avoid driving behind big rigs

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Barry WY Silver/Black '01
My 42 month old S2000 is practically chipless, just as it is practically mile-less.

Don't look at the chips.

 

OK! Come on! Fess up! How many of you guys tailgate?

 

I daily drive my S, and try to take the best care of it as possible. It's still a daily driver, and is gonna get stone chips no matter what. My ride has just over 5k miles on it now, and the front already looks like shit. I blame PennDOT for using such copious amounts of huge gravel during winter. BOO!!

Anyway, Hendo, you just gotta deal with it. My black Prelude had the same problem, as well as my roommate's black 330i, and his dad's black 3000GT VR-4. Just the price you pay for driving a black sports car!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Clayman
I daily drive my S, and try to take the best care of it as possible.

 

I too have noticed that the paint on the S2000 is very susceptible to scratches. I've read (or heard, can't quite remember) that the strict environmental regulations in Japan force the automakers there to use environmental friendly methods for applying paint, and this results in a paint job that is surprisingly weak.

Just do a search on any Nissan 350Z forum on paint and see what they are saying, it's not just Honda.

I try to keep a large following distance between myself and the car in front of me and this has helped big time with paint chips. I daily drive and the front end still looks very good to me (just rolled over 27,000 miles). Don't dump the car though just because of paint quality. It's what under the paint that counts!

 

So check this out, since we on the subject......

I purchased mine used so I had the pre-owned paint from hell. I finally (after two yrs of complaining) got my car re-painted the wonderfully-pain-in-the-ass color Black.

THE day I picked it up, it stormed. (I live in SoCali so that doesn't happen very often.) Two days later, I was enjoying the sun while cruisin' the freeway. A big rig was fairly far ahead of me and in the next right lane. I could see further up the freeway that cars were swerving and slamming on brakes so I decided to slow down, as did the rig. The next thing I know the rig is slamming his brakes and hits a patch of glass (think windshield turned safety glass dropped on freeway). The rig starts sliding on the glass into my lane as I start to slide on said glass. (I happened to be on my way to get new rear tires.)

So, of course, the first words are "don't hit the truck, don't hit the truck, don't hit the truck". The next set of words: "OH SHIT! MY F#@<!# PAINT!" I came out with an $1800 paint job with 15 rock chips on my front bumper.

I must say though, I love my little black sports car.

 

The paint on the s2k could stand to be a little tougher, but it is not much more fragile than that on our Ford pickup or Mercedes Benz sedan. You can't really drive any of them on a gravel road behind a big truck and not have some damage. This raises a political question as to whether the "big rigs" are required by law to have truly adequate flaps to protect against this. As a former representative of the trucking industry, I'll tell you the answer is "no" and drop the subject.

From all the clear bras I've seen, I think they are a good idea --- unless they are on cars! Seriously, does anybody know of a clear auto bra that does not have that noticable "orange peel" look?

Thanks,
Richard

 

I don't know a treatmeat that looks good.

I accept rock chips as an inevitable consequence of shiny paint, a low car, and the physics of what happens when rocks hits paint. I doubt it is the solvent that affects this - today's paints are far more shiny and resistant to oxidation than anything in the past, and those chipped also.

Ever seen a an unrestored race car? They can be worth a fortune, and the front ends look horribly battered, chipped, dented, etc.

I remember when i used to have a show terrier - a Norwich - and since they are considered a "working breed", the standard read "a scar, honorably incurred, will not be held against an animal". That was 30 years ago, and I still love that term "honorably incurred".

So, in March Meltdown, when I was hanging tight with W1ngman, and he chipped my bumper kicking up his heels, I considered that all part of the sport, not to be lamented and pined over, but celebrated for having been "honroably incurred".

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by xviper
OK!