[rushhour]

:drink: This sucks -I noticed a week or so ago a few chips in the paint. Thought it was stone chips - since was mainly the nose. Washed the car again today and a bunch more have appeared. The chips are no bigger then a 1/32 of an inch and I have over a dozen of them in different areas of the car (ie top of front & rear fender, hood etc). If these are stone chips - this car is awfully fragile - if not (and from the looks of them I don't think the majority are) the paint didn't adhere properly.

I also have a 3 inch section on the leading edge of the headlight where the paint is chiping off in a 1/8 wide intermittent strip. This is weird - the car only has 500 miles on it and on driven on paved roads.

I have just called the dealership and left a message to call me back - they have been really good so I assume they will let me know if this is an issue elsewhere.

Has anyone else experienced this? I maybe noticing it more since the car is black.

I sold a 1991 Black Z28 for this car and while it had it's share of chips - the car had 13 years on it.

Hope this is not an issue with pre work down under - if it is this could be a major problem

 

[Tails]

I have about 1700 miles on mine and I do not see that problem. I do have a couple of road dings. They are where you expect them down near the rocker panel where rocks would be kicked up from the tires.

 

[COSMO GUY]

Rush Hour, 180 miles on my Cosmo Purple. Nothing as yet. Just the usual bugs.

Sorry to hear about the paint. Hope the dealer can make good.. Cosmo

 

[maghut]

Last time I washed my car I noticed a few of spots like you are mentioning. Mine car is black also. I am wait to see if anymore appear. Based on the location and also the appearance I am sure mine are not stone chips.

 

[speed_demon_freak]

I got them on the rear bumper where the bumper meets the area around the main body.

 

[rushhour]

Just got back from the dealers.

The bad news is that the clear coat seems to have problems. Have a peel issue and small white dots in several spots. Really shows up since the car is black.

The good news is that there is no issue on the warranty side - they are going to repaint the front bumper, hood & left front fender. They just want me to run it a little longer before they paint to make sure that they get all of the problems at one time. I only have about 500 miles on the car right now - so they want me to bring it back at the 2000 mile mark. It will get several washings during that period - so if it is going to all go bad - it should show up.

It is nice having a reliable dealer, who is easy on the nerves.

 

[ColoradoGoat]

I noticed a small spot about the size of a pin head yesterday on my hood. Will keep an eye out for anything else. Thanks for the info rushhour.

 

[tommycap30]

Keep in mind not that it's an excuse ,but these cars are painted by robots>In your case the paint peeling is serious.But for dirt in the paint I recommend that you leave it alone because the worlds best painter will not be able to match the factiry finish and it will never be the same.I'm referring to the finish itself not the color match.I've sold cars with paint defects that ended up being a nightmare after trying to fix them by repainting.Don't hesitate to call GM if this becomes a recurring problem.We haven't had any issues with the one we sold or the two that we have now,but there's always a first.Good luck.I hope everything works out and your happy with the end result

 

[350goodreasons]

I have the same issue on my black GTO, it is on the upper part of the front fender and i was really surprised by that as didn't used nor wash my car the week they appeared. I was ready to blame my cat but now it looks like to be a widespread issue

Rushhour what did you have to do to convince the dealer that is a paint defect not an accident ?

 

[rushhour]

Tommycap30 - thanks for the advise. I agree on the matching issue 100% - had a problem in the past with a Black Z28 (acid rain) - while the difference in finish was not obvious you could see it if you looked real close. If it was only a few small pin holes - no big issue - I would have just gotten a paint pen (already ordered) and hit it enough to cover the white/grey undercoat - worst case then would have been a small indentation in the paint - no color issues.

350goodreasons - there were no impact marks on the car so I didn't have to do anything. The head of service looked at the car with their paint guy and they just turned to me and said - yep the paint/clear coat had some problems and they would repaint the areas in question. They just wanted me to drive it for a while to see if these were the only areas. This dealer has been great so far on everything involving the car.

O'h well - I was wrong - dealer is now on my sh*t list - see below

 

[mlc]

I also have a black car but have not seen any problem with the paint. I have 1800 mile and lots of washing because of this weather. I hope it's not wide spread. Like other problems posted you usually only here the bad stuff. Good luck.

Rushhour, where did you order the paint pen from? I'd like to order one also.

 

[GTO/GTP]

I would tend to be suspect of the entire car. I had a similar issue after I had a car repainted after extensive hail damage. About a year after the paint job some of the top surfaces (i.e. roof & hood) started to look kind of mottled and noticeably less shiny then the rest of the car. After a while the entire top surface of the car showed this look to some extent. Insurance company paid to have it repainted because I had used their recommended facility the first time. I would look at all the top surfaces (hood, trunk (boot ) and roof) closely for evidence of more of the same. I do think it's a good diea to wait a while to make sure you get all effected areas repaired.

Shawn

 

[rushhour]

GTO/GTP - I agree with you - if the paint or prep was bad in one area - all areas should be equally bad. That is one of the reasons the Dealer wants me to run it a while. The one area we know where it won't pop up is the rear bumber - which was changed due to damage in transit.

Mic - the paint pens (base coat & clear coat) were ordered at paintscratch.com about $27 total, I also ordered a paint leveler (for lack of a better term) from Langka.com to knock the blob down and smooth it once the paint dries (no sanding). Hope this helps.

While the car has been a pain appearance wise - I still enjoy the hell out of it.

 

[Orange69Goat]

Acid Rain!?!?!?!

...had a problem in the past with a Black Z28 (acid rain) - ....
Not to bust your bubble, but the General's 'acid rain' defense doesn't wash with me. I think the General, like the other mfrs. changed their Paint process to appease the EPA. Basically, I think they skipped a couple operations with at new fangled paint. Obviously something was wrong with the app. or just a bad mix. Bottom line, IMHO, The General was staring down the barrel of a major warranty fix and picked a current concern of the times..Acid Rain. Peeling, flaking paint from the factory appeared all of a sudden the disappeared just as quickly. Did the acid rain do the same? I think not. Cars built a year before and after had no problems (apparently). If this problem you are discussing currently is wide spread, get your car painted under warranty early before they drag out the Acid Rain or RU486, terrorism or what ever other excuse they can come up with.

 

[FLORIT]

...leave it alone because the worlds best painter will not be able to match the factiry finish...

If I had several areas of my car with paint defects, I would want the whole car repainted. Maybe a dealer's paint crew can't match a factory finish, but surely someone in town could do a top quality job.

Help me understand what you mean by "factory finish". Are you talking about the depth of the paint? Hardness? Layers of clear coat?

These things cannot be duplicated outside the factory?

 

[mistermike]

IMHO the factory finish is OK, but far from the best I've ever seen. Plenty of orange peel. After a couple of year's worth of chips and dings, I'll get it properly repainted with wet sanding, buffing, etc.

 

[rushhour]

Okay boys - now for an update.

Called the dealer this morning to set up a date to have all the clear coat blemishes/flaking fixed. I waited this long to get it fixed - due to the fact I was told that their body shop would not be ready until late September - now mind you - they agree that the paint/clearcoat is defective. The length of time didn't bother me - since the bad spots are not hideous.

I was told that they/the dealer are not setting up a body shop and will continue to farm out the work. Okay so far - I don't care as long as it gets fixed. Now for the zinger - their sub contractor refuses to shoot the GTO's due to problems matching the paint. Service manager told me I need to find a GM dealer with an inhouse body shop. I was waitng for him to offer some help in this endeavor - all I got was a possible name of a shop 30 miles from me - ouch. No offer to help get this issue resolved with another dealer.

So after thinking some unholy thoughts - sorry Padre, I calmed down and decided that this was GM's mess to fix. Fired off an email to customer relations requesting a name and place to do the work - plus help greasing the skids. I don't want to waste a day going up to a dealer (I work in NYC, but live in central Jersey) show him what is wrong and then have to bring it back on another day to drop off. Let's face it - the "new" dealer is not going to out of his way to help me, since he didn't sell me the car.

Now lets see what GM comes back with.

As an aside - my wife wants a new car - she likes the G6. No problem there - except my former dealer ain't getting the sale. Depending on GM's response - they may also miss a sale.

I don't think this is a problem for a lot of the cars. Mine was one of the first off the line and is just probably a fu*kup, nothing more. I am happy with the rest of the car.

 

[Thanatos]

You are not alone. My cars paint is equally messed up.

 

[rushhour]

Okay - my faith in Pontiac is returning. Just had a Pontiac customer rep call (less then 24hrs after email to GM - not Pontiac). She is calling the dealer to confirm that we (meaning me & him) agreed that the paint needed to be fixed way back in March. Now given the length of time - he could well have forgotten - but I told him to put into the computer back then. Plus, the last time I took it in for servicing in August - I had it on my written list for the dealer to set up an appointment to fix the paint (also was on my Pontiac survey that I sent back to them).

Once they are done with the questioning, we are all going to have a conference call. Already set up a time tomorrow.