2010 370Z clear coat paint problems???
 

has anyone out there have probs with their paint on this year's model? I have small round areas on trunk and hood that a few body shops have told me is possibly tree sap contaminants that has eaten thru and cracked clear coat-maybe thru to paint. These body shops are telling me the only way to fix this is to repaint the car.
:shakes head::shakes head::shakes head::shakes head::shakes head:
i dont have trees at my house and the car is under cover at night-in a garage by day.
the clear coat adjuster is telling me they will pay to sand off the clear coat and re clear coat it-but not repaint it. Does this ever look good????

the car was purchased in april and has 1900 miles on it. :eek:

everyone!

I have a couple of small clear coat bubbles on the rear bumper. The body shop manager suggested not to repaint, even though I could request for a repaint under warranty. He said the heat caused the clear coat to bubble and that it could settle with cooler temperatures. I don't know if he was BSing me but he said it's hard to match factory paint jobs and he also said that they would probably have to repaint the rear bumper a couple of times before I would be satisfied. I'm still thinking about it because it's not noticeable, it's way down the rear bumper just in front the rear tire on the driver's side. You'd have to know where it is to see it. Has anyone noticed the clear coat and paint on the 370Zs are relatively soft? I was detailing my car the other day and I accidently put too much pressure on the paint and it left a "scratch" mark with the cloth. Of course I should have not have used my finger nail to detail the tight spot but used an old toothbrush instead. Lesson learned ... the hard way.

I don't have any issues yet but I will be watching. I have heard that the clearcoat is soft and my limited experience with it so far would seem as such. When I bought it I asked that it not be detailed because I was afraid what they would do to the clear. There were already water spot circles on the hood (could not be removed by washing) from sitting on the lot. I removed them carefully with a non abrasive polish by hand. Currently, there aren't any other blemishes that I am aware of.

That being said, matching a brand new paint job should not be difficult for any quality shop. The spoiler that I purchased matches perfectly to my Black Cherry paint and was pre-painted when it came in.

If I had/have defects that were covered under warranty, they would/will be fixing them... until they got it right. I still have the majority of the original paint on my 21 year old TwinTurbo and even though it is far from perfect, it has held up very well. There is really no excuse for paint defects out of the gate with the paint and application technology available today.

update-bubbles in clear coat/paint
 

today i took the car to another body shop-this guy said the car should be repainted-that the paint and clear coat is soft-thin. He said that no body shop can match the hardness of factory paint becase there they can bake it on with higher temps since the car is not assembled yet. His paint would be softer. So-frustrated now with all this and my car has been in a garage/under a custom car cover too-i went to the dealer. I drove to the 370Z 's and started looking at the paint-they all had hard water spots and swirls. But i did not see any bubbles. then my salesguy came out-End result>I left the car there for the boss who is flying in tomorrow so he can see it. I want at the least the whole car repainted. Better thing would be if they exchanged this car for a new one.

Best of luck! I hope they find a resolution that meet you satisfaction. Please keep us informed of you progress.

I found bird droppings leave marks on the clear-coat similar to what you describe. Particularly if the bird has the runs, it tends to leave all these tiny bubbles in the clear which won't come off.

had spots on the hood .dealer put on brand new hood

I have a few lines on the back of the car that I showed the dealer when I bought it. He said that it is the clear coat. They are going to try and buff it out. If it doesn't come out.....They will be painting it. I'm surprised that so many of us are finding this. Did they produce too many at once? I have a 40th edition I found out yesterday that I got number 812 of the 1000. If anyone figures out this clear coat thing....... give a pm.

Soft coatings on a surface tha is observed at random on the surface is due to uncatalyzed or undercured coating. Improper mixing or curing will produce such a coating phenomena. the coating utilized by Nissan should have been tested for surface and evironmental testing to determine the durability of the coating they are using. I would go back to Nissan and have them fix this problem. My 2 cemts.

I had similar issues with my paint. There were problems between the paint and the clearcoat. Ultimately they repainted it and it came out better looking than the 370Z's with factory paint jobs that they had. Pretty much all of them had imperfections under the clearcoat (seen under a ton of fluorescent lights), but nothing as bad as my car.

If you do a search on my threads you'll see my epic story about it.

going to "tour" the shop where they are going to repaint the car...the owner told me he will email me pics of the process so I can rest assured the car is getting painted properly...
this whole thing has stressed me out...a new car with this price tag should not have to be repainted at three months of age. I know no matter what they say-the value of the car will go down. :shakes head:

Hang in there. You may be happier with the repaint than those of us without (so far at least). It is at least encouraging to me that they are willing to paint the whole car "properly".

If you haven't already gotten it, you should see if you can get a maintenance contract as compensation. It's the least they owe you. I got a 3 year maintenance contract for the headaches that I dealt with getting my car repainted.

The paint seems fragile, my Z came with a few major scratches and the dealer is repainting the car. I checked all the roadster Z on the lot and all of them had some scratches but none of the maxima's or other cars I checked had them which makes me think there is an issue with the factory Z paint.

Funny you should mention that. I have an associate that has a Maxima that is about 9 months old. I walked by it this morning an looked really closely because of this continuing saga.

He does not take care of it like most of us here do, it's black, and it looks great. No clear bra and no rock chips. Very few swirls condidering it isn't really babied. Kinda makes you wonder.

Yeah, that just confirms what everybody is seeing here. There is an issue on the 370Z paint. That sucks. We might have to confirm with a Nissan Rep that is if they will have the decency to tell us the truth.

Nonetheless I only have 350 miles on the car and it is much better than my 350Z. Much more torque, power at low RPM, better handling and I have not done any mods yet. I love the car. If only they could fix the few issues...

Your clear coat bubbles will disappear in cooler weather. I get them all the time when I park my '09 in direct sunlight. Usually only happens in July and August when temperatures in North Carolina reach the upper 90s. I still wrestle with whether to ask for a warranty repaint but since they are only there a couple of months a year I haven't pushed for it.

I've been having the same paint/finish problems being discussed here. I actually mentioned the not so good (ok, crappy) finish when buying the car and the dealer said 'don't worry, we'll take care of it'. Of course, no luck there. After another few months of detailing I got fed up and called Nissan...So far, all they've done is bounce me back to the dealer. I'm hoping for something, most likely a repaint since dealer has already tried re-polish, but no luck yet. I love the car but the paint and nissan/dealer customer service have been very disappointing.

Have you looked for the problem under fluorescent lighting? I bet they are still there. Mine were there no matter what. It doesn't really make sense that they would only appear in hot weather.

update
 

mine had little cracks under the bubbles. Most detailers and body shops said the same thing-pine tree sap or a corrosive drip while it was sitting waiting for transport to the dealer. when I bought it-i had the car get another clear coat-so it sealed it in.
i have gotten pics from the body shop where they have it down to the metal-i wait with trepidation for Friday when I have to go inspect it. I have just been getting the run around...but have held firm (hard for me to be a B- - - -).

any hints on what I should do when i go look at it? Look in any certain spots - i dont know...:confused:

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Just make sure you look at it under really good lighting. The best is lots of florescents, as the harsh lighting really shows any flaws off easily. From those pictures, it looks like inside that bay would be a good spot to do it in.

I'd go over the entire car closely looking for any sorts of imperfections. It should also have much less (or possibly none) orange peel than compared to a factory paint job on the Z.

For me, it took two trips back there and pointing out imperfections in the new clearcoat before they finally got it right. The main problem besides some orange peel in the new paint job was fisheye looking imperfections. Both of these issues were in the clearcoat, the paint itself came out great.

jeez-I prob go today and am nervous about missing anything. what if it is on the lot-:ughdance:sunlight ok or I should bring it inside? i think the body shop is bringing it back to the dealer since the dealer gave me a loaner car.:ughdance:

Demand that they pull it into their bay's where there is sufficient lighting. Don't compromise. Slight imperfections will be much harder to see in normal sunlight. Even though the car won't be where it was painted, their own service area should have sufficient lighting to look it over. If it doesn't then tell them you want to inspect it closer before accepting it... or better yet, ask to see it while its still at the paint shop.

well, I am still waiting on the car....
they pulled it outside while one piece was being painted. The bondo dust-whatever dust blew all into the inside ofthe car since the top was down.

:mad:

When I had the Kaminari wing painted and installed on my Z32TT, I stopped by the shop to see how things were going. The hood was propped open and all the shop dust was in my engine bay. It was like WTF, why do you have the hood open? Needless to say, it took two weekends to get it back where it was before.

Still got my fingers crossed for you! :ugh2:

Wow, pretty unbelievable that they didn't cover up the interior, I'd be livid. Have you called Nissan Corporate yet? If you need a direct contact, send me a PM.

I've seen it 3 times now on brand new stock units, seems to becoming a more and more common thing.

Yep, back when I was getting my paint issue resolved, we saw the same thing (but not as bad) on all of the 370's on the lot. They even said they saw the problem on a few Cube's. In all those cases though there were probably only 1-4 spots on each panel (metal only), versus mine which had them all over each panel (metal only still).

There must just be some "bad batches" out there, because there are many people on the forum that say theirs do not have any sort of clear coat issues, other than the normal (:() orange peel.

:hello: well-still waiting on the car....
I talked to an exec at Nissan this morning. The bondo dust INSIDE my car was the straw that broke the camel's back for me.
He wants me to pick up the car and call him immediately. he said since the spots are of unknown origin and we do not know when it happened....they cannot replace the car for me(i suggested they sell this one as a demo and give me a new one at this point). My attorney friend I have here in town said when you sign the contract from Nissan, you agree to their arbitration method, etc.
So-all i can do at this point is inspect the car when it is cleaned up-call this exec back and go from there. I see both sides of the story-just thing they should throw this dog a bone! LOL at least i still have a sense of humor....:roflpuke2:

Welcome to the family!
 

:mad:

It is too bad, but I am afraid the paint problem is an old one, and Nissan could not care to do anything about it. I have a 2005 convertible 350Z, with 34 K, . It is in the garage at night, and I take excellent care of it. While it was still under guarantee, I started seeing the same problems you describe. I took it to the dealer and they could not care less. I finally gave up. The paint on the Z is the softest paint I have ever seen in my life. I was hoping that Nissan would have cared to fix this by now, as I was hoping to get a 370, but it looks I will need to get my heart on a different maker (as much as I love the Z, I think it is not right to put such cheap type of painting on a $45 K car)

long story short-they repainted the whole car.i just picked it up.th body shop said it had a very thin clear coat on it and now it is like a big fat slice of cake with thick frosting...it is clean....just some orange peel

Glad it all turned out ok in the end...

K

Wow! What a process you went thru! Glad to hear it all turned out in the end. I am very jealous of your thick frosting....;)

awww...cute dog!

Yah these cars come with crappy paint. Glad to hear that everything turned out okay for you. Mine has a spot of peeling clear coat between the two fangs. It's at the dealership getting its bumper repainted right now. I hope its going well.

I bought a 2010 Maxima last April with 40 miles on the clock and it already had issues with the clear coat. Now almost a year later after two Zaino applications and washes each week with show-car grade products, my clearcoat looks like a mess of spider webs.

The 370 isn't the only Nissan car with a sh*tty clearcoat. I'm going to the dealer this weekend to make my point and hopefully they can rectify the factory's poor paintjob.

UPDATE: after three months of letting the new paint cure out-I did an entire Adams detail on it-all the way to wax. Did I mention this whole ordeal inspired me to go to detail school? Wake Tech:Automotive Division
I wet sanded the driver's door-orange peel galore. The paint now looks gorgeous. I keep it up with a weekly two bucket wash,foam gun,wheel cleaner, blow dry and Brilliant Spray Glaze. I dress tires /molding with VRT and clean glass. It look brand new, as it should.

To keep myself busy-I detail my farm truck now and a few friend's cars. I recently went to an Adams detail clinic with the Junkman. If you ever get the chance to meet this guy-he is awesome and knows more than any detailer i have met thus far. He is very gracious with his time and answers any questions with interest.:tiphat:

glad it worked out... The paint was one of the reasons on my list why I got rid of my 370z