VW Red Paint...

[UKnewWho]

I know red paint in general is softer then most, it seems our new Red Jetta TDi has super duper soft paint, doing a google search for VW Red Paint, will give a ton of people with the same issues.

 

We took a road trip to pickup my wifes cousin from college, about 450-500 miles each way. Car had ~6000 miles at the time. After returning home, we found a bunch of white spots all over the front of the car. :willy:There is also now a spot on the roof where a bird bomb has pitted the clear coat, who know how long it was there. I normally get home well after my wife, and well after dark, and didn't see it untill the weekend to clean it off.

 

Long story short, VW refuses to address the problem. I am going to get a body shop quote to fix/respray the front bumper. Clear bra will be going on the minute the paint is fully cured.

 

My Question, is the super sealer and americana wax enough protection for the rest of the car? is there anything else I can do to keep the paint from damaging so easly.

 

Thanks in advanced.

[Reichler]

Color of paint has nothing to do with how "soft" it is. The clearcoat used is what determines that.

 

That said, yes keeping your paint sealed/waxed will help prevent damage from bird droppings, environmental fallout, sap, etc. It will not protect your paint from stone chips though from daily driving. That's all in how the car was painted and how durable the finish is.

 

EDIT:

What are the white spots? Are they chips out of the paint/clear or some other contamination? If the latter, have you tried to clay them?

[THE Mook]

Morning!

 

Having a great wash technique, combined with proper paint protection will help you a lot here. The wife's Mazda6 seems to get a swirl mark on it if I sneeze within 15 feet of it, so I feel ya.

 

Tips for Wash:

 

Have two washpads. One for the upper part, and one for "below the belt" line of the car.

Constantly utilize both buckets. Meaning, hit the rinse bucket often and then recharge your pad often--like panel by panel.

Think about investing in a Sidekick or Master Blaster to dry it off with. Then follow that with either a Single Soft or Double Soft towel and Detail Spray.

 

Machine Super Sealant and two, thin coats of Americana Paste Wax should be sufficient enough. Part of the bird bomb thing is catching it in a timely manner. I would maybe think about keeping a WW and WW towels in the TDI so that if this occurs, you can poo poo the poo poo right away so it doesn't kill your clear coat.

 

I apply APW after the initial application over MSS/Quick Sealant every 2 months.

 

Mook

[Marylander]

What year Jetta? Mine is a 2010 and the clear doesn't seem any harder or softer and other cars I've worked on. Can you post up some pics so we can see these spots you're trying to remove? That's always very helpful.

 

What kind of mileage were you getting on the trip? Mine's at about 26K miles right now and it seems like the mileage is getting better and better the more the car is broken in.

[UKnewWho]

What year Jetta? Mine is a 2010 and the clear doesn't seem any harder or softer and other cars I've worked on. Can you post up some pics so we can see these spots you're trying to remove? That's always very helpful.

 

What kind of mileage were you getting on the trip? Mine's at about 26K miles right now and it seems like the mileage is getting better and better the more the car is broken in.

 

It's a 2011. The trip down there we got around 44-45MPG (two adults, 1 over night bag) on the way back we got around 39-40 (three adults, and 6 months worth of luggage).

 

This seems to be limited mainly to the Red Paint, and has appearently been a problem for some time now, I've read alot about it with the 2008 R32's.

 

Here are three shots the day after we got home from the trip. There where more. Again, this was ~5-6K miles. Going down, there was almost no traffic, left late, coming back we left around the same time, and again, no traffic.

 

The white is the primer, which looks almost to shinny to be primer.

 

Example A

 

Example B

 

Example C

 

And it's much worse now. I was at our dealer and there was a black Jetta that look like it had been shot with buck shot, should have taken a picture.

 

And what I'm getting my self into...

 

[Pureshine]

Ok my uncle owns VW dealer your paint has a 5 year warranty on it. The VW standard warranty is 3 years 36k. I would go back to the dealer if it's a true paint problem. I have a 2009 white GTI never had a paint problem.

[Watkins]

Ok my uncle owns VW dealer your paint has a 5 year warranty on it. The VW standard warranty is 3 years 36k. I would go back to the dealer if it's a true paint problem. I have a 2009 white GTI never had a paint problem.

 

Since I just bought a GTI myself, is the clear coat on your GTI soft or hard?

[UKnewWho]

Ok my uncle owns VW dealer your paint has a 5 year warranty on it. The VW standard warranty is 3 years 36k. I would go back to the dealer if it's a true paint problem. I have a 2009 white GTI never had a paint problem.

 

The warranty is only for manufacture defect/workmanship, does not cover stone chips. Dealer and VWoA are refusing to cover it, thats the short part of the long story, i've been dealing with the dealer and VWoA for several months.

 

The biggest part about it, it's a known issue (VW will never admit it though), a VWoA person even 'slipped' and said something about they changed thier paint process for some (or all) colors. My guess on that is they moved from a 2 stage solvent to a 1 or 2 stage water based as all manufatures are being forced to for EPA reasons.

 

Had I been told about it, or (on my part) researched it and knew about it, the clear bra would have been the first thing done after leaving the dealer.

 

my daily driver 04 GTi (101k+ miles) has some stone chipping, as I would expect. the 08 R32 (50k+ miles) is super clean.

 

I'm really just over the issue and want to get it fixed and protected.

 

That said, yes keeping your paint sealed/waxed will help prevent damage from bird droppings, environmental fallout, sap, etc. It will not protect your paint from stone chips though from daily driving. That's all in how the car was painted and how durable the finish is.

 

I know that wax isn't hard enough for a direct stone chip, thats what the clear bra is for. But is is hard enough for the stray that might hit say the door, rear quarter areas? I'm planning on the the lower 12 inches of the car to be clear bra.

 

Thanks for help.

[Pureshine]

The clear coat on a GTI is not really soft but is easy to work on.

[GlossAngeles]

VW is not known to be soft. Color usually doesn't matter but in this case it actually might, because when the first R32's came out a ton of red ones had peeing clearcoat that VW would not cover. Don't understand why it happend, or why they wouldn't cover it. I love VW but the business practices most of the delerships have are just terrible....

 

EDIT: It was on the 2008's too? Thats is so weird....why would the color change it....