Nissan 370Z Forum - View Single Post

flashburn · 10-27-2009, 08:54 PM

So about a day after I picked up my car (from a dealer about 120 miles away), I noticed some sort of imperfections with the clearcoat. They are very small, most of them under 1/4", ranging in different shapes, but hard to see unless the light is hitting it just right.

I immediately called the dealer I bought it from, and they were basically like "bring it back to us so we can look at it". Before I took that route, I decided to take it to a local dealer and see what they thought. Almost immediately after they noticed it, they said that it was tree sap, and that a claybar and wax would take care of it. I took it home, clay bared and wax a portion of it, and saw no improvement.

Then I took it to another dealer and they looked at it for a much longer time. They used some sort of microscope to look at the paint. Finally they thought that it was either hard water stains, or that something was eating at the clearcoat, or both, and that basically I'd have to get the original dealer to service it.

Finally, I took it back to the dealer and had the service manager there look at it. They took it back, and circled all the spots, probably about 20-30 of them throughout the hood, roof, and back areas, that they could see at least. He said that it looked like the clearcoat is blistering, and of course eventually those blisters will pop and then it will spread. The next step he said was that he needed to contact this Nissan paint engineer of some sort from out of state, and try to get him some pictures and explain to him what it looked like, so they could decide on what exactly is the problem, and what the solution might be.

The service manager said that if it is blistering (which he thinks it is), then the only way to fix it would be to completely sand down the car and repaint and reclearcoat it. Right now, I am still waiting for him to find out from this paint guy whether he needs more pictures, or is going to send someone to diagnose the problem. It's been almost a week since I brought it to them, and nothing much has happened.

I called Nissan corporate on Friday to open up some sort of report about this, and hopefully get a quicker resolution. They had a regional service rep call on Monday, he left a message basically saying that he was going to contact the dealer and then would call me back Wednesday.

This entire thing has been a huge pain in the *** and a headache for me. I wanted to get a clearbra installed on the entire front end of the car, but I of course can't until this is resolved. In the mean time, my front bumper probably has gotten about 10 rock chips/knicks on it.

Anyway, just looking for anyone's thoughts or opinions about this. Hopefully I will know more tomorrow. I'm really just afraid of having to have the entire car repainted. Should I be? Should that even be an acceptable solution? I'd share pictures if I could, but they are so hard to see, I would need a better camera in order for them to be seen.

10-27-2009, 08:54 PM	#1 (permalink)
flashburn A True Z Fanatic Join Date: May 2009 Location: Central Florida Posts: 1,884 Drives: '12 Corvette GS 6M Rep Power: 18	My clearcoat is blistering!!! So about a day after I picked up my car (from a dealer about 120 miles away), I noticed some sort of imperfections with the clearcoat. They are very small, most of them under 1/4", ranging in different shapes, but hard to see unless the light is hitting it just right. I immediately called the dealer I bought it from, and they were basically like "bring it back to us so we can look at it". Before I took that route, I decided to take it to a local dealer and see what they thought. Almost immediately after they noticed it, they said that it was tree sap, and that a claybar and wax would take care of it. I took it home, clay bared and wax a portion of it, and saw no improvement. Then I took it to another dealer and they looked at it for a much longer time. They used some sort of microscope to look at the paint. Finally they thought that it was either hard water stains, or that something was eating at the clearcoat, or both, and that basically I'd have to get the original dealer to service it. Finally, I took it back to the dealer and had the service manager there look at it. They took it back, and circled all the spots, probably about 20-30 of them throughout the hood, roof, and back areas, that they could see at least. He said that it looked like the clearcoat is blistering, and of course eventually those blisters will pop and then it will spread. The next step he said was that he needed to contact this Nissan paint engineer of some sort from out of state, and try to get him some pictures and explain to him what it looked like, so they could decide on what exactly is the problem, and what the solution might be. The service manager said that if it is blistering (which he thinks it is), then the only way to fix it would be to completely sand down the car and repaint and reclearcoat it. Right now, I am still waiting for him to find out from this paint guy whether he needs more pictures, or is going to send someone to diagnose the problem. It's been almost a week since I brought it to them, and nothing much has happened. I called Nissan corporate on Friday to open up some sort of report about this, and hopefully get a quicker resolution. They had a regional service rep call on Monday, he left a message basically saying that he was going to contact the dealer and then would call me back Wednesday. This entire thing has been a huge pain in the *** and a headache for me. I wanted to get a clearbra installed on the entire front end of the car, but I of course can't until this is resolved. In the mean time, my front bumper probably has gotten about 10 rock chips/knicks on it. Anyway, just looking for anyone's thoughts or opinions about this. Hopefully I will know more tomorrow. I'm really just afraid of having to have the entire car repainted. Should I be? Should that even be an acceptable solution? I'd share pictures if I could, but they are so hard to see, I would need a better camera in order for them to be seen.