David

Does anyone have any complaints about exterior black paint showing scratches and flaws?

Robert Jordan

Let me give a little history as to my black paint experience before I comment on my Audi. Keep in mind that I am a bit of a perfectionist, I will not accept that a car can't look 'like new' for many years with proper care.

Twenty years ago my dad and I restored a '65 Sunbeam Tiger. We had the Tiger painted black, 8-coats of lacquer, hand polished between coats. the paint looked 2-foot deep and was fairly scratch resistant, but chipped easily. We tried every wax available and found that 'rain dance' worked the best!

My next black car was a used '84 Camry the factory paint job had a fair amount of 'orange peal' (bumpy surface like an orange peal) and some knucklehead buffed the paint on the hood, roof and trunk down to a few microns thick. I could clay, polish and wax that car to a showroom shine, but it wouldn't last very long. After about four years the factory primer started to show up through the paint and it was time for a repaint.

I stripped the call of all trim, wet sanded and borrowed a friend's bodyshop to prime the car. I supplied the paint (can't rember the brand, but a gallon was over $100) and he sprayed it. It looked beter than the factory paint ever did, but it was no easier to care for since it was still black. I tried dozens of wax and polish combonations on both the factory paint and the repaint and found the best combo to be AutoMagic white polish and AutoMagic Yellow Carnauba paste wax ( I also had great results using this technique on my Grey Accord) .

I have also helped a few friends with their black cars, so you can see that I have had a bit of experience with other black cars prior to my black A4. For starters let me say that the A4 has the best factory applied paint of any car I have seen, no orange peel whatsoever.

I initially used my tried and true AutoMagic products. While they gave a great shine, the wax would not hold up in the summer and would loose its ability to bead water in a few weeks. I think the Audi paint is less porous and provides less 'grip' for the wax. I also had problems with 'fogging'. I would wax the car in the garage and it would look great, but park the car in the sun for a few hours and it would cloud up, looking hazy and showing streaks. This is usually caused by oxidation or moisture under the wax. Washing the car and buffing it with a slightly damp towel would correct the problem.

I tried a number of carnauba waxes as well as a few non-wax products and I am still searching for the best solution. All the carnauba products I have tried just don'd hold up very well. Meguires Gold polish/wax scratched, Klasse products didn't last well and Nu Finish polish/wax last a long time, but is slightly too abrasive and leaves fine swirlmarks. I am still searching for the Holy Grail of car care products and I will have a much higher opinion of Audi paint when I find the best product for it.

So to answer your question David, most folks would say it is as good as any other manifacturer's paint. I guess my expectations are too high, I think it could be better.

Robert Jordan
'97 1.8t

John Phillips

Do you have any suggestions for repairing minor stone damage on the front of my black '98 A4?

mpm

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Wesley Walls

Paint LOOKS great but is more prone to "staining" than any car I've ever been around. I've hand waxed it and had it professionally detailed, but this hasn't proved overly effective against bird crap/tree residue. Example: For some reason, the Maple tree in my front yard began spewing white paste this year (looked like bird crap). I cleaned my car within 24 hours, and it had literally eaten through the clearcoat in about 4-5 places, cracking the paint below.

Why do I feel this is different than most other cars? Because my wife's Acura Vigor was subject to the same residue, and even though it didn't get cleaned for over a week longer, there was not ONE stain to be found.

Conclusion: Paint looks great, but is not resistant at all to stains. (Note: this may be true of all Audi paints, but I've only experienced black).

Wesley Walls
'98 1.8TMS

Bob Petruska

I'm into my 4th winter with brilliant black and it looks like new! It's parked outside. I travel 40 miles round trip every day with all the salt and antiskid blasted over the car. The car has zero nicks....I know that's hard to believe but anyone can come look! The windshield is what's sand blasted!!

VW/Audi paints their cars with Glassurit pinnts. I have used these paints and they are the most durable and glossy paint I have ever sprayed.

I personally polish with Meguiars' Show Car Glaze and Medallion Paint Protection and believe that's why the car weathers the winters so well. I have found that dirt, bugs, etc come off the Medallion very easily.

Believe me I have ZERO nicks after 4 winters, the paint is just great. I have also owned 2 VW GTI's with the same paint durability and I have owned 5 Nissan's (3 - Z cars, 2 - Maximas) and the Japanese cars had very thin paint that the PA acid rain ate through!!

Robert Jordan

John, I'm no expert on this stuff, but here's what I would recomend.

Buy a touch-up kit at your Audi dealer (or one of the audi parts suppliers who advertise here) Have your paint code handy, I think it is located in the drivers door jamb on the A4. In the kit are two bottles, one paint and one clearcoat.

Wash and dry the damaged area.

Wipe area with rubbing alcohol or 3M adhesive and wax remover.

Shake paint well.

Apply room temp paint to car at room temp (paint will not flow or bond properly at cold temps).

I prefer using the tip of a wood toothpick to apply paint to small chips, use an art paint brush size 00 or 0 for larger chips. The brush included with the touch-up paint is too big for minor chips.

It may take several applications to build up the retouched area almost to the level of the surrounding paint.

Apply clearcoat to protect touch-up and build up level to surrounding paint.


Just take your time and with a little luck, it will look as good as new.

Robert

Robert Jordan

After rethinking my post it occurs to me I may have given the wrong impression of Audi paint quality. I am extremely nitpicky and black is the worst color in terms of showing imperfections, this applies to ALL black paint, not just Audi's. I would not say that Audi paint is any better or worse than any of the other cars I have worked with.

Consider that nicks, swirls and scratches that would be undetectable on any other color show up on black. Compound that by my overly critical eye and you can understand that I am rarely satisfied with the appearance of my cars. I cringe when I look at reflections of the sun in my black paint and see not a pinpoint of reflected light, but a highlight surrounded by fine spiderweb looking swirls.

Black looks great when it is clean and scratch-free, especially on cars with great lines like our A4s. I like that all the trim, splashguards and rockerpanels blend in with the black paint. But if you are buying a car, be aware that you will have to work twice as hard (at least) to keep it looking good as you would with any other color. Your reward for the extra effort black requires comes in having a drop-dead beautiful car.

Robert Jordan aka "****-retentive Bob"

Rick Foster

The Brilliant Black paint on my 1997 A4Q 2.8 still looks super. It remains one of the shiniest and nicest looking paint jobs I've ever seen. My car is garaged at night but parked outdoors during the day.

Also, contrary to conventional wisdom, I don't think the black paint shows dirt all that easily compared to other color cars I've owned. Even without being washed for a couple of weeks it still looks very shiny and attractive (at least from a few feet away!)

Carlos Ramirez

I think the best solution is to let the professionals do it. I have had very good exp with touch up artists. These guys use some of the basic ideas to make paint match. The usually do the following:
Get the paint code from the car goto dealer and have them prepare three solutions of the paint. A) paint with clear coat, B) Paint no clear coat c) paint with higher concentration of clear coat versus paint

Using these solutions and a clay bar eraser and other solutions they remove the dirt,wax,rust from the chip then using a artist's paint brush fill in the chip using solution B on big chips wait for dry of paint then use solution C to seal the rest of the paint. When working how ever with lots of chips like I had the roof of my car they actually stripped the entire wax and clear coat wet sanded that area and then used an air brush and filled in all the cracks and scratches with paint then resprayed it with clear coat and rewaxed.
Now these guys are just pro's its really an art to fix chips and scratches and I am sure that they will do better than anyone of us can do (except those who work in autobody). I had them do my entire car (which I bought used and had alot of bug damage and some scratches because the previous owners lived on a gravel road) and the total bill for doing the entire car including removing a couple small door dings, doing the roof, filling in about 20 scratches and chips was only $120. And find that to be a great deal considering that I could never do that great of a job and its almost perfect even with a magnifying glass.
Moral of story of story take to the pro's that do this kind of work. However be leary of taking it to body shops because most of them well give you a line of not being able to do it without repainting the entire area and really charge you.
The best way to find out the guys who do this is to call a larger local used car dealership and ask who they use for scratch and chip repair.

Else use some of the methods describe above. Anyways sorry of the long post. I was just trying to be helpful.
BTW on a side note they did not do my hood because it had over 50 chips and bug acid burns and recommended I just get it repainted. Which I did along with my bumper. And currently the paint on my hood is perfect and actually feels better and was told it will hold up better than factory do to a some special Dupont bonding process. Time will tell. Also my car is black.