(not so) Manly advice for silver frame Atom owners....

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Today, whilst I was out perusing my local chemist's 'ladies isle' (don't ask), I spotted what appears to be the perfect silver frame blemish touch up paint. Or nail polish as its more commonly known....

I've done a minuscule test dab on a very small paint chip on the underside of my frame and it looks like a pretty reasonable match! Now obviously I'm not suggesting its suitable for a DIY respray or larger scratches etc but I wondered if there was a good reason for not using it very sparingly on the odd frame mark?

For anyone interested the shade that matches my car so well is called Wonder Metal by "miss sporty"

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Let me know your thoughts!

Cheers

[stupot]

I found Hammerite Smooth in Silver was a good match for stone chip touch ups.

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[mention]stupot[/mention] - probably a better bet....... ;-)

[Anon]

PPF will help with stone chips. But great tip as you cannot cover the entire chassis in PPF of course.

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I have the standard PPF parts fitted but have got a few stone chips at the rear underside of the frame near the rear wheels. My car has done a few miles though so nothing out of the ordinary & quite minimal really, all things considered.

I think having the sticky tires makes it far worse from what I gather on here, I imagine they pick up stray stones much more than the pure road tires and flick them out at high speed against the paint!

[stupot]

I found the front of the lower chassis leg gets a surprising amount of punishment along with the underside of the curved main chassis above the rear wheels.

The main high impact point of the rear suspension is the outer ends of the lower wishbone and pushrod so triple coat those and periodically replace the outer layers.

It’s also surprising how much gets thrown forward from the rear wheels so take that into account and protect the back of the side diagonals.

I used all of the experience from my 1st car to protect the 2nd from new.

[Anon]

Yes Stu, many of us have now protected these areas. I don't have any ppf on the underside of the rear chassis (above the rear wheels covered though) how do stones get there? I also had the vertical chassis rails covered out of recommendations from the factory due to turning full lock stones get thrown into there.

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[stupot]

I'd seen you've had a comprehensive kit fitted. On both my cars the lower front chassis in front of the sump took a surprising amount of abuse, particular the outer ends. I protected the second on my experience with the first.

The rear facing portions of the vertical chassis rails get stones thrown forward from the rear tyres. Sounds like you have those covered though.

Best advice is always turn round if you see recent road resurfacing as it's not pleasant! Tar and chippings are not a good combination! Got caught a few times in France with no alternative so just crawled through at tickover, much to the annoyance of the locals! Even then I had to stop and brush off the tyres whilst getting strange looks....and that's just from the wife!

[Anon]

Those stone chipping road surfaces are awful. I was driving down a road not long ago and suddenly I saw the road chippings sign, and there in front of me was a fresh road, nice wet tar with loose stones stuck on top with drivers driving through at 30+mph. So before I got to it I turned around (also annoying drivers behind me) and went the long way home. No way was I going to drive through that.

I have the bottom chassis rail completely covered. I also have the rear backside of the carbon light covers protected. Thinking about it, the top rail I had extended on both sides so it covers most of the top rail and underside to the rear wheels. The factory PPF seems to scuff when catching your foot on it, this new stuff I had it replaced with doesn't.

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Got caught a few times in France with no alternative so just crawled through at tickover, much to the annoyance of the locals! Even then I had to stop and brush off the tyres whilst getting strange looks....and that's just from the wife!

I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s stopped to brush off the tires. I’d feared it was an OCD flare up on my part the last time I had to crawl through some freshly resurfaced road -There’s nothing worse than a couple of centimetres of floating gravel!

[mention]simonrhart[/mention] is that an official PPF template or something you whipped up?

[GraemeW]

ive found VW Reflex silver (at Halfords) is a near exact match

[Anon]

@simonrhart is that an official PPF template or something you whipped up?

My detailer created it. It started out with a couple folks in the club then slowly got larger after the detailer PPF'ed more Atoms. I could not come up with something like this!

[Italianpaul]

Simon, Is it possible to share the Template? The guy I am hoping to use is the nearest one I can find that has a good reputation.. As I am based in Lincolnshire and a bit too far to travel to the company you have used.

[Anon]

Simon, Is it possible to share the Template? The guy I am hoping to use is the nearest one I can find that has a good reputation.. As I am based in Lincolnshire and a bit too far to travel to the company you have used.

I would reach out to Paul [mention]Mr Definitive Detail[/mention] he will be able to help I am sure.

[Italianpaul]

Thanks Simon, I'll give him a ring.