How many stone chips have you picked up?

[HSD]

One of the drawbacks with keeping our cars so tidy is that we see every defect almost as soon as it appears. I am particularly conscious of the arrival of new stone chips, particularly at the front end. I already have a number on my 7000 mile Merc.

With this in mind I'd be very interested at what rate others seem to collect these horrible side effects of motoring?

[Daniel Kinder]

Re: How many stone chips have you picked up?

Hey HSD to MOL

I live in eastern ky and coal trucks are on the roads here and on the roads as well. And yes the chips on the front bumpers, hoods and front roof edge are about the norm, and you can tell which people follow close and stay behind these 22 wheelers.

It's almost impossible to not have some kind of small chips on our vehicles here but I try to stay away from being behind a vehicle so as not to get peppered with the fine pepples, coal chips or whatever that will get throwed by the wheels or hurry up and get around them.

By the way have any pics of that nice looking car in your avatar?

[mis3]

Re: How many stone chips have you picked up?

How about 3M clear bra? My car is a 10-year old MB and this is the 2nd set on the car. I put this on the 2nd day I picked up the car from the dealership.

On top of the standard 3 pieces, I also wrapped the whole bumper and side mirrors as well.

[larry0071]

Stone chips can be seriously minimized by increasing your following distance. When I'm in my car, I keep an unusually far gap to the car in front of me. This does come with the problem that everyone keeps cutting in, forcing me to keep backing off. But, I've got 4800 miles on my Camaro and have one stone chip on the front. I can't help the sides of my car, the stones I throw at myself can't be easily avoided.

I've considered the 3M Clear Bra. I'm on the fence yet on that.

[scoutfai]

Re: How many stone chips have you picked up?

I am not from The States but Malaysia. Yes stone chip is my largest car care enemy. The new paint on my car is barely 4 months old and I count about 10 of them at the lower side of the front bumper. Some are completely chip off, some are just a dent where the paint still remains there. Standing few ft away cannot really identify it unless the angle of light happens to be suitable.

The road condition over here is like trail in rural area, small rocks are every where. Like what other has suggested, I stay away from other car when driving, but even that doesn't prevent me from getting hurt. I am actually starting to seek how to come out with a physics calculation to calculate the safe distance of stone chip damage with the car in front of you, and then have that distance mark on my front wind shield right in front of the driver view. So when a car rear wheels are below certain mark, I knew I am being too close. But this idea remains an idea as the physics involve too many variables.

Since I only discovered about clear bra some time after I got my car back from repaint, it already suffered from stone chip before I can install a bra on it. Furthermore clear bra installer here charge ridiculously expensive, to really utilize the bra I would have to repaint the front bumper and hood again which I feel too much of an investment.

The more practical way in my opinion is to learn how to touch up the stone chip beautifully. I have been experiment with a lot of techniques but so far result are not close to perfect, though better than not having it at all. Probably because I was driving a metallic silver paint car. I am currently in contact with Dr. ColorChip and hopefully I can get some soon to try it out.

I would wish that someone come out with something like PlastiDIP but a true metallic gloss finish. Then I can keep on applying it and remove it when it has takes up a lot of damage. Unfortunately PlastiDIP is matte, the difference in gloss going to be eyes sore.

Sometime I wonder, why can't paint manufacturer come out with something rock hard! They do not have to spray it on the entire car just the front bumper and hood will do.

I hope I am not the only freak here who has been puzzled by stone chip problem that much.

[Daniel Kinder]

Re: How many stone chips have you picked up?

Hey scoutfai

Have any pics of your car and the damaged chipped area's?

I don't know if this would help you out or if you already do this but try the 4 sec rule. You know when the vehicle in front of you pases a object or spot you pick out in the road, count to 4 sec and you should just be at the spot.

Maybe this can help and give you an ideal for measuring the closeness and since your roads are that bad you will get an ideal of each road and how many seconds in the conditions to follow so as to at least keep from getting as many.

Also go to a body shop and get you a TEST BUMPER (look for a black one with alot of small chips) to get some pratice on doing some chip repair. That way you can learn how to wet sand and do some touch-up paint and learn the proper technique for doing a job were you can't tell and since the roads are so bad you can start a service and have some extra cash for buying more detailing supplies or some new detailing equipment.

If you decide to do the test bumper we will help you find some Good! video's of how to properly do some chip repairs.

[larry0071]

Re: How many stone chips have you picked up?

From a physics standpoint, you would have to calculate each scenario. But to make it understandable, consider that a tire rolling across a surface at 40 MPH that picks a stone up into the tread and releases it at near 90 from the road surface will be lifting the stone upward at that same 40 MPH. As soon as the stone leaves the tread it begins loosing velocity upward due to frictional loss. At the same time, that stone was traveling forward at 40 MPH but also is being slowed down from the same frictional loss. So this stone lifts up and is seen to travel in an arc. Think about staying far enough back for a stone to complete its arc path and get back to the road surface before you arrive within its path.

You can not guess that the stone will leave the tread immediately after leaving the road surface (very low vertical speed) or at close to 90 from the road surface (maximum vertical speed), so your conservative thinking has you assuming the worst and maintaining a buffer zone for the worst conditions. Assume your driving into a head wind (slowing the stone faster, pushing it at you faster) and assume the stone was lifted with enough energy to get at least 4-6 feet above the road surface at the peak of the arc. The faster you are going, the faster you will enter the arc path and you need to increase the buffer zone accordingly.

That is how I visualize the stone problem, and I honestly get very few stone chips on my cars front ends. I don’t pull out calculators and start performing calcs on energy rates and frictional loss, but I use my imagination to picture a rock thrown up and arcing at a reasonable rate, and I stay out of my imagined arc path.

[mis3]

Re: How many stone chips have you picked up?

One day I will try Dr. Colorchip.

The problem is I live in eastern Canada where they put road salt in the winters. My car is 10 years old and I have replaced my windsheild 3 times.

The clear bra works very well for my car. Imagine, the rock chips would land on the plastic, not on the paint!

[HSD]

Re: How many stone chips have you picked up?

The replies so far are really interesting. I am driving in the UK and it includes a fair bit of motorway (highway driving). I completely agree with the idea of keeping some good distance and I try to do this most times. The biggest issue with this are cars cutting in front - in fact I've 2 of these actually throw up a couple of stones that hit the windscreen.

The bra option is definitely a practical solution but I cannot bring myself to interfere with the sleek lines of the design - in this respect I kind of think someone else is going to ultimately benefit more than I am.

I have recently ordered and received a Dr Colorchip kit but haven't had a nice enough day since before Christmas to even contemplate using it. I have heard really good comments about the product though so am very hopeful about the results.

I'll put some pics up of the car once I'm back on the PC as per stang_krazy, am using the ipad

[larry0071]

HSD, look at the 3M Clear Bra. It's not what you are thinking. It is clear film similar to what you put on the screen of your cell phone. You can buy it custom cut to your exact make/model/year and no one can see that it is there until they are within about 10-15 feet of your car.

It will not interrupt the lines of your car in any way, but up close you obviously see the edge lines of the clear micro film.

This may actually be the exact product for your situation. Do your paint correction and the top your sealed paint with this and you should end the chips on the front while most normal humans never even notice that your car is wearing a condom.

[Detailing by M]

Re: How many stone chips have you picked up?

Dr. Color Chip will serve you well

[The Guz]

Re: How many stone chips have you picked up?

You could try the 3M paint defender spray. There is currently a review on autogeek.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/product-reviews/75565-review-3m-paint-defender-spray.html

[Daniel Kinder]

Re: How many stone chips have you picked up?

Also just found this kit that I may look into! I also found on autogeek's store

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPOVzoc3VQM

[Top Gear]

Re: How many stone chips have you picked up?

Boy, do I feel the same pain

I could probably draw a map from memory of every chip and imperfection on the front end of my car. However, there are stages of grief here:

1. Quik detailer & wax to see if just maybe it will buff out.
2. Color pen or the like, possibly a spot DA multi-step correction, for a temporary fix or protection for exposed metal.
3. Professional paint blending service for yearly sanding and airbrush "good as new" touch-ups (a few hundred dollars).
4. Realize that other people, even car nuts, really aren't judging you.

Repeating this process, as well as not following closely, etc, is the only hope for a daily driver. Where I live, it's really the interstate driving that does the most damage, as I do NOT drive on dirt/gravel roads, etc.

[HSD]

Re: How many stone chips have you picked up?

The worse thing about driving on the highway is that I find myself almost waiting for the next stone to fly up