As promised.. Stone chips
 

I borrowed the girlfriends DSLR and washed, and photoed my baby for your requests. This is after almost 20k miles of hard Chicago driving dealing with road debris, and winter salt can really do a number.

Just make sure it's complete protection. Check my last photo.

I've got a million badges!

You can see both the orange peel and stone chips in some of the photos

I feel the same way, and now for the CARnage.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ps2b15c47d.jpg

A little orange peel, and stone chips.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ps580127f1.jpg

Please note, the car was just washed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ps39ace16c.jpg

There are a few deep ones on the nose.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ps849b842b.jpg

Factory clear bra didn't save me from this guy. It is all the way to the metal.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ps51d394e0.jpg

Cheers guys!

so glad i have a silver car! hahah

I can beat that...

Be right back.

Edit: Well, maybe mine is just a bad, fair draw? :lol:

I used a point and shoot cam cam, don't have a DSLR.

Its kinda dark in New York right now.

And yes, the car is clean.
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps3c7d1f2e.jpg
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/t...psf2cb6db0.jpg
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/t...psc7062289.jpg

All those little white dots you see are rock chips.

Oh and someone said it won't be that bad on Silver?

Ha, it'll be just as bad...

I have rock chips on my roof!!!

ouch :[

I have only two chips I've noticed, but they're annoying. I should go take photos.

Now that winter is over, I'm interested to see pics from people who jumped on the OptiCoat wagon. I wonder how much of a difference it really made in real world testing... Anyone?

Nice color choice:w00t:

My car has 1500 miles and I have this...and my car is opticoated.

http://i.imgur.com/1KjnPZ0.jpg

Opti coat has said time and time again that Opti Coat won't prevent rock chips.

Though i would love to see a comparison.

Car has to have around 10K+ plus miles though...

I'm not entirely sure why this was moved to Cosmetic Maintenance. Yes, it is dealing with a cosmetic issue, but it was more an answer to a general question requesting photos of the stone chips. There's nothing here about maintaining it, or cleaning it up. It's just being informative.

Oh well.

Well now I know that I am adding the clear bra to the bumper and not just the hood.

whats the cost of a clear bra vs a fresh repaint of the bumper?

The factory Scion clear bra is like $375 for the hood and $600 for the bumper. I bet you could get your dealer to put 3M clear bra on there for much cheaper.

The number of airborne objects ejected by a car in front of you decreases radically with distance. So if you are in the habit of driving 20 feet from the car in front of you at highway speed, you will garner many times the number of impacts to you car that you would if you kept a greater distance. It probably decreases by a factor of ten if you double the distance to the car in front. In addition, try to stay out of the right lane, which tends to have a greater accumulation of debris and sand on the right margin. Lastly, maintain extra clearance from trucks and construction vehicles. In this case, tailgaters do get bad paint karma.