Some new Z06 owners are getting a reality check with paint

[TooMuchBoost]

Apparently its pretty common to tear up the front bumper on the new vette's which is no big deal right? Just take it to the local body shop....

The problem is many of the new vette's have 3-stage candy paint jobs on them meaning you spray the car first with a color like white or black then spray the candy color like blue or red over that then clearcoat. In addition some of these new colors like the 08 Blue aren't only 3 stage candy colors but they also have color shifting pigments in them that make the color change depending on the light and angle in which its viewed.

Candy has been around forever and color shifting pigments have been around since the 96 Cobra so what's the problem?

These new primadonna owners only want their new bumpers panel-painted on their $80K toy meaning no adjacent panel gets color blended onto it to help with the matching aka blending. Body shops are learning the hard way it's next to impossible to panel paint some of these colors and get a quality match.

I had a Chevy dealer in FL tell me yesterday he painted a 3 stage red Z06 bumper 3 times before the owner accepted the match. Then the owner knocks the bumper off again and they told him either they are blending onto adjacent panels or he can take it somewhere else. They blended it.

Today I was in a local shop going through the same crap but with the 08 Blue Color Shifting Candy and not only does this owner insist on painting the bumper only but the basecoat, which is oem DuPont but only available through Sherwin Williams at the moment, is $350 PER PINT! The SW rep has been in there for 2 days trying to tint the color to a panel-paintable match to no avail while the owner has been raising cain. The current bill for paint materials only is $600!

Needless to say park away from these new vettes the next time you take the kids to Wal-Mart.LOL

 

['strokeThis_'07]

Yea, thats how alot of the Cadillacs are, and some Pontiacs too. Even blending you dont get a perfect match, its impossible. We had a Cady in the shop I used to work in and it was painted like 4 or 5 times. A little ding in the middle of the door that coulda been painted by blending to the doors edge on a typical color, turned out to being a third of the car painted...both drivers doors, quarter panel, fender, hood, trunk, front and rear bumpers. Then of course the bumpers and hood/trunk didnt match the passenger side doors, fender, and quarter. I think that side got painted to match the drivers side a week later, but to this day that car is two different colors. One side will have a greenish hue to the white, and the rest will have a purpleish hue to it!!

 

[BgBlDodge]

NY Times article:
"DURABLE CARBON FIBER Lightweight body panels with the carbon fiber weave visible through a clear protective coat were this year’s coolest fashion statements. But without a coat of paint to block ultraviolet radiation, the panels will yellow and peel apart after years in the sun.

To head off that problem on the 2009 Corvette ZR1, G.M.’s paint engineers developed proprietary resin and clear-coat formulations tough enough to survive under Arizona’s glaring sun. According to Tadge Juechter, assistant chief engineer of the Corvette, a crucial ingredient used in the clear-coated carbon fiber costs G.M. $60,000 a gallon."


[sigh]

Gold is a crucial ingredient used on all sorts of connectors within the ZR1 electronics. (Of course, it is also used in a Hyundai.) Gold is ~ $870 /troy oz. ...

1 us gallon = 3785 cc
3785cc gold = 156 us lb
or 899751 grains
@ $1.81 $/grain
Total $1,630,799 dollars


I reckon it's ~ $1,630,799.00 per fluid 'gallon', for something that is routinely used all through any car.

Um, wow.

 

[Lucky Jeff]

the clear on the new ZR1's fake carbon fiber pieces (like the b pillars and such, where they couldn't use real carbon fiber).. is 60k a gallon. Just for the clear. I guess in the past many have had a problem with fading and such on the fake carbon fiber stuff.

 

[CL2000]

Look at 90% of cars with plastic bumbers they dont match. if the car goes to a shop that has half of clue about mixing paint and doing spray outs and tinting. Its not a big deal. i do have colors that will get me some times but PPG has a pretty good tech line and alt. formulas if there is a prob.

 

[Blue01F250]

usually, when going from a plastic or rubber type bumper to a metal fender/hood, you won't have a perfect match, not even from the factory!

hell, the insurance company I used to work for would'nt allow blending from a bumper b/c of that reason -- all has to do with the different bases/materials that alter the color just slightly..

and Hyundai's also have 3-stage paints like Caddy's and high end cars...