What about a vinyl wrap??.....you can choose ANY color and it will cost about $2500

i thought you're not supposed to wipe your car with a new towel. Most of them say to wash it before using.

Oh, wow! Excellent summary of your research.

Unsubscribing.:stirthepot:

What can I say? I have an OCD problem, at least I admit it.

Are you guys saying that these scratches, nicks, etc. wouldnt bother you?

Wow,:gtfo2:

What I want to know is that why Nissan has yet to address this paint problem. You would think the biggest fault for the Z cars would be fixed but nope...

they do, but we have learned to let it go. if you dont do the same you will find yourself in a padded white room, growing out your fingernails and peeing in empty glass jars.....

effin amazing. what a stud.

OCD is a psychological disorder. Admitting that you're Fckd up is the first step. Personally I'd seek counseling, and sell the car as it sure isn't helping. Should solve the problems..

If you don’t want any scratches or nicks…………….don’t drive it, leave it parked in the garage!

I was frustrated with the paint issues too on my BLACK Z, and it's only been 2 months since i bought her.

I happened to stop by Porsche dealer (next to my workplace) during lunch time, and I browsed a couple of their brand new $100K carreras. Let me tell you, i looked carefully at their paints then compared to my Z, I think their paints were sprayed by some high school kids or something. You won't believe how many bumps and scratches on their paints that i found.

After that, i don't feel so bad about the black paint on my Z now. It looks way better than the porsches.

Also if I were too OCD, i would spend $1500 and wrap the entire Z in clear bra. I dont see a reason why you would want to sell it.

Orange Peel is present in all production cars. Apparently it is due to the EPA regulations and being more Green. The paints of years past did not cause orange peel but they were felt to harm the environment. That is why even high end cars have orange peel today. The other factor is cost and building to a price point. If you applied good paint then wet sanded it down between coats and then applied several other coats with sanding then you could take much of the peel out however, this is labor intensive and will not happen unless you pay for a good paint job. Given that, do as suggested and detail your car and learn to live with the life choce of a black car or have it repainted or sell it.

Exactly! Someone recently suggested I just sell my car and *just buy a Nismo* cuz I slapped on a NISMO badge on the rear and got some used Nismo wheels... :happydance:

I want a blue car with a Nismo body kit and rims. Period. I'm not going to buy a brand new Nismo and repaint it. I'm not rich and I don't want the hassles of repainting a brand new car. Not worth it.

When the swirls are gone after the detail, you still will have sand or pebble chips. What I am saying is that if the paint "itself" is too thin or not durable enough, you will continue to have issues. It is the nature or the physics of the molecules!!!

You don't expect a Hundai to drive as fast as a Bugatti, correct? What I am saying is that if you want ultra high performance durable and perfect paint, pay for it.

This - you'll lose more if you take the sellers hit

I understand the OCD with a black car. I used to have a 2001 Corvette that was red -- almost as bad as black -- and I never drove the damned thing because I was so afraid of damaging the paint. I also had a black Mazda CX-7 that looked awesome when clean but terrible otherwise and I just let that one go. Both of these cars are a large part of the reason why I went with a Brilliant Silver Z. You can barely see swirl marks (if even at all) and the paint looks great even when the car's dirty. Now I can enjoy driving my car and sleep well at night. :)

All this being said, I've been pleasantly surprised with the Majestic Blue paint on my '08 Altima. The car has 32K miles on it and other than the front bumper (which is loaded with rock chips from highway driving) it looks great. There's nary a swirl mark or scratch and any other rock chips are minor and are simply a result from highway driving. From more than five feet away the car looks spectacular and even when you're closer than that you really have to look to see the flaws. If my Z fares this well I'll be in hog heaven!

Take a deep breath man. From what I can tell, your "damage" is limited to a scrape on your grill, chips, and some scratches in the paint (which I've learned are inevitable with black). That being said, your Z is probably in better condition than 99% of the Z's on here. I might lend this more credence if you were posting about someone hitting your car , getting keyed, etc. But honestly, you are ahead of the game at this point.

Trust me, I KNOW how hard it can be to own a black car and how tough the roads in the Philly area can be, but just try to enjoy it.

True......there's really only one chip on the car that is semi-bad. The rest are small and are primarily on the fender arches. If the paint wasn't so thin on the hood I would just repair everything and get the clear bra, that's not an option though. I guess I'm just going to have to learn to get over this little stuff.

a brand new microfiber towel or anything doesnt reduce scratches if you are not cleaning the car of debris properly. sounds to me. you have washed/waxed your car with debris still between the paint and the cloth.

have you tried claybarring your car.

Mate you chose black. learn how to wash properley, wax/seal properley and do not drive close to cars in front of you. At 100km/h you should be approx 50 metres behind the car in front of you to minimise chips. Choosing silver or grey would have been better.

Due to EPA etc cars paint has changed not just the Zed, stop whining. Go to Autopia website to learn correct washing/waxing techniques.

The swirls I can deal with, it's the chips that really get me. I have none on the front bumper and just a few on the hood. The majority of them are in the wheel arches and on the fenders.

I'm glad you posted this thread man. I picked up my black 370 just a few months ago and I already have several chips. Nothing huge, more like tiny little specks, but they are almost in the exact same spots you mentioned. It's crazy how easily this car chips. Now I'm not as OCD as you, haha, but it still bothers me. Crazy thing is there are some owners on here who couldn't care less howany chips they get.

I was going to say the paint is annoying but I can live with it

after reading through this thread I think OP should just bubble wrap the car

It really sounds like you should never buy a black car. My 350Z was black, so I can speak from experience. Get a clear bra or just accept the paint chips will happen. The swirl marks will need to buff out every few months. If you are really serious about selling the car because of this, then maybe you should think about getting a new paint job.

Nissan paint sucks, I've accepted that for a while now. My 6 month old 370 has more paint chips than my bro's IS250 which is 2-3 years old.

Not a single chip on mine at 5200 miles, but mine has also been repainted from the doors forward including some quality clear coat.... The Black does seem to be the worst for this according to anecdotes here...

http://images53.fotki.com/v425/photo...MG_1930-vi.jpg

The OP forgot to mention that this is the road in front of his house.....


http://www.ganeshafoundation.org/ima...%20Darmaji.jpg

well I have 17K miles on mine and a 3 day trip from GA to TX in it. Ihave maybe 2 or 3 very small chips on the hood and thats it. I had maybe 2 on the bumper but that was repainted cuz a large piece of road debrie hit and scratch it. The bumper looks much better now after the new paint than it did before in stock paint. So I guess it depends on the type of roads you drive on and I think my bumper and Modshacks paint proves that a paint job done by someone good looks better than stock. $120 for my bumper to fix and paint.

But if you are not satidifed throw the car down and cliff and be done with it.

I also have none on my bumper and only a few on the hood. The main area is the arches/wheel well area. I'm mainly trying to determine if that's normal and if they are worth fixing.

Of course it's normal! Don't you hear the cacophony of rocks and other crap that gets picked up and thrown at the wheel wells/rocker panels by the sticky summer tires? You seriously need to let go. This isn't a Maserati you're driving, it's a Nissan for cripe sakes. Sure, it makes sense to do all you can to keep the car looking good, but chips and scrapes are gonna happen if you drive the car.

If you really want to make your head explode look under the car closely at the rocker panels. I have about 1300 miles on my Z and mine are already chipped all to hell. Once it becomes noticeable at more than five feet away I'll just get 'em repainted.

Remember, everything can be fixed. Just wait until it's worth it to do the fixing!

I just love the fact that you used the word, cacophony! you word smith you! Also if you could work in the word padantic in your next post I would lose my sh*t! :tup:

Here is a pic of what I'm talking about, you can see the white specs.

http://www.the370z.com/members/z-whi...3285-photo.jpg

I wonder that myself. I'm not sure about other Nissan vehicles, but piss poor paint quality has been an issue on the Zs for years going back to the 350.

Its actually quite common in the detailing community to measure paint thickness prior to doing heavy paint correction...

Check out autopia.org if you want detailing tips Z-WHIZ. Plenty of profressional detailers, and enthusiasts. Some extremely OCD with their car detailing. :hello:

Don't get a budget paint job...you won't be happy. First lesson learned, Don't ever buy a black car!

Photoshopped!

Doktor, vee are makingz zee progress! Be ready for dinner! Those who are tardy do not get fruit cup!

Uh oh, now you've done it.:stirthepot:

Not sure how common they are or not, but I have a few of those chips as well fwiw.

Bwahaha! I've had "cacophony" in my hip pocket for months then, BAM, I was able to whoop it out! :tiphat:

And not to hate, but it's "pedantic," not "padantic." :owned: :icon17:

Some interesting stuff on there, thanks for the suggestion.

There is this stuff called Flitz Polish. It took bird crap stains out of my paint. The stuff is awesome.