why does no one talk about magnetic L plates damaging car paint work??

[Crackalac]

the magnetic L plates have taken the shine off my daughter's car. I have looked online/in forums and there are people saying the same.bbut all the replies are along the lines of...'the rest of the car has faded' or 'moisture is trapped'. presumably these responders passed their test a while ago and haven't seen what people are taking about...the shiny surface has been removed, leaving squares of dulled paintwork

does anyone here know what I mean/why isn't this well known/how to bloody fix it without an expensive respray?? 😭😭😭

I don’t think it affects enough people for it to be a hot topic but f conversation. I knew about it 30 years ago though, so not new.

t-cut should fix it.

I never noticed that happening with ours. I'm on my second child learning to drive too.

no! tcut won't fix it. I feel like id you t cut this it would take more shiny surface off. maybe the fault is in the original paintwork of the car....it's as if is has a layer of shine over dull paint. maybe I'll take a photo to show you what I mean

Didn't happen to ours but we didn't leave them on all the time. Put them on before a DD drove, took them off when we got home or parked, mostly so they didn't get pinched. 2 DDs learned to drive, no issue with paintwork. Still got the same car 7 years later.

Yes we take ours off straight away too.

I don't think we had magnetic ones 30 years ago, did we?? I learned to drive late 80s and we didn't then

Same here, just put them in to drive.

Stick anything on your car for a long period and it will affect the paintwork.

Not noticed anything here either but we always take them off straight away too so they are never on for more than an hour or so, that was the whole point of getting magnetic ones, I don't want to drive around with them on.

You're not supposed to leave them on all the time. I keep ours in the boot and use when needed.

Same here, they get out on when the LEARNER is driving. As far as I'll aware anyone else shouldn't be driving with L plates, happy to be corrected.

Never had this issue, plates wouldn't be on for any more than an hour so maybe that was why it was okay?

In the list of all the things a learner driver could do to your car, it probably rates quite low.

I had magnetic plates in the mid 90s. I think car paint has changed.

DD has recently passed and we had no issue.
Weekly ever had them on when she was driving.

I had magnetic plates but they flew off over about 40mph so had to get a different type!

Had me and 2x dd2 all learnt and never had a problem with them.

It is probaby road dirt and grime which has been pushed under the plate while driving, built up, then being aggitated and scuffing the paint. as others have said the L plates should be removed and also ensure car/plate is clean before using again.

a t cut and polish might do it, but you might need to do full panel to blend in.

Surely you only put the L plates on when your DD drives the car? Then take them off at the end of the drive? Obviously anything left on the car long term would cause some damage as water and dirt etc would likely get trapped etc

Yes, the ones I had in the 80s did that but they were floppy with little magnets in the corners. I’d forgotten about that . The ones we have now are a full sheet of much stiffer magnetic material.

Hasnt affected ours. On my second child too. But he takes them off and puts them in the boot.

Used magnetic L plates for both my DC and never had an issue.We only put on the plates if DC were driving.They stayed in the glove compartment the rest of the time.

it was her own car, not mine!

ah ok, so it seems it is a user problem!! 😬 we kept them on all the time because she had bought her own car. she did all the driving everywhere whilst she was learning, for practice. so we never took them off. lesson learned!

This happened to me too, 12 years ago the whole thing of them were magnetic. We had to turn around and go and get it 😂, we put a strip of masking tape on the top and bottom edge of the front one after that.

I had magnetic L plates in the late 80s. They didn't damage the car paintwork, but I took them off when I wasn't driving, they were never on for very long.