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

I have a couple of what I think are stone chips in the paint of my fron bumper.

Guess I better keep an eye on this. :(

That doesn't sound good... I have never liked GM paint, my GP has chips in it and I have never drove it of the pavment!

A couple of questions:
Did you have any dealer clearcoat / protection applied?
Have you washed / waxed / polished the car yet?
Can you post pic's so we can see what you've got?

Just curious so maybe we can help avoid this for the rest of us.
Thanks,
Dan

Originally posted by rschumacherfan1@Mar 15 2004, 02:41 PM
A couple of questions:
Did you have any dealer clearcoat / protection applied?
Have you washed / waxed / polished the car yet?
Can you post pic's so we can see what you've got?

Just curious so maybe we can help avoid this for the rest of us.
Thanks,
Dan
Put the clearcoat on but wish I hadn't. I have Zainoed the car three times so far and it looks great however my camera broke and I don't have any pictures yet.
:ph34r: :ph34r:

Dan - sorry I didn't get back to you sooner - been working.

Now to up date the situation - took the car to the dealers on Thursday.

The bad news is that the clear coat seems to have problems. Have a peel issue and small white dots in several spots (I call them pin holes). 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. In fact I just got done washing it today - no further spots are showing.

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

As respects your questions:

1) The dealer didn't apply any protection - but I don't think that would have helped since they would have applied it over the factory clear coat that had problems and so it would still come off;

2) The car has been washed several times - I use a natural sea sponge and Pinacle car shampoo. It has been waxed once using Pinacle also. Except for the problem areas the car shines like not tomorrow;

I will try and get some pictures on the digital (the digital camera is acting screwy - I am sure my son did something to it) and post them. I want some pics also for reference and any future issues.

For the inevitable stone chips - I ordered a paint pen today for both the base & clear coat at paintscratch.com - they already had the GTO colors. 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).

While this whole paint issue is a pain - I love the car otherwise - how do you like it Tails & Dan?

Steve

I work in the paint shop here at the Janesville truck assembly plant. If the "pin holes" are what I think, they are called thinner pop or boil and are from applying too much paint to the car. The only way to eliminate thinner pop is to sand the paint all the way to the metal and then px and re-paint. If this isn't done it will be back. Adhesion problems (paint pealing) is usually from one of two problems. Either there wasn't enough clear coat applied and UV rays have gotten through to the ELPO causing it to turn to chalk and delaminate (probably not your problem given the thinner pop) or there was a defect sanded out of the paint (down to the metal) and the car was repainted w/o being properly P/X'd (primed). It sounds to me like the factory probably saw the thinner boil (pop), tried to fix it by sanding it off but didn't get all of it and what they did get they didn't get primed good enough before painting. The way to check for sure is to have the dealer check the film build on the car with an Elcometer. I'm not totaly sure what the film specs are on the gto but if the total build is much over about 6 mils you can be sure it has been repainted at least once.

cjlannoy - thanks for the advice - I will pass the advice onto the dealer so that we get it right the first time otherwise this could be a long painful process and screw up what otherwise is a good experience with the car.