Advanced Driving Hub

Mr Cholmondeley-Warner wrote:All you need for that is a touch up brush. Just put the paint into the chip in tiny dots until you fill it (in layers small enough to dry quickly). Keep as little paint as possible on the brush. Dip it, then wipe almost all the paint off. Be careful of paint on the stem of the brush which will run down unexpectedly and make big blobs. If you get too much on, wipe it off straight away and start again. The Halfords kit should be fine although aftermarket paint isn't always a great match.

I've sent an email to a Skoda dealer to see if they've got any touch up kits in stock.

I didn't actually buy my car from the nearest dealer, I got mine from Swindon, but the nearest one (in terms of distance) is the Skoda dealership in Newbury.

I didn't buy my car from there because the staff were quite rude when my parents went in to see if we could get a Yeti, so we went to the Swindon one and they were superb, so as soon as I said I wanted a Citigo, my parents whisked me off to the Swindon dealer

Thanks for your help so far! Hopefully it won't be long before I can upload pictures of my pristine bumper

Just to pick up on Nick's excellent advice above, personally I tend to use a cocktail stick rather than a brush when touching up paintwork, in order to minimise the volume of paint applied.

If you’re worried about colour matching, then if your dealer has a body shop or recommends a local 'panel basher', ask them if they can match a small pot up for you. I'm also aware of people who have used https://www.paints4u.com with success where High Street outlets have failed to match.

I know the paint code of the car, so as long the paint code of the kits match, I should be okay.

Imsensible wrote:

WhoseGeneration wrote:To put aside concerns about reliability and dealers, I have always thought that a true ADer could drive any car to its maximum potential.

Is that not what Roadcraft is about?

That most certainly isn't what Roadcraft is about. I doubt there are many on here who could truly drive any car to it's maximum potential, whatever that may be. Not even Stressed Dave, although I'm sure he'll have a formula, a graph and a story to show how close to perfect any given individual is

Roadcraft is about public road driving, safely and legally.
Some have to do that with exemptions, the majority without but both are ultimately subject to law.
Now, if we're talking competition, that is a different game.

Possibly mis-reading your post, but are you suggesting I don't know what Roadcraft is about?

Roadcraft isn't unique in this regard. The same could be said of the majority of the Highway Code and 'DVSA driving the essential skills' plus many other publications. None of which imply the ability to drive a car to it's "maximum potential". Perhaps SD will have a technical definition of that term, although I suspect it would be "driving like wot I duz"

I think I did in an earlier post, but for those too lazy to reach for the search button...

The controlling force on the road is the limit point. You cannot go around corners at the limit of adhesion as you won't have enough forward vision to be able to stop in the distance you can see to be clear. That limit equates to about 50% of the practical limit of your tyres. Of course you can go over that - indeed if your preparation for the corner is poor then you will go over that limit as you throw the car around to get it going where it ought.

Of course the number of people sufficiently skilled to consistently use that 50% is small. I'm not one of them...

Accelerating and braking are another matter. There's no issue with using all the power and all the braking in a straight line. That said, I find an ever increasing population of those with powerful cars suffering from ankle flexion problems. If you aren't prepared to give it all the berries, perhaps something a little less go might be more suitable, but as someone with insufficient berries, I would say that.

Similarly, very few people use full braking power frequently - at least in the AD community where thinking more than 3 picoseconds ahead is the order of the day.

I guess the way to look at it is:

1. You can't use the maximum capability of the car
2. You can optimise the road
3. You can use all the power and braking in a straight line but few choose to do so.

As for 'driving like wot I duz' - you've got to be kidding. I'm not sure even I should be driving like wot I duz.

For the sake of being argumentative. If you're only using 50% of the car's cornering potential, you're not using it to *it's* maximum potential. And if you used 100% braking and acceleration on the road often, the BiB might notice. Even if you're in a Skoda Octopus

Surely only road designers/builders can optimise the road? Drivers can optimise their driving style.

I thought you were the perfect driver? I suppose we should all drive like Triple S duz.

Imsensible wrote:I thought you were the perfect driver?

If you met and drove with StressedDave, you could make your mind up about that.

I'm wondering if you're Silk's alter ego ...

Imsensible wrote:For the sake of being argumentative.

Like every other post you've made on here? <not inserting smiley because I'm in significant pain this morning and not resorting to profanity in my posting should be seen as a significant win>

Imsensible wrote:If you're only using 50% of the car's cornering potential, you're not using it to *it's* maximum potential. And if you used 100% braking and acceleration on the road often, the BiB might notice. Even if you're in a Skoda Octopus

<grammar matters - I'm not a grocer>Using 100% of acceleration is easy and it's used a lot of the time. 100% braking might be noticed if they could keep up

Imsensible wrote:Surely only road designers/builders can optimise the road? Drivers can optimise their driving style.

This isn't a grammar competition - by optimise the road I mean make the ultimate use of said road in terms of driving using the limit point.

Imsensible wrote:I thought you were the perfect driver? I suppose we should all drive like Triple S duz.

I'm far from perfect. Every time I might think I'm walking on water, someone comes along and points out that I'm only paddling in the shallows.

Gareth wrote:

Imsensible wrote:I thought you were the perfect driver?

If you met and drove with StressedDave

He has! That's the "funny" part.