I know there are a million threads about how crappy our paint is...

But seriously this is starting to irritate the crap out of me. Just waxed the car today, and my front hood looks like it has white freakles from paint chips. My Parents oddesy has driven all over the interstate, and has one or two small paint chips.


Guess its time to repaint the front end....

 

yeah I think I'll have it repainted with like 6 coats by next summer lol

 

Mine is a bit like driving a giant purple egg around. You can repair the chips with touchup but it would require the concentration and dedication of a jedi master. I got my BBP fit in Nov. of 07 and there are at least fifty tiny "issues" on the front end. That estimate may, in fact, be conservative.

 

Yeah my paint is pretty thin, it is showing its weakness

 

This is why I bought the clear shield,It has protected the car well worth the $480.
Jimrb66

 

I was thinking has any one trying to go to a body paint shop and have them throw a couple of clear coats on it. Like maco they charge 250 i think for a clear coat. I'm sure with a couple of clear coats it would make the paint job better

 

Isnt their a warranty on the paint? Take that ish in.....
As for Macco, Id deff not do that. Itll probably look worse then before.

 

Yeah, Fit "paint" is the worst...ever..

In a couple years, maybe sooner depending on how bad it gets i plan on getting my hood, front bumper, and lip repainted. I plan on paying what i have to, to get the highest quality paint job. From there straight to get a clear bra installed..

 

The problem with that is the rest of the car will look bad and the front end will look like glass.
Thats what keeps me from getting my new fenders.

Itll be bad bumper, bad hood, glass fenders, bad door.... so on.

 

Heh, i swirl it up to match my other swirls.

 

^^^^lol

I had my front bumper/lip respraid and thought id had to manually swirl it up. but being black it did it on its own fast so it matched lol.

 

guess I'm happy I'm not rockin freeway drivin much. Cept I did scrape the front lip leaving a gas station today, checked it...nothing, granted it was night so I was more or less "feeling" for any chips.

 

I think I have the worst rock chicks in existence.....

 

yea the paint is pretty weak, but i would strongly suggest against getting your car painted at maaco, unless you don't mind it looking really bad afterwards. my friend got his car repainted there and holy crap it looks horrible.

 

All this talk about paint failure worries me. I'm getting my '09 in mid-Sept; soon afterwards, the Chicago weather will beat the car up. What's the conventional wisdom about the best time to give the car its first wax? Is it OK just to go through a decent car wash and have the attendants hand wax it? I know that any machine touching the paint will cause swirls, but isn't this inevitable? Is the investment in clear coat/shield worth it?

 

I have no paint issues at all. Had my Fit '08 since last November, do tons of freeway driving, and ran it through a couple of machine car washes.

 

After three months, I have two small paint chips on the hood. Nothing too noticable. On the back bumper there's a chip the size of a nickel where my boyfriend nicked it taking out a futon bed . That's now covered by a rear bumper applique (should've gotten that earlier!). There's also some chips on the door where some punk egged my car two days after driving it home .

I have the official Fit bra on the nose, but only the hood section, as the main bra is a pain in the butt to get on and off every time I wash the car. All in all, I guess we just gotta be careful, or pay the bucks to get a few coats of clearcoat or something. Remember, these cars were made on a budget, and the paint was one of those corners that was cut.

 

i donno, ive owned several cars where people stated that the paint
sucks but never really had too many issues with chips unless it was
a dealer aftermarket aero kit. i clearbra'ed that one.

it might be how you drive and where... im at least 3 seconds
behind the car in front most of the time and try not to drive
behind commercial trucks (especially dump trucks or land scaping
trucks).

ive had my FitS for 8months but the minor chips i have aren't that
bad. majority came from stupid salt trucks passing by in the
on-coming lane.

 

It's not a perfect formula but I think you'll notice a relationship between the darkness of the car's color and the amount the owner notices the chips. I've had silver and champagne cars in the past that seemed immortal to paint "issues" and then black and now BBP paint where I notice everything. It's just my opinion but I bet the people with light colored paint have the same number of "issues" but they're much harder to see. I love my BBP paint but upkeep is a category it won't score well in.

 

^^ yah, that's true.