Protecting Your Car Paint From Winter Damage

Winter is just around the corner, and protecting your car against corrosion and rust through these months is essential if you want to keep it in good condition.

After buying or renting a property, a car is usually the second-most expensive purchase you’ll make. We spend thousands buying them, and hundreds per year maintaining them. Protecting you car’s paintwork is a close second to regular mechanical maintenance, as in either case you can end up with a hefty bill should they end up damaged through lack of care.

Winter is an especially-damaging time if you live in countries where it means weeks or months of snow and ice. Consider the many ways us car owners already try to conserve our vehicle’s exteriors: we use products like Hammerite Waxoyl or Dinitrol to coat the underbody, polish, wax, and sealant to protect the paintwork and wheels, and even tyre shine to protect the rubber around them.

So, you’ve done your best to prep your pride and joy against the harsh elements – or have you?

If, like most, your vehicle suffers from a few paint chips, or even a rash from regular motorway use, throughout wintertime these can go from being an almost insignificant mar in the surface, to full-blown bubbled paint. How?

In many countries, salt spray or grit is applied liberally to the roads, which then clings to your car. This can then severely corrode and damage any bare metal on the exterior, which includes those previously insignificant paint chips.

Another damaging effect can be water expanding in the cold weather. Under previously cracked or chipped paintwork, this turns into ice. If that water gets under even the top layer of paintwork and then freezes, it expands rapidly, pushing up and popping out the paint, leaving a nasty bubble for further road salt to enter and corrode.

Should this happen, the bodywork will need that area of paint removing, the corrosion dealt with, and then a re-spray – a costly and time-consuming job and certainly not something most of us relish around this time of the year.

So, what’s the answer? Use the touch-up kit that came with your car and has sat in the glovebox for five years? Not unless you want the chip to look just as bad, and in a hue only slightly resembling your car’s paint.

Well, what is the answer to repairing stone chips effectively? A Chipex paint system, that’s what. The aforementioned traditional touch-up paint kit always looks awful and also means applying a lacquer afterwards too. It never matches the colour correctly and is obvious under any light.

On the other hand, Chipex kits are hand-made to the exact manufacturer’s colour forumlations, come pre-mixed with clear-coat lacquer, and merges almost perfectly with the surrounding paint surface, leaving an unbelievably professional finish.

It’s such a good system that the esteemed Morgan Motor Company – who are world-renowned for their hand-crafted cars – has chosen to use Chipex as its official supplier. A real testament to the quality of the product!

The Chipex system has been tested and reviewed by many magazines, websites, and car clubs – the examples of which are here -including: GTPorsche, The Sunday Times, Octane, the MG Car Club, the MX-5 Owners Club, and AutoExpress.

The Benefits of Using the Chipex Paint Repair System

There are several benefits to using the Chipex system to repair the stone chips and scratches on your car’s paintwork: it is cost-effective, quick and easy to apply (with simple instructions included), the colour is 100% matched (guaranteed) which keeps your car looking its best, and most importantly for wintertime, it prevents the chip or scratch from becoming rusted, and therefore avoiding high re-spray costs in future.

So, when considering what products to buy to ensure your car is protected throughout the upcoming winter season, make sure to use Chipex to keep those nasty shone chips and scratches from rusting and corroding your paintwork.

Chris Davies is an award-winning motoring journalist writing for CarProductsTested.com

Photo credits: Jeep: Dustin Gaffke, Salt spreader: Highways Agency