What is road rash and why is fixing it so important?

Here on the Chipex blog, we often refer to ‘road rash’ when we’re talking about car paint chips and what causes them. If you haven’t been afflicted by car paint chips very much (lucky you!) maybe you’re not totally sure what we mean by the term road rash. We thought it would be a good idea to clear up what we mean when we talk about road rash, and the effect it can have on your car’s paintwork.

What is road rash?

Road rash is the term used to describe the scratches and markings that spoil your car’s paintwork around the tyres and bumper. Caused by the gravel, small stones and other debris that is found on all types of road, it leads to nasty looking chips, scratches and peeling on this area of your car’s paintwork.

This photo shows a ‘before and after’ of how it makes paintwork look before it’s repaired:

As it’s a problem that affects a particular area of your paintwork, and makes it look far from its best, it’s known affectionately (not!) as road rash.

How does road rash affect your car?

You may have thought you didn’t know what road rash was, but after seeing that photo, you’ve probably realised it’s more common than you thought. It affects tons of vehicles, and while it doesn’t have a major effect on the performance of your car, it’s all about the way it looks. Road rash can seriously damage your paintwork, and if you’re proud and protective of your car it can be really frustrating.

How to avoid road rash

Short of never driving and keeping your car wrapped in cotton wool in your garage, it’s difficult to completely avoid road rash. While general chips and scratches can be more easily avoided with a bit of careful driving, road rash is caused purely by the paintwork proximity to the ground – and it’s not as if you can move your tyres to another position to stop it happening.

As long as your car is coming into contact with the road, there will, unfortunately, always be a chance of road rash occurring.

How can I solve road rash?

If your car has been affected by road rash, it may seem like the only solution is to regularly take it to be professionally resprayed – this is expensive and time consuming. A quicker, easier and more cost effective way to treat road rash is to do it yourself with a Chipex kit. They leave your paintwork looking so shiny and new, our reviews have said you can’t tell where the original scratches were – they’re that good.

Cut out the middleman, and cure your car of its road rash yourself – one of Chipex’s kits will have your paintwork looking back to its best in no time at all.