Paint Chip Stories?

[Mitch]

Stone Chips is something you get on the sooner or later

[dannyboi]

When it chips on the Lancer, it chips to the light grey layer underneath. It's not more prone to chips, but I think it's more prone to chips that show up.

On my dad's old Camry, if it chips, the layer underneath is still similar to the top layer, so you don't notice it too much.

[DJBOOBY]

On my white es i found aftermarket mudflaps as well as side skirts stop 90% stone chips.
side skirts not in these pics.



http://www.rallyarmor.com/store/rally-mud-flaps-mitsubish-lancer-c-60_88.html?osCsid=bcafcdf0ef3838289a7fdd71aac3e33c

[C4SX]

There are mudflaps standard on the SX- are the stock ones no good?

Also does the clip on bonnet protector actually do much / anything?

[Dire]

I bet it doesn't have any front ones...

And they're not really mud flaps, just guards. Those pictures show the mitsu guards and rallyarmour flaps.

[C4SX]

The spec sheet says ES and SX come with front and rear while VR and up only come with the back ones.

[Nick07]

My mates parents bought him a brand new Ford Focus and the first thing he did was take it out on gravel and do doughnuts :/

[Big one 23]

I just stumbled onto the forums and thought I would add my 2 cents worth :p

Yeh paint is pretty crappy. I have lots of stone chips on the doors and also a few dints in the bonnet from what I assume is rocks??? I am not sure?

Also I was wondering if there is anything to put on to help :p its too late for clear coating it hey???

I guess eventually might need to visit a panel shop in a year or 2 if it really starts to annoy me. And and my car is a 09 Aspire so not exactly a new car so chips would be expected my now. But probably not so bad. Also the bat crap is bad. Need to be on call with some towels to get it off. Really makes you wonder why Mitsu would skimp out on paint? But then again the move for more environmental water based paint must be a reason for this.

[Maxx]

I've just joined myself & thought I'd share my experience thus far.
Picked up a 2009 VR sport back New Years Eve, colour red mica.
After some spots of bird crap appeared to dull the paintwork, I booked for a paint protection job.
Guy said it will help but acid in bird crap will eat in to both protection and duco if not cleaned off asap.
Also job showed up stone chips at the rear on side skirts that I didn't even know existed till then.
Showed up cause the polish filled up the holes!
Hate 2think what the cost to make good.
Cheers

[Jprice2708]

I have been having massive problems with chipping - almost makes me wish I didn't buy a Lancer.

After 1500kms I noticed a few chips on the bonnet and HEAPS between the rear wheels and the rear door on that little triangular section. I contacted Mitsubishi but the basically told me to shove off.

After 30,000kms I took it back and showed them again. Mitsubishi agreed that the damage to the lower panels was excessive and probably due to poor design throwing stones at the panels, so they resprayed the lower panels. The bonnet was covered in chips but they said that wasn't covered (as a note, I never drive on unsealed roads, but do a bit of highway driving. I have compared my car to many cars that do a LOT more highway driving and offroad driving and none have anywhere near as many paint chips, even with more than twice the kms)

At 35,000kms I checked, ZERO stone ships on the resprayed area (and I have been doing a lot of highway driving in that 5000kms). Bonnet looks terrible, stone chips everywhere.

I am currently chasing this up with Mitsubishi as I feel there is some kind of paint defect that is causing it to chip too easily, as shown by the fact the lower panels had massive amounts of stone chips after 1500kms while the car was new and being babied, but zero stone chips after the respray and 5000kms on worse roads and much harder driving.

I'm not hopeful of a good outcome, but I'll post my results...

[SXLancerMum]

When I took mine in for its 1500 service the head of the service dept (also a part owner of the dealership) put the boys on to the car with a fine tooth comb. The found some paint chips and were getting some guard thing in for me to cover that bit.

Lancers aren't the only cars that do it by the way. All new cars are painted with some u beaut environmentally friendly paint. Unfortunately it's pretty useless and soft. The best thing to do is don't drive it and take it to a good spraypainter and get a decent hard coat on the top. It's the only way that some people I know have protected their RX8s.

[milobob]

You can't escape stonechips on any car. To avoid them try not to drive too fast on unsealed roads, get some good mudguards, don't tailgate, don't drive to close to trucks on either side.

Country driving is bad for cars... well car paint I mean.

[Jprice2708]

I am directly comparing to every other car I see, so it isn't all new cars...

Also I don't drive on unsealed roads, I don't tailgate, don't follow close to trucks, etc, etc, etc...

Every single panelbeater I have talked to says my paint is defective and chipping too easily, and many comment that they have never seen a car with as low kms as mine with such massive amounts of chipping.

Sorry if I sound annoyed, but I keep getting those kind of responses from Mitsubishi as well and that's all it is - Excuses because they don't want to pay to have an obviously defective paint job redone, even though the warranty clearly says defects in paint are supposed to be covered.

[milobob]

If its chipping on normal city roads with not much debris then it would be something wrong

[SXLancerMum]

I don't like the paint job on mine anyway. Very dimply actually. My old dad the panel beater would have been pretty disgusted with it. A new Mazda 3 that is the promo for the new Skyactiv engine has the same sort of paintwork. It's just not smooth.