have jinxed myself by posting this. :(
 
Yes, paint on new cars is generally very soft... its because they've switched away from lead based paint. Having said that BMW's generally have fairly good paint, albeit a bit orange-peely.

Having said that, I've just spent several hundred pounds having my paint corrected back to glossy status as before, especially on black paint as it looked scratched to death. I believe however most of the damage was done by the prior owner who only had the car six months before I bought it as the second owner.

Its looking very nice now tho and I've bought snow foam, wool mitts, buckets, grit guards etc to ensure it stays that way for as long as possible!
 
The paint finish is soooooo easy to damage. Do you put the car through car wash? Or do you hand wash it? If hand washing, do you use two buckets, proper wash mitts etc, as Maniac has said?

I learnt about "self inflicted" paint damage the first time I had a black BMW....since then, I've been anal about my paintwork. You can do a lot of damage just by washing the thing! On a dark car, any scratch will show up more.
 
I do hate the soft paint. Every time I clean it every week, it seems like it needs to be clayed. There are so many dirt and contaminants on the paint. it doesn't help that my E89 is jet black too, swirl marks galore. :headbang:
 
I did say I had jinxed myself. Getting into the car today I noticed this.

20120516_141447.jpg


How the hell that has happened I have no idea. :headbang:
 
perhaps seatbelt buckle hitting when getting out if its where i think it is
my 1 series convertible suffers the same thing always check that it has stored correctly before getting out of the seat, if only the better half would
 
All modern car paints are the same, i.e. pretty rubbish in the durability department.

End of the day you can't stop stone chips but you can minimise scratching etc with careful washing and watch where you park. My biggest bug bear is bird crap and I usually keep a flask of water and a wet small micrfibre cloth in a sarnie box in the boot just in case. Soon as I spot any crap on the paintwork I wash it off. Bird crap that is purple or red is evil for your paint and will literally melt or etch the clearcoat as its acidic :cry:

Tim.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom