Dammit! paint chips on hood

MicaSp33d

Member
:
Mazda, Mazdaspeed3, 2008
i only driven my MS3 2600 miles and i already have a couple of chips in the paint on the hood. This worries me because at this rate my hood will look like s*** in a couple of months. Is the MS3 paint that cheap? When i saw the "orange peel" in the paint i thought kinda cheap paint job, but now with the paint chips, it just makes me think that mazda used some really cheap paint or very thin layers of it. Well i do hit triple digitals very often almost at least once a day (i live in cali) and going at that speed with debris or rocks is probably not good on the paint. What should i do? Do you guys think clear bra is needed? I heard that when the clear bra is on its noticeable.
 
its noticeable to people with a trained eye.

if you want protection you might as well put a clear bra on it.

unless your buying a high end car, alot of cars will suffer from excessive orange peel. my moms acura rdx is orange peeled very badly, especially on the bumpers and quarter panel area. but nothing machine polishing cant take out.
 
About two weeks after I bought my MS3, I took it in and got clearbra put on it. They didn't have a "kit" for the MS3, specifically, but they still did a very nice job. They covered the front part of the hood where it is more at an angle than farther up, maybe the first 1/4 of the hood. They also put the clearbra on the front (back?) of the mirrors.

I've had my car for five months now, and I can tell the stuff has blocked some rocks pretty nicely. There's also some tiny chips farther up the hood, but what can you really do? I think the clearbra gave me some peace of mind, more than anything, freeing me up to worry about the police as I speed3 up to 120 on the freeway, heh.

As for the paint job itself, I can't really say if Mazda cheaped out.
 
that's why I got a clear bra put on my MS3 the third day that I owned it.

look here.....can you spot it? probably not. but it's there. any my MS3 has 35K miles on it now. (shocked)

PICT0001.jpg
 
look here.....can you spot it? probably not. but it's there.

It's the same with mine. Other people won't notice it at all. You won't notice it unless you're waxing and your face is right there, and that's just because it's your baby; it really is pretty invisible.
 
thanks zoozoom!!! LOL advancebra on site service location is less than 20mins from me.(2thumbs)
 
your bumper does not match your fenders and you car see clear bras in person way more than stone chips....touch ups work temp but i will re spray my front end when it gets bad with a high end clear that flexes more as the harder the paint the more the stone chips i would guess that the paint on our cars is sikkens which is a very good paint but is hard thats why is the red is so bright and the peal on my a4a true red is very good if you are unhappy with the peal then ya can always scuff and buff
 
I've got paint chips everywhere, including the doors and roof, about equal in number to the ones on my hood.

I do not follow closely (trucks or otherwise).
 
your bumper does not match your fenders and you car see clear bras in person way more than stone chips....touch ups work temp but i will re spray my front end when it gets bad with a high end clear that flexes more as the harder the paint the more the stone chips i would guess that the paint on our cars is sikkens which is a very good paint but is hard thats why is the red is so bright and the peal on my a4a true red is very good if you are unhappy with the peal then ya can always scuff and buff

(wow)
 
Just washed my car yesterday. I've had my 3 since January and I just noticed all of the stone chips on the hood and front bumper, also a couple on the lower driver side door panel. Looks almost like the black plastic parts are kind of pitted and the hood has freckles.

Holy crap! I didn't expect so many paint chips. I just got a lot of these too because I never saw them before. I don't follow people closely and I am not sure about the whole lowness to the ground, aerodynamics argument. My father has had two sports cars, a Porsche 911 and now an BMW M3 and neither has the kind of stone chips that my 3 has right now. (confused)
 
I've owned 3 Mazdas and they all have paint that chips easily. I stopped caring about it now...as long as the car is still as fun to drive that's what counts :)
 
Damn, black mica! Probably shows up even worse than on mine. I wasn't that keen on the clear bra stuff. For that kind of dough, I could have the dealership repaint the whole hood in a couple of years.
 
Damn, black mica! Probably shows up even worse than on mine. I wasn't that keen on the clear bra stuff. For that kind of dough, I could have the dealership repaint the whole hood in a couple of years.

Yep. If you look around where the fog lights are, the paint looks sandblasted. I'll just get it repainted in a few years.
 
Hmmm... 769.85 before shipping for a full Xpel/ClearBra kit (Hood, Fender, Mirror, Upper Bumper, and Lower Bumper). Then you have to find someone to apply it. That must be some good s***.

So I found an Xpel cutter/installer and he'll do it all for just under $1k. And he does Llumar or Suntech tint for windows... gonna work on a package deal.
 
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I've owned 3 Mazdas and they all have paint that chips easily. I stopped caring about it now...as long as the car is still as fun to drive that's what counts :)

Let's face it, it's all the better to give yourself an excuse to get a custom (non-hoon) paint job in the next few years!
 

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