when I wash my car the paint on the lower doors and sills looks dusty when dry. if I wet it again it looks fine but then dusty when dry. is this the clear coat or just the paint needing a polish?

Sounds like the paint lacquer has come off. I think you will find if you polish it it will still be dull and rough to touch

Is it the whole section or just patches?  A picture or two could help here if you can add some.

If the whole lower section, it's probably tar and fallout and would just need claying to bring it back.  If it's patches on slightly convex areas then it could be the 'sandblasting' effect from road grit at speed and would need a heavy polish to bring back.

these photos show the sand blasting which is around the area in question. I'll have to take some photos of the actual "dusty" area

Yeah that's the sandblasting...need a very heavy polish or possibly even wet-sand to remedy that.  Was a known fault on MK2.5s, front mud flaps helped a bit but too late for yours of course.

yeah I was annoyed when I bought the car then noticed all the chips. howcome other mk2s I look at seem fine?

12 hours ago, Jason87 said:

yeah I was annoyed when I bought the car then noticed all the chips. howcome other mk2s I look at seem fine?

You're just not looking closely enough maybe?  Or they're low mileage, town drivers only or have mudflaps.  Mine came with mudflaps from new and was considerably less chipped than my mates with the same mileage.