ok, I had some idiot back into my car and cause 4200 dollars damage to the front of my car. New hood, bumper repaired, and some other minor stuff. After 5000 miles, I have more stone chips on the front of my car than I had before. I showed the body shop that did it and the paint manufacturer will stand by it and allow him to do it again. Here lies the problem. He says that it may do it again because of putting so much material on it. I eventually want to do ghost flames on the front, so that would be even more material. He also said that if I wanted, I could purchase a bra and just have the paint manufacturer pay for it. What would you all do?

 

I really haven't made up my own mind on this suggestion, but have you given any thought to an "invisible" bra AFTER you do the paint mods you want?

 

i think you are lucky , if i understood you to mean that the dealer paid for stone chips on the front....i'm not sure what you are asking...but if i get time and $ , i would like to get mine repainted and try the 3m clear bra.

 

Don't they sand all of the original paint off down to the metal? I guess I don't know how body shops do things, but when my dad paints stuff he always sands down at least mostly to the bare metal.

 

The Last thing I would do is a bra. The truth is unless you follow the instruction perfectly they will do more damage to your paint than the stone chips.

If you are really worried about it I would agree your best bet is a repaint (done properly, that means sanding down a good solid surface) and then adding a 3M clear protector "bra". if they paint over the old paint it could give you an issue if you ever try to remove the clear bra. It can pull the paint off the car if the paint is not "tight" to the body.

 

I think they are screwing you and trying to get out of it by getting you a bra...sounds like crappy prep work to me. You should be able to build paint up somewhat without worries.

 

I'm confused. The front of your car has stone chips which you're blaming on the body shop who's willing to repaint it and you're upset? A stone hitting paint is going to leave a mark, period. Yea, if there's an extra couple mils of paint it's going to leave a deeper mark but that's a matter of physics not paint quality.

Get the thing repainted and then get the 3M film bra or leave it parked in the garage.

Some things really make me wonder.

 

I think his point is that the paint is "softer" than the original paint and clear coat. Good quality paint, properly cured should be similar to factory (correct paint guys?). I had a free repaint on a truck with a similar issue, and it held up much better the second time around.

 

Forget the "eventually", sand it down, add color, add ghost flames, clear.......you're done!

 

I guess I'd have to see these stone chips to get a better idea why a body shop would assume responsibility and be willing to repaint. I'm just having a hard time wrapping my brain around paint being guaranteed against stones.

To the best of my knowledge all sheetmetal comes from the stamping plant with a coat of "paint" (I think it's called EDM?) which is sanded, primed over and then color coated. Maybe the body shop used high-build primer and finished something other than urethane (acrylic enamel?) OR the prep work was such that the paint didn't adhere and the paint around where the stone hit was chipping off.

Like I said, I'd be very interested to see exactly what the problem is to get a better idea why the body shop would assume responsibility for "stone chips".