Stone chips: to paint or not to paint?
- Thread starter Busterboo
- Start date
Scottish Borders
Difficult one... depends how noticeable it is. Problem with mine is that are on the front bumper as well, and a side panel. And a tiny car park chip on the door. Oh and the scrap on the back from the skip incident..
Getting a quote for doing all that but for almost half the car it's going to be expensive and they're not noticeable unless you know they're there.
I'd say if they're only on the bonnet it's worth getting a quote.
Getting a quote for doing all that but for almost half the car it's going to be expensive and they're not noticeable unless you know they're there.
I'd say if they're only on the bonnet it's worth getting a quote.
True-Blue said:john-e89 said:
This is great in theory, but the PPF costs way more than the paint
It’s not theory, it works. The first thing I did when we got ours was total paint correction and professional touch up the few rock chips. Then I had the whole front end PPF’d, full hood, front fenders and spoiler. Yes, it wasn’t cheap but it will last the life of the car, at least for my lifetime and protect they paint from any possibility of damage unless it is something big. Also, applied ceramic coating over the full car afterwards.
BMC_Kid said:True-Blue said:john-e89 said:
This is great in theory, but the PPF costs way more than the paint
It’s not theory, it works. The first thing I did when we got ours was total paint correction and professional touch up the few rock chips. Then I had the whole front end PPF’d, full hood, front fenders and spoiler. Yes, it wasn’t cheap but it will last the life of the car, at least for my lifetime and protect they paint from any possibility of damage unless it is something big. Also, applied ceramic coating over the full car afterwards.
You’re misreading my post.
I’m not saying it doesn’t work, I’m saying it’s significantly more expensive than paintwork…. So isn’t a viable solution for everyone.
North West Surrey
AY is Atacama Yellow!
PPF is some sort of Paint Protection Film I don't fully understand.
I think it really depends how annoying you find the chips!
A Z4 owner I know had his front bumper resprayed some years ago, but now it has loads more chips so he's thinking about getting it done again. I suppose if he could have lived with the chips it would have saved the cost of one repaint!
PPF is some sort of Paint Protection Film I don't fully understand.
I think it really depends how annoying you find the chips!
A Z4 owner I know had his front bumper resprayed some years ago, but now it has loads more chips so he's thinking about getting it done again. I suppose if he could have lived with the chips it would have saved the cost of one repaint!
Mr Tidy said:AY is Atacama Yellow!
PPF is some sort of Paint Protection Film I don't fully understand.
I think it really depends how annoying you find the chips!
A Z4 owner I know had his front bumper resprayed some years ago, but now it has loads more chips so he's thinking about getting it done again. I suppose if he could have lived with the chips it would have saved the cost of one repaint!
That’s ignoring the fact he’s had years of enjoyment from his zed being stone chip free, that’s priceless
I find the best paint protection is increasing the distance between yourself & the car in front, it’s worked for me
Rob
PPF is paint protection films and they've come a long way in just the last 5 years or so. The 3M PPF that I had applied has a gloss that rivals paint, is self-healing, and is non-yellowing. Really amazing stuff. If you have piano black interior pieces, I'd recommend that you cover all of those if you are like me and find the minute swirl marks that come from just normal day-to-day wear irritating. My wife and I plan to keep our Z4 for many years to come and I detest rock chips that show up no matter how carefully you drive. or scratches from debris kicked up on the road and flung at you. On our last drive through the Texas Hill Country, we were coming around a twisty and a truck was coming in the opposite direction and a rock skipped across the top of the hood. I pulled over and could immediately trace its path through the scratch it left in the PPF. By the time I got home, the hot Texas sun had healed the PPF and the scratch had disappeared. I know it is expensive and not for everyone but for those who can afford it or have an aversion to paint defects, it is certainly worth it. For me at least, it's an investment and when I do go to sell it eventually, the paint will not be a negative box the buyer will be checking when evaluating my car.
Edit: I live in an area that is horrible for rocks and debris on the roads, or so it seems, and can only speak from that point of view. Here in Texas, they have a practice of resurfacing the roads by laying down hot tar, sprinkling it with fine gravel, and then coming back and rolling it flat. Those small rocks get worked out of that tar pretty quickly and then flug by cars traveling in either direction, a double whammy. You try to maintain distance from vehicles ahead of you, and you have yahoos weaving in an out of traffic as if they are playing a video game. I can't control any of these things, so I control what I can and that is paint protection. I now don't stress out when taking my Z4 out (or any of my vehicles for that matter but especially my beautiful Z!) and I can't put a price on that.
Edit: I live in an area that is horrible for rocks and debris on the roads, or so it seems, and can only speak from that point of view. Here in Texas, they have a practice of resurfacing the roads by laying down hot tar, sprinkling it with fine gravel, and then coming back and rolling it flat. Those small rocks get worked out of that tar pretty quickly and then flug by cars traveling in either direction, a double whammy. You try to maintain distance from vehicles ahead of you, and you have yahoos weaving in an out of traffic as if they are playing a video game. I can't control any of these things, so I control what I can and that is paint protection. I now don't stress out when taking my Z4 out (or any of my vehicles for that matter but especially my beautiful Z!) and I can't put a price on that.
True-Blue said:BMC_Kid said:True-Blue said:This is great in theory, but the PPF costs way more than the paint
It’s not theory, it works. The first thing I did when we got ours was total paint correction and professional touch up the few rock chips. Then I had the whole front end PPF’d, full hood, front fenders and spoiler. Yes, it wasn’t cheap but it will last the life of the car, at least for my lifetime and protect they paint from any possibility of damage unless it is something big. Also, applied ceramic coating over the full car afterwards.
You’re misreading my post.
I’m not saying it doesn’t work, I’m saying it’s significantly more expensive than paintwork…. So isn’t a viable solution for everyone.
If it costs you more than the paint equivalent, then you are going to the wrong place. The way I look at it, the car's paint is original only once. Any time to have it re-painted, you are losing that original paint and in my book, that is not good. I'd rather spend money now to keep it in pristine condition and have that cost spread out over the coming years (at least 10 for me) versus spending money later to have it restored to a like-new condition when I can't bear to look at the wear and tear it has accumulated over those 10 years, or even less. If you are not planning on keeping your car long-term, then who cares? Other than maybe having some minor loss in value when the time comes to sell due to paint defects, no big deal. Personally, that is secondary. Primary to me is having a car to enjoy with pristine paint, not future value. As always, YMMV.
BMC_Kid said:
I understand exactly why you would want to do it and yes it is a fantastic product with it's self healing properties but for most people it comes down to costs, e.g. it's hard to justify spending 2000 to 3000 euros to PPF the front end on my car which cost me 14,000 euros and on the other hand here you can get your car painted at very reasonable prices, e.g. bumpers around 120€ bonnet 200 to 250€ etc. that makes its a very hard case to justify the spend on PPF. Sure I also understand the argument of keeping the factory original paint but most Z4s on the road now will have at some point had some paintwork, I know mine has had, very few will be in factory fresh condition. If you find one is totally original condition then I suppose then you've go to weigh up the cost / benefit question. Now my mate with 110000€ 911 on the other hand has booked his car in for front end PPF next week at a cost of around 2500€ which makes perfect sense from the cost perspective.
Silverstar said:
Yes, not for everyone. I was looking for a Z4 in excellent condition, with low mileage, and no modifications. It took me months of searching but when I found "My Precious" :lol: , she came to us in excellent condition, with no bodywork (had it checked initially and confirmed during paint correction), 3 tiny rock chips on the front spoiler, 1 etched bird poop on the hood, and around 18K miles at about 5 years of age. After the paint correction, it looked like a show car. Yes, at a cost of around 2K USD, I had the whole front end protected with the latest PPF out, on a car with a value at the time of $35K. I wouldn't have done this on a car with average paint or value of $15K, then again, I wasn't in the market for a Z4 within those parameters.
one thing to consider is that subsequently painted panels often have less durability than original. This is probably because the primer has to affix to old paint rather than bare metal/plastic. Certainly, cars that I have had painted to correct stone chips has looked good at first (assuming the sprayer can match the colour and this is the second problem) but it has chipped far more easily second time around.
As for matching paint, most colours are dreadful to match. The only car I would do a re-apint on with confidence is Alpine White. Blues, silvers are the worst.
As for matching paint, most colours are dreadful to match. The only car I would do a re-apint on with confidence is Alpine White. Blues, silvers are the worst.
Maria1 said:
You would imagine white is easy to match but actually it is the total opposite with white red and silver being the most difficult to match. Our previous white Fiesta which needed a little paint, Ford in Mijas Costa made a right hash off the colour match, conversely I have had both topaz blue and Melbourne red and my current Sapphire Black painted (not with Ford) to 100% colour match with no difference between old and new paint.
In the end it really does depend on the skill of the painter but with the tech they have these days there is very little excuse not to get a perfect colour match other than the laziness of the painter which is what I said to Ford after they made a hash of the job and they just shrugged their shoulders and said this is how they do it Spain!
Yes i agree to an extent. Our Hyundai was a pale blue metallic and even the car company couldn't get it to match and discontinued the colour after 9 month. I had to have the front sprayed twice to get it reasonably okay. But metallic are hard to get right - both in terms of how much metallic tp put in the mix and then getting it to fall correctly on the panel. if it falls badly it will never be right as it will always reflect in a different way to the other panels - and this is nothing to do tip colour matching. This is why I said AW was a gereat colour to match. it's white and importantly it's solid rather than metallic My car has a horrendous scratch somewhere and you will spend a minute or so finding it. If it was in VO for example it would be spotted in ten seconds.