A paintwork question for the 03-05 owners...
 

...but just how mullered is the front of your car by stone chips etc?

My 05 is 15 months old and so far has had to have the bonnet repaired twice due to flying 'rocks'causing actual dents to it:mad:

not to mention the front bumper looking like someone has fired a shot gun at it from point blank range!

and thats despite being ever concious of incurring said damage and wherever possible not getting even within 200 yards of the car in front!!!

coupled with the fact that the g/f's 4 yr oldcorsa(who insists on driving everywhere as tho her hair is on fire:rolleyes:)...had a grand total of 5 yes FIVE stone chips on the bonnet in 40000 miles when she sold it this week

So its probably an understatement to say that I wasn't best pleased to see that my plastic soddin' wheelie bin had fallen on to my front wing and caused even more of my precious paintwork to part company from where it belonged:cry:.....I hate the bluddy thing and will never buy another,£500 for a front end re-paint on Monday:mad:

Rant over and everything sharp has been hidden:D

This is probably not what you want to hear, but the front of mine is fine. I don't think there's even 1 stonechip. :luxhello:

But somehow, i noticed after about 1m of ownership. About 5/6 scratches on the top of the drivers wing mirror, all in a row. Weird!? :wonder: Don't know how the 'ell they got there.

Thats budget Japanese cars for you, the motorbikes are the same, the paint finish is pretty ropey and not very durable..

Remember the Impreza is a budget car not a an executive saloon.

Naaah, it's not the fact that the paint finish is ropey, it's something else, the chips in my front end are seriously deep into the plastic bumper, and front end in general, must be something to do with the angle of the car to the road?

Same as the amount of squashed bugs that I manage to collect on the front end compared to my other cars?

More than crap paint........................................

:sleep: :sleep: :sleep: :sleep: :sleep:

I'm on my 4th,so I think I've realised that;)

Armourfend?

yep,same here

about£600,eventually turns yellow and looks gash?....nah:)

Perhaps use this mishap an an opportunity to scrap it.....:thumb:

Very costly.....

Though my 3 year old car with 35K, also has stone chips ont he front...


you can apparantly get them blown over...?

I assure you the factory paint finish on ALL impreza's is far from amazing.. Same with just about everything else that roll's out of a Japanese auto factory.. Other than Toyota's and Lexus' which generally have an excellent finish.

finish is good i agree...but the quality lacks :wonder:

..... I didn'y say that Subaru paint finishes weren't ropey, what I implied was there had to be more to it than just crappy paint......:D

If you want to nit pick then you are kind of right, the "finish" as in how flawless the paint is, isnt so bad (still far from perfect), the bottom of the doors cant be a bit odd due to the under-coating but in general the paint isnt very durable, it scratches, marks and chips far to easily. The thin panels don't help either but hey atleast its light :thumb:

Glad I'm not alone then Elmer. At least with the stone chips you have a silver car rather than the dreaded black!!

In fairness I only have two on the bonnet and my mate is one of these micro specialist guys so he's going to touch these in for me. One is from a biggish stone which has caused a tiny dent. Looks like I may have to get dent master to that one.

Chips look far worse on the lower splitter near the fog light covers although I'm not to concerned with getting this done yet and they aren't as noticeable. Would do it come sale time me thinks.

Gets to the point where the car could be in the garage every month though..........

Black 05 and the front end looks pretty much like as discussed.

Lots of stone chips on the bonnet, front end has a fair few chips out of. IF run hand over front bumper can feels some of the dints caused by the stones and can see the undercoat on most of them.

Richard

Got a MY05 STI thats only done 7000 miles so the paints ok but the alloys are absolutely peppered with stone chips especially the rear ones.Mud flaps fitted and dont drive on loose surfaces.Gonna see if I can get new ones off the dealer next time I am in.

your description complements my car perfectly elmer. totally batterd in only 10k on it

I've got a black 05 WRX SL - the secret is not to wash it, that way you don't notice the dinks, scuffs, marks and chips so much.

My 11000 mile 05 has a few chips but nothing too drastic. I'm probably going down the Armourfend route if/when I decide to have a respray. Had it on my S1 Elise after a second respray (which was really bad for chipping). Not 1 stonechip mark or blemish in over 2 years. I've heard it can yellow though which would be a concern on my black paint, the Elise was yellow so didn't notice if it did discolour....

My 2p worth :)

My 04 STI also is covered in chip's on bumper bonnet and even rear doors however much i try to look after it! but i will admit i bo sometime drive as its ment to be driven!

18 mth 19k WRB 05 wrx and 4 stone chips in paint (2 bonnet & 2 bumper) and two in screen all very minor and par for the course IMHO..;)

Its like going back in time! All scoobs have been prone to this.

Just get it blown over before you sell it and don't worry about it now, just drive it.

F

My 2 classics never seemed to be as bad as this one.

and as for not worrying about it??...Its bad enough that I've lost about 13 grand on it in a year without it looking like a neglected pile of sh1te on the drive:)

the paint on the more recent cars is nothing like as tough as on the old ones, I recon I picked up more chips in 6 months in 04 WRX than i did in 8 years in the old classic. almost as bad the paint shows every little scuff or scratch, never had that before.

don't know if the paint is just thinner, which i am sure it is, or the formulation has significantly changed for "environmental" reasons

Stair

my 02 wrx was full of stonechips, one being quite large and made me grimmace every time i looked at it.(silver)
my 53 sti is pretty immaculate with 20k on it. (black):)

absolutely tons of stone chips on my 03 wrx in black. nothing too big or deep but lots of small little ones that just expose the white underneath.

as much as i would like to fix it, i'm thinking it is somethign that can't be helped.

i love driving my car and perhaps due to its reasonably swift nature you are going to hit things (stones) slightly quicker. if you are going to drive on the twisty stuff rather than the boring motorways you are going to hit more. its all part of the experience now....

My last scoob which was a Black 04 WRX had loads of stonechips on the bonnet and bumper, I had to get them sprayed as little things like that do my head in and can sometimes make your car look a bit knocked about. But I cant believe how thin the subaru paint really is, even the bloke who sprayed the bonnet up commented on that!

Yes i have a bad and deep stone chip problem.