996 Paint......Argggg!

I bought a virtually new 2005 996 C4S in black. This car had only 6500 miles on it when I bought it about a month ago and I can't over emphasize what great condition it was in. Since owning it, I've been detailing it with my Flex 3401, etc. My wife and I both used the car last week and I notice what I thought was bug debris on the hood. However when detailing the car, I noticed that, instead of bugs, they were paint chips! I drive highways to/from work at high speeds and they did just remove a layer of asphalt on one of these roads, so I'm guessing that is how this happened. Examining the car, I probably have 30 mostly small white spots where the black paint has been removed. Most of these are the size of a pencil point but several are larger. Most are on the first foot of the hood, but interestingly there is no damage to the bumper? I even have chips on the rear fender flange. I decided to get the opinion of a body shop yesterday. On the way there, on the highway, I got struck by a large rock on the windshield! Luckily, no chip or crack! However when I got to the body shop, I had a very noticeable chip in the passenger door! The body shop is going to fix these for $125 and is very confident that it will look great when they finish. I just can't believe that I've done more damage to this car in one month than the previous owner did in 10 years! I can't tell you how much I baby this car. I don't think this car has ever been driven in the rain! It is the most lonely car in any parking lot! How do the rest of you handle this? A clear bra? Maybe I've just had bad luck! At the rate I'm going, this car will have no paint in another 10 years!

I don't worry. Thrash it and If it get chips I'll fix them every 3 years. So much fun not to worry about cosmetics too much. Of course anything unsightly will be sorted ASAP but the small stuff will happen again the day after you fix it. I don't let the fear of a stone chip stop my right foot being nailed to the board.

I feel your pain, but...^^^ You have to try not to obsess too much. Overall my paint looks great (it's one of the first things people comment on when they see the car) but when I get up close there are a bunch of little chips and dings and stuff...I take a deep breath and tell my self it's a 15 yr. old car, and then I drive...I forget about the chips/dings very quickly.

It's called patina, Ferdinand Porsche would be happy to see that you're using it.

Xpel clear bra & cover the headlamps, too.

Yep. I have a clear bra on mine and I LOVE it!

I have the same issue with chips on my hood. I also lost about a half-inch of paint between the hood and the windshield - right on the edge of the hood. Not sure how that happened - this isn't exactly the rust belt. I've started touching these up myself, and eventually I'll do a full respray on the car.

Join the 'chipped paint club'. When you first got your car with only 6500 miles on it, you would expect it to have 'like new' paint on it. Mine is a 99 job with 73500 miles and I expect it to have a bit of road rash. It can stay like that. The main thing in life is, how is it driving?

1. Do not follow the cars in front of you too closely. I've learned to leave quite a distance between myself and the car in front. Yes, I know this is not always possible in heavy traffic. 2. Clear bra. Two decisions here, which brand and how much of the car to cover. The bumper is somewhat more resilient to rock chips than the hood paint, but it will eventually show the chips as hundreds of dull spots on the paint.

I don't think this era of these cars will need to be "museum quality preserved" for several more decades..I say drive and enjoy. Who would you be 'saving' it for?

I had the same issue with my 996. My plan was to have the front end resprayed and have a clear bra installed, but I ended up selling the car before I had a chance to get that done.

I bought mine with 3900 miles, impecable condition I thought about a clear bra but I heard some things about different colors on the paint after years and also it won't protect against dents, I baby my car is a weekend car, so I decide not to worry about the chips if they happen I will deal with them until they get absolutely notorious as long as my engine is running great and follow maintenance, I'm just thinking about drive it and enjoy it now 4 months later 6900 miles which means I drove almost 8 years of what the previous owner did in so little time!!!

Clear Bras are best over factory paint. When you respray the bumper, some of the paint tends to come off if you ever have to pull the film off. The film got scraped pretty bad on my lower bumper and looked ratty so I had the shop pull a small portion of it. I lost two spots of paint about the size of a quarter. But, I guess my paint would have been messed up rather than my clear bra if I hadn't had one, so it's a crap shoot. After I get it all removed and a respray, I'll have to think about whether I want to put a clear bra back on or not. Regarding color changes, the new films don't seem to have that issue. The old ones definitely did. Most installers only carry one brand. I would choose the film brand based on seeing other work the installers have done. Go with the best installer.

If the bumper was properly prepped, adhesion promotor with flex agent used with a quality paint like ppg, you shouldn't have any issues with any paint lifting off. I experienced both situations in the past.

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Can only imagine it might be a bit of long term erosion on the aero are of the hood.

I've been contemplating a front end respray on my black 996. I would use the top collision shop in the area that specializes in Mercedes, Lexus and Porsche. I'm curious what you think is a good price for a respray of bumper, partial fenders and hood by a quality shop? (I'll bet we see a wide range of fees here!)

$2K without any bodywork and if panels are not removed. $2.5K with hood and bumper removed.

Another vote on a clear mask; I have the forward section of the hood, headlights and front fenders masked. I recently detailed my car and I used Dr. Colorchip and the product worked great on a handful of small chips I had.