Quote:
Originally Posted by GrnMchin
I have both factory paint and custom paint (IOM) done by a friend who owns his own shop and does it for a living. Both areas of the car have chips. It seems the car body lines promote rock chips, but that's just a guess. I haven't noticed the factory paint vs custom being better then the other...
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I think there is definitely something to this. First of all, the front of this car is pretty big and "flat" compared to other cars out there today. Lots of surface area on the front fascia to absorb stones.
Second, the "hips" on this car are wide. They stick out there and are yet again more surface area to absorb debris.
Lastly, the tires on this car are wide and sticky. They tend to pick up junk off the road. And the way the rocker panels wrap towards the underneath of the car leaves quite an angle to take a hit.
However, the lines of this car are one of the things that make it so great. You can't have such a design and not expect some tradeoffs. Having said that, I have the same car as everyone else and I don't see the chips that some people are seeing.
I will say that I had a car and drove it in an area that put a lot of stones on the road during the winter. In one trip of about an hour, the lower rocker panels were totally chewed up. It had nothing to do with the paint. No paint could stand up to the "sandblasting" that the cinders from the road did on the car. Because I was planning on driving this car on roads where that type of debris was likely, I added mud flaps and damage was greatly reduced. My truck that I currently drive has the same issue. If you drive any car on roads with lots of debris, you are going to get chips.