steve c

Typical Honda / Japanese car. Thin paint, prone to chips and fade with a thin clearcoat that will be eaten away in a day by the wrong bird shit / road salt.

The awesome baked on paint that covered a small ding in my yellow S2k chipped off a big flake in under a year.

Speedster

The OEM paint job on the stooker is second to none, especially when you considers its only a ~$33k USD car.

vbb

The paint on my Berlina Black S2K looks flawless after a good wash and wax from about 10 feet away. Mirror shine, smooth and even. Nothing beats a clean black car.

But inside 5 feet, with the sunlight hitting it just right, my front bumper looks chipped all to hell. Man, I can't stand it! I do believe that for all that Honda is good for, they give the worst factory paintjobs. I had a black RSX before this car and it was the same problem. If money were no object, I'd definitely get the whole car repainted with a few coats of paint and clear... but I'd rather deal with the rock chips than pay $5000 for a proper paintjob.

Ravenwerk

The paint is thin no doubt about it (weight saving measure?) I have a clear bra on the front but not on the spoiler. The difference between the two surfaces is very noticeable. I've probably used a whole bottle of touch up on the spoiler in the last three years. The front bumper still looks great and I'm very glad I had the bra installed.

Dark_Sub_Rosa has brought up a viable alternative to a clear bra I hadn't considered. Adding additional layers of clearcoat on the leading surfaces. Anyone care to discuss the tradeoffs between the different types of clearcoat for the best protection? I was unaware there were different kinds of clearcoats/hardeners.

ebeldesign

When I took my car in for the intial estimate for painting, my idea was to just have the existing paint scuffed and reshoot more clear on the car since that is where the problem was. My paint shop said that they do not just reshoot clear. They explained to me that there could be problems with paint compatibility and they do not like the thought of shooting clear on top of another paint system. Sounds like they were playing a little CYA, but I would guess that most paint shops would be hesitant to do it, or at least would want a warranty disclaimer if they did.

s2ka

Low cars get more chips.

Verticle bumpers get more chips.

Verticle windshields get more chips.

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Low cars with verticle bumpers and windshields get a lot of chips.


Go check a used BMW Z4, MB SLK etc. There is no magic.