Nova Invicta

Had the car one month three days and picked up the first stone chip to the windscreen, when that noise occurs as the stone hits your heart sinks and you search for the impact point.
I dont know what the roads are like in the US or Europe but here in the UK they are rarely cleaned and stone chips to paintwork and windscreens are common. What so annoying about that is the amount of tax our government takes from the motorist in fuel, purchase tax, parking, road fund license & speeding fines we virtually bankroll the treasury yet only a tiny amount goes back into decent clean roads.

Ahh well pristine has now ended.

Kev525

Know what you mean. Had my e39 for over 5 years and by the time it went the front end looked like it had been pebble dashed not spray painted!

Maybe we should think about investing in those clear bra's our American friends keep talking about?

p.s. If that's a pic of your car in you avatar - nice wheels! They look like the 116 star spokes that I have.

UUronL

I was actually screaming out loud this morning while driving to work. The winds were pretty strong here today, and it was blowing all manner of small particles against the car. Subsequent cursory inspection didn't reveal any obvious damage (knock wood), but it was still unnerving. There's a ton of construction going on where I live and commute to, so clean roads are a pipedream. Instead, we have large construction trucks dropping who knows what all over the roadways.

It might be too late for you at this point, but the 3M film really works wonders.

Freewilly

Spend most of my driving on the freeway, there are so many 18 wheelers sand trucks. Any car drives behind them is like going through a sand storm, with 80+ mph speed, that really hurts the car paint.

UUronL

Yeah, we don't have it that bad, but I've become a very strategic driver - with the aim of minimizing/eliminating such exposures. I've found that generally, it's possible to avoid nearly all such mishaps.


The 3M film is highly durable. It was originally developed to protect helicopter rotor blades from sand and debris. 3M has tested it in what they call a "gravelometer" - spraying 250-300 pieces of gravel with an average diameter of a half inch at 30-60mph at a test plate. The result was that the portion that was covered with the film had zero damage. It is reported to be able to withstand higher velocities than this without any deformation of the film. One online test shot pellets at a body panel in excess of 200mph. While the film was torn and badly deformed, the underlying panel was pristine, and the paint unharmed.

znod

Yep, my WS has some small sparklies, and my hood has one tiny chip--both mostly from a fast-moving on-coming truck on an under-improvement road. And, I've picked up some sparklies from road trips. Stuff definitely happens.

Freewilly

Yeah, we don't have it that bad, but I've become a very strategic driver - with the aim of minimizing/eliminating such exposures. I've found that generally, it's possible to avoid nearly all such mishaps.
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It's hard.. When I see a truck like that, the first thing in my mind is to pass it. The sand doesn't only blow to the car behind it, it blows to many lanes round it.

When my car pass through the sand storm,.?. S**t, there is another one :'(

jet190rs

Are 3M clear bras not very common over there?

Almost every car enthusiast that I know personally, either has the clear bra or resprays their bumper once a year.

Nova Invicta

Kev525
Yep their the 116 wheels. When I ordered the car is was delivered with the 138 which are the Std. wheels in SE trim and they did not look as good on Mystic Blue. All long these wheels were going onto a colleagues car who had the earlier Std 16" wheels he has Titanium Silver and they look better on his car. The car was ordered with the extra set of 116 wheels which the dealer fitted one week after devilery of the car.

subterFUSE

Small tidbit of advice.



Don't follow anyone closely on the highway. It's unsafe, to begin with.... and it leads to rock chips.


My car is well over a year old.... with 24000 miles on it... mostly highway... and I have no rock chips on my hood.

I do this by never following closely. It's quite simple, actually.