# Serious stone chip calamity



## Gone (May 5, 2009)

I'm sure you can all imagine my delight at getting my first TT a couple of months back - olive green Mk 1 TTC. It took a while to get around to it but after about a month I found time to give it a bit of treatment and went about prepping it properly. I washed, clayed, washed, polished and finished off with a couple of coats of wax. Admittedly not the best stuff, just what my dad had knocking about in the garage, which turned out to be some turtlewax fastwax stuff. Now don't laugh. I figured it would offer enough protection to last until I could get hold of some decent stuff. Anyway job done off I went to a wedding and basked in the admiration etc etc
Now 3 weeks later I find the front bumper is plastered in hundreds - literally hundreds - of stone chips. Where the hell have these come from? I've done a few hundred miles since then, mainly commuting and the wedding trip (London-Loughborough-peak district and home), and haven't been over any freshly-surfaced roads or any other obvious hazards. Have I knackered my paint by poor prep? [smiley=bomb.gif] 
Not only that but some other minor damage has appeared on other panels as well, I'd be really pissed but I'm still trying to work out what's caused it. I'm paranoid that the paintwork has no protection on it whatsoever and is getting trashed just sitting there. What to do?!
I'm thinking of washing and waxing asap but not sure what products to use. I don't have a machine polisher - is this essential to apply proper wax?
Products as my disposal - Autoglym SRP, Megs techwax spray, Mer... anything readily available off the shelf in Halfords.
Please help!


----------



## Hoggy (May 8, 2002)

Hi, Sorry to hear of your disappointment, its possible that the previous owner had used some of the coloured wax/polish stuff to hide the chip marks & this has now worn/washed off etc showing the marks..Even the best wax will not protect against stone chips, so I don't believe you have done anything wrong with your polishing.
H.


----------



## Gone (May 5, 2009)

Well that's a relief! I hope you're right. Anyone got any other theories out there?

I could be in the market for a V6 front bumper somewhere down the track....


----------



## steve o (Dec 5, 2006)

The detailing you did will have absolutely nothing to do with the stone chips and damage mate. Your paint could be totally unprepared and without wax for years or fully waxed and prepped with the best products available, either way, stone chips are stone chips, they'll happen regardless of what prep you have or haven't done.

I can't tell you why you've experienced what you have with the stone chips? Maybe Harold is right, perhaps the previous owner had all the chips filled with colour wax before you bought it and you didn't notice them, the wax has worn off and now the chips are showing up. Only reason I don't think its this is that I would have thought you'd have noticed any chips when you clayed the car as the clay would have pulled out any colour wax and revealed the chips.

Audi paint is known for being very tough and resiliant, so I'm surprised at whats happened. Another theory might be that the bumper has been resprayed and the new paint isn't very hard? It could be sh1t paint and the first bit of road debris has taken its toll on it? Not sure though?

Either way, your cleaning hasn't got anything to do with it. Off the shelf products won't correct it unfortunately. If its really bad, consider this stuff, I've seen it work and its worth the money and the effort http://www.drcolorchip.com/ Its only available from the states but it works!!!

Steve.


----------



## Gone (May 5, 2009)

cheers for your comments guys. It looks like it's been used as a pin cushion! I had to wash yesterday as I could only park under a tree and the bastard birds pebble-dashed it. I polished up the worst of it and waxed again and it's not so bad prepped but does need some attention. I need to get the chips away bloke in anyway for some quotes on other cosmetics that I did know about, so I'll get an opinion on sensible routes forward then. I expect the front end will need to be re-sprayed. All in the name of perfection but let's look an the bright side. Don't need to worry about chips anymore!


----------

