Mercedes Paint Durability and Stone Chips

[Ron240]

I have always believed (or been led to believe) that German car paint is tougher and generally more resistant to stone chips, with Japanese being the worst.
I have just touched up another pin prick stone chip using the old cocktail stick method, which makes a total of 6 I've had at various times. My car is coming up for 11 months old and only covered 3,300 miles.
Compare this with my previous Audi which was 2 years old and 8500 miles, but didnt have even a single solitary chip anywhere on the paint.
My previous cars from Honda and Ford suffered 2 or 3 chips maximum in the time that I had them.
I never drive close to other vehicles and very rarely use motorways, so I have either been extremely unlucky or the durability of the paint on this car is really not that good.
Im glad I bought an official Mercedes touch up stick after I bought my car, because I've sure as hell needed it.

 

[Rob7seven]

I've had four MBs, all silver or grey, and yes I know, boring. After a CLK in 2009, my second one was an Indium Silver C250 Coupé in 2012. An E250 and an Alfa Giulia in between, hardly any stone chips on any of those as far as I can remember, and my current C300 which arrived just over one year ago. My C300 is another in Indium Silver, so I thought "Great, at least I can save a few quid by not having to buy more touch-up paint", the old one was still on the garage shelf, almost untouched. A nice weekend just gone and not going anywhere, so I did a bit of work on the car. A really good wash and polish, the first proper wax it's had since the dealer applied one, which was starting to wear off, low mileage due to Lockdowns etc. Some tiny stone chips on the front, so out came my 2012 paint but it didn't match at all, a shade darker than it needed to be, but is it worth buying a new one? Is 2009 Indium Silver exactly the same as the 2020 version, do MB change colours slightly whilst keeping the name the same?

Current Mercedes paint is water-based of course, which in itself is less durable than older solvent-based ones, but it certainly doesn't seem to be particularly durable in comparison with some competitors' products. My C300 replaced a 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia. Alfa owners need a thick skin, all get constant cracks about Alfa quality and reliability, old myths die hard, but I've had two, both of which were almost completely faultless with no quality or reliability problems of any kind, and both were an absolute joy to drive. On trade-in, my Giulia had totally unblemished paint with not a single stone chip after 3 years of admittedly fairly light use, while my C300 had about half a dozen small chips after one year and about 1500 Covid-limited miles.

Draw your own conclusions.

 

[rorywquin]

I've had four MBs, all silver or grey, and yes I know, boring. After a CLK in 2009, my second one was an Indium Silver C250 Coupé in 2012. An E250 and an Alfa Giulia in between, hardly any stone chips on any of those as far as I can remember, and my current C300 which arrived just over one year ago. My C300 is another in Indium Silver, so I thought "Great, at least I can save a few quid by not having to buy more touch-up paint", the old one was still on the garage shelf, almost untouched. A nice weekend just gone and not going anywhere, so I did a bit of work on the car. A really good wash and polish, the first proper wax it's had since the dealer applied one, which was starting to wear off, low mileage due to Lockdowns etc. Some tiny stone chips on the front, so out came my 2012 paint but it didn't match at all, a shade darker than it needed to be, but is it worth buying a new one? Is 2009 Indium Silver exactly the same as the 2020 version, do MB change colours slightly whilst keeping the name the same?

Current Mercedes paint is water-based of course, which in itself is less durable than older solvent-based ones, but it certainly doesn't seem to be particularly durable in comparison with some competitors' products. My C300 replaced a 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia. Alfa owners need a thick skin, all get constant cracks about Alfa quality and reliability, old myths die hard, but I've had two, both of which were almost completely faultless with no quality or reliability problems of any kind, and both were an absolute joy to drive. On trade-in, my Giulia had totally unblemished paint with not a single stone chip after 3 years of admittedly fairly light use, while my C300 had about half a dozen small chips after one year and about 1500 Covid-limited miles.

Draw your own conclusions.

I'm guessing that 9 year old paint would change colour slightly.

 

[Timeandleisure]

Hello, would anyone have any recommendations for a good car paint depth gauge please?

 

[sausage]

Porsche stone chips after the NC500 before the NC500 was a thing. Those are all stone chips. 10 cars, all of them needed a respray.

 

[peterws1957]

Porsche stone chips after the NC500 before the NC500 was a thing. Those are all stone chips. 10 cars, all of them needed a respray. View attachment 72194

Never seen anything that bad, even on my brand new '83 Sierra which had fragile paint and had to be resprayed under warranty.

 

[mioba]

Certain cars are prone to chips based simply on the shape.

 

[sausage]

Never seen anything that bad, even on my brand new '83 Sierra which had fragile paint and had to be resprayed under warranty.

Yep, shocking isn't it. All the cars were like this after the 4 day tour. Here is the "after" bodyshop photo, best £250 I ever spent on a car.

 

[Blobcat]

Yep, shocking isn't it. All the cars were like this after the 4 day tour. Here is the "after" bodyshop photo, best £250 I ever spent on a car.

Nice looking 997, what condition were the air con condensers in? Without guards they can take a hammering.
No ATF cooler so at least no issues with that.

 

[sausage]

Nice looking 997, what condition were the air con condensers in? Without guards they can take a hammering.
No ATF cooler so at least no issues with that.

Hi Blobcat,
having owned Porsches for 12 years I came to realise the truth of the avalanche of propaganda associated with the cars, which was a major factor in me getting out of the scene.

One of those oft repeated axioms is that Zunsport grills are a "must". Certainly on this C2 that was not true, I did 90k miles in it after buying it with 20k on the clock. A lot of those miles were in Europe, on tour with the 911UK.com crowd where we were in quite close formation through the bends, which resulted in a lot of debris hitting the front of the car. Regarding the propaganda, I came to realise that 911UK is like a sycophantic echo chamber, as soon as one person with half an ounce of credibility said something, it was echoed ad nauseam by any and all.

As you can clearly see, the front PU took an absolute pounding on the Scottish tour - which you can see some great footage of here:

Youtube link On tour - Europe and Scotland - 2012

Yet despite the grit blasting that the front endured, the condensers (original ones) were absolutely fine. When I came to sell it several years later, the local indy (Quorn Sports and Classic) did a PPI for the buyer and they said the condensers were leaking, but so slowly that if they topped up it would take approx 12 months before it needed another fill up.


Yadaaa yada.....waffle waffle:
Other "propganda" from the 911UK echo chamber:
1) Bore scoring happens on cylinder 6 first and then the others. BS! My car did not have enough scoring on cylinder 6 for a warranty repair and all 5 others had severe scoring.
2) Centre Gravity are experts. BS! They told me my car needed 11 things, none of them were correct and they are actually set me up badly with the dealer principle in Leicester OPC - they said my setup was fastroad and not standard. OPC had only done the full 4 wheel geo set up a month or so earlier so this led to a ridiculous argument with OPC Leicester.
Lots of others too.. People go on about ride height of the PASM model being 10m lower than a non-PASM car, BS! I had a PASM C2, it was not 10m lower at all. It is the C2S that is 10mm lower - nothing to do with PASM or non-PASM. There is also a sports chassis that is a bit lower still.
3) Hartechs low temp thermostat is something special. What a crock, it is just a lower temp stat than standard.

I had to get out

 

[sausage]

P.S. I really like the music in the video, it took a few listens to get used to it, but I did and I still like it now. If anyone else does, here is the original video for the song:

I think it is quite charming/beautiful.

 

[Blobcat]

Hi Blobcat,
having owned Porsches for 12 years I came to realise the truth of the avalanche of propaganda associated with the cars, which was a major factor in me getting out of the scene.

One of those oft repeated axioms is that Zunsport grills are a "must". Certainly on this C2 that was not true, I did 90k miles in it after buying it with 20k on the clock. A lot of those miles were in Europe, on tour with the 911UK.com crowd where we were in quite close formation through the bends, which resulted in a lot of debris hitting the front of the car. Regarding the propaganda, I came to realise that 911UK is like a sycophantic echo chamber, as soon as one person with half an ounce of credibility said something, it was echoed ad nauseam by any and all.

As you can clearly see, the front PU took an absolute pounding on the Scottish tour - which you can see some great footage of here:

Youtube link On tour - Europe and Scotland - 2012

Yet despite the grit blasting that the front endured, the condensers (original ones) were absolutely fine. When I came to sell it several years later, the local indy (Quorn Sports and Classic) did a PPI for the buyer and they said the condensers were leaking, but so slowly that if they topped up it would take approx 12 months before it needed another fill up.


Yadaaa yada.....waffle waffle:
Other "propganda" from the 911UK echo chamber:
1) Bore scoring happens on cylinder 6 first and then the others. BS! My car did not have enough scoring on cylinder 6 for a warranty repair and all 5 others had severe scoring.
2) Centre Gravity are experts. BS! They told me my car needed 11 things, none of them were correct and they are actually set me up badly with the dealer principle in Leicester OPC - they said my setup was fastroad and not standard. OPC had only done the full 4 wheel geo set up a month or so earlier so this led to a ridiculous argument with OPC Leicester.
Lots of others too.. People go on about ride height of the PASM model being 10m lower than a non-PASM car, BS! I had a PASM C2, it was not 10m lower at all. It is the C2S that is 10mm lower - nothing to do with PASM or non-PASM. There is also a sports chassis that is a bit lower still.
3) Hartechs low temp thermostat is something special. What a crock, it is just a lower temp stat than standard.

I had to get out

My only involvement in Porsche forums is when I posted a “how to” on adding a Gateway 500 for bluetooth phone and iPod interface.
My condensers corroded out with a build up or road detritus. I bought some 5mm stainless mesh, removed the bumper and fabricated 3 grills for the openings. I also replaced the condensers, no issues since.
I’ve had the IMS changed and the main battery cable, both as preventative measures. Apart from that ai just enjoy it.

 

[sausage]

The Porsche scene was a great thing for a long time, and many industry pundits often said things like "One of the nicest things about owning a Porsche is the very active community". I had to agree, my experiences at the W.Mids meets in Meriden with the 911UK crowd were superb, lots of banter, fun and laughs, wild parties, and it was this camaraderie that led to the many ten day Euro road trips. The 911uk forum was a logical route into that community.

One thing that is worth noting, and I rarely, if ever heard it said is this. The air cooled owners would criticise the water cooled engines for the "inherent" weaknesses in the M96/97 engines, i.e. IMS, RMS and scoring. Now, my engine was rebuilt quite unusually early at 65k miles, but many are left longer and rebuilt at higher mileages. If we compare that to life with an air cooled, you can be sure most air cooled will be rebuilt around the 100k-150k mark. So, what is the difference? I concluded that if one owns a Porsche, there is a very good chance, no matter which one, it will need an engine rebuild before 150k miles. Probably the water cooled ones have a better chance of not needing a rebuild, whereas almost all air cooled will be leaking oil profusely by the time they get to 120k miles.

What a load of nonsense and just one of the other myths that was repeated so often amongst the community, that the water cooled engines are chocolate and air cooled are bullet proof.

Now I think the Porsche scene has changed. I still go to an E.Mids meet up every few months, and there are a heck of a lot of folks these days who have paid £100,000 - £500,000 for a car they could have bought a while back for £10,000-£20,000. That seems to get a lot of respect.