Quite often it is the car in front that has caused the damage.
When buying s/h I’d go round the auctions and all the reps cars had done 80K in three years and the front looked like it had been sandblasted. And we know how they drive, always in a tearing hurry and hoping they’ll not lose the last points on their license.
However, private owned three years old tended to be 30K-40K and you could count the chips.
When I picked up my Niseko, it was pristine, with new paint on the front. At home, 110(ish) miles later driving carefully in pouring rain on the M4 etc keeping a good distance it had ten chips! But I had been cut up several times by people pulling-in too soon and much too close after overtaking.
You can’t win, no matter how carefully you drive: leaving a good safe distance to the next car (no chips from him) is an invite to a zig-zagger to nip in, chip you, and move out again. It’s during the lane change when the most damage is done.
Agree with Richard, stone chips are pretty much inevitable these days. There’s a huge amount of grit on the roads a lot of it debris from the ever growing number of pot holes. I try to keep my distance when out driving to minimise damage, but just accept that over time my mx-5 will pick some up. As the car ages a few chips and marks generally seem less significant anyway.
Now lockdown easing we are considering changing our 2016 Vitara with 23,000 miles and only has two tiny chips. On the very short list is the CX5 and CX30 in Soul red crystal so assume the paintwork will be the same or does different factories if they are made in different factories make any difference to paint thickness ?
They are all made in the Hiroshima factories, so I doubt there is much difference.
I guess the shape of the CX models are less susceptible to chips, not being so low down.
Japanese paint has a reputation for being soft in general and Soul Red (the old version) is like chuffing butter, I am forever touching up chips on the front, it’s heartbreaking The only cure is paint protection film, tough longlife ceramic coatings will reduce scratches but they are not going to stop chips with such a thin layer. The worst part on mine though is the sills, they have proper road rash and only a respray would fix them, I would seriously suggest investing in front mudflaps.
My Soul red ND is 3 years old, it’s had the Mazda mud flaps ( more like stone guards) since new and it has stopped the road rash on the front edge of the sill and rear bumper edge.
They are crazy expensive from Mazda, but worth it.
The Mazda ones are £115 from Mazda or £73 from MX-5 parts.
They are only tiny, but just enough to stop the edge of the side skirt getting chipped to bits.
2mm black HDPE plastic. Acrylic could possibly work but is far more brittle.
This is version 2, the first ones extended up to the 3rd plastic pop rivet that holds the arch liner on, went down lower and was wider, but to me looked too big.
Hopefully these will do something to minimise gravel rash.
Wow, these look good! I’ve seen custom made ones on the miata.net forums but these are the nicest I’ve seen. Do you have a set behind the rear wheels?
I’m not keen on the genuine Mazda ones since they both extend from/protrude into the adjacent body panels and look somewhat awkward when either colour coded or unpainted.
I’ve not done the rears yet, another little project for some time in the future..
If I was a computer wiz I would post a template for anyone wanting to copy it, unfortunately I’m not .
The only cure is paint protection film, tough longlife ceramic coatings will reduce scratches but they are not going to stop chips with such a thin layer. The worst part on mine though is the sills, they have proper road rash and only a respray would fix them, I would seriously suggest investing in front mudflaps.
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