Help with paint chipping on Infi QX80

[Robmerikle]

About two years ago I bought a 2015 Infinity QX80. I prepped the paint and applied Optimum gloss coat. I am very happy with the way it has held up and the way it looks. As spring/summer starts to show up here in Seattle I am starting to do some paint prep to put the next coat of Optimum on. I am noticing that the paint has held up very well to scratches and swirls, but there seem to be many chips in the paint. Remember this is from the view point of an Autopian and a normal person would probably not be so concerned. Naturally most of them are in the usual areas such as the front of the car, but I am seeing a lot of small chips in the paint all over the car. For example there are a number of them on the side of the car. I had a Tahoe prior to this car for ten years and had the opposite problem. The paint never seemed to chip, but had problems with scratches and swirls.

As I do my annual summer detailing what would you recommend to help protect the paint from all these chips.

[rlmccarty2000]

Other than Paint Protection Film I don’t know anything that will halt rock chips. A coating product really provides no protection from rock chips.

[Accumulator]

Robmerikle- Welcome to Autopia!

As noted, there`s no real fix for stone chips other than an applied barrier (i.e., PPF). Some paints are just more prone to chipping than others, and 1) Japanese paints always chipped easily for me, while 2) GM paints (I still have a Tahoe) were always much better in this regard, so you might`ve gone from one extreme to the other.

[JSFM35X]

I am on my 6 consecutive Infiniti vehicle. I know them well at this point.
I had some chipping issues especially on the nose cone, hood and leading edge of the roof.

I really just assumed that the new paint systems that are more eco friendly just suck. Then one day I’m driving on the parkway and I get blasted with pellets of paving debris. The person going road construction and resurfacing never swept and a the junk was flying around. I called DOT and was not the only one reporting. I had them look at the car and they approved a repair and rental. I had the whole front resprated and cleared. Never had another chip for 2 years. That lease ended and I got into a new car in 2016. Still driving it now. Same stuff. Few chips. It’s a lease so I don’t stress but if I owned it I’d most likely have it clear coated or filmed with ppf. All production cars have less paint build and what they have is not durable. They are all bad today.