Garbage Paint!

[Daryl LBZ]

Well I washed my truck today before I took it over to get my Exaust put on. I got around to washing the hood and noticed I have a ton of chips out of the end of the hood. There are probably 15-20 on the end of the hood and another 5-7 on the end cap of the bumper! This is not how the paint should look on a year old truck with 12,000 miles on it! The paint job and clear coat are garbage and look like they were sprayed paper thin! Needless to say I am highly pissed, and I will be calling the dealer tomorrow and demanding this be fixed! Anyone have any success with getting anything repainted on their truck because it is chipped up?

[mhenshaw]

These trucks have the thinnest metal and paint ever. No matter what you do, you will keep getting more chips and dents. Be glad you have mud flaps to protect the bottom of your truck.

 

The best way to fix it is use a toothpick with a little bit of touch up paint on it (don't have a visible drop) and the paint will fill the chip. Wait for it to dry and use a little bit of scratch remover to smooth it out, then wax it.

[426ted]

No kidding, the paint is thin crap. I dropped a coil of rope and scratched the side of my truck to the primer. After every wash (it seems) I am touching up the paint on the roof from all the rock chips and scratches. Don't let the scratches go for too long- I have a rusty dent on the roof above the windshield from an errant rock. Obviously the coating used on the metal before the paint is crap as well. Not that I am complaining; I love my truck and after camping this year, I'm sure it'll be full of scratches.

[caddycruiser]

Another reason why in days, the whole front, the mirrors, and the rockers front to rear of my Avalanche will be wrapped in 3M "clear bra" material just like I had on my G8. 1300 miles, already a tiny chip on the hood and 1 behind a front wheel. It happens. Modern paint.

 

Get proper touch up paint and then a kit like this (other brands sell it) to complete the fill in/smooth out process. The above recommendation also works, depending on the mark.

 

http://www.langka.com/complete-paint-chip-repair-p-30.html

 

Touching up the 2 (and hopefully no more) I have, then wrapped it shall be. Same issue on G8's and at 16k miles, my wrapped nose & sides didn't have a mark, except for the light line of the material.

[Daryl LBZ]

These trucks have the thinnest metal and paint ever. No matter what you do, you will keep getting more chips and dents. Be glad you have mud flaps to protect the bottom of your truck.

 

The best way to fix it is use a toothpick with a little bit of touch up paint on it (don't have a visible drop) and the paint will fill the chip. Wait for it to dry and use a little bit of scratch remover to smooth it out, then wax it.

 

 

 

 

Thats not acceptable! I paid over 30 grand for this truck and I expect the paint to be better than this! Im tired of paying for stuff that it crap!

[lsuguy]

These trucks have the thinnest metal and paint ever. No matter what you do, you will keep getting more chips and dents. Be glad you have mud flaps to protect the bottom of your truck.

 

The best way to fix it is use a toothpick with a little bit of touch up paint on it (don't have a visible drop) and the paint will fill the chip. Wait for it to dry and use a little bit of scratch remover to smooth it out, then wax it.

 

 

 

 

Thats not acceptable! I paid over 30 grand for this truck and I expect the paint to be better than this! Im tired of paying for stuff that it crap!

 

 

HELL YEA!!

[C. Charles Hahn]

I paid over 30 grand for this truck

 

Why exactly is it that "I paid blah blah blah for this truck" is ALWAYS the first thing everyone posts when they go into a bitch fit?

 

Makes no sense to me that you guys think the MSRP on your trucks gives you some sort of entitlement to anything special. It doesn't matter what kind of vehicle you buy these days, the paint on it is not the same as what was being used years ago and in a lot of cases it isn't as durable as it used to be.

 

The main reason for this is that environmental standards have been imposed on manufacturing facilities that require them to use different paints which haven't yet been perfected in regards to durability like older paints were. Cost cutting honestly has little to do with it.

 

Unfortunately inflation is a reality in our economy right now and the value of the dollar isn't what it used to be. Sure, it sucks, and things cost more than they used to, but you'd better just get used to it, fellas! It's only going to keep getting worse before it gets better again.

[slomo007]

3m clear bra on mine, and it still looks great, even with the thin paint. I think I have 1 chip on the hood in 44k miles.

[knipper_03]

You can't complain about the price of a truck if you buy new. Buy used then its already got its first stratch!

 

In all seriousness though put a bug deflector on it. The paint on newer vehicles in my opinion are much better than years past. Reds and white gm trucks actually get more coats of paint for 2 reasons....1) the typical color for contractors, and 2) the paint is fairly translucent requiring more coats to get the true color.

 

There's no way that older gm white paint is a good as it is now. How many gmt400s have you seen with the white paint pealed off in sheets, same with silver.

 

Get on a motorcycle and ride 60 mph with no face protection....same thing your truck is doing. There isn't a paint out there that isn't going to ding.

 

 

My truck stickered for $32,000 in 2006

 

I paid $17,000 for it with 27,000 miles. Good deals are out there.

 

I completely agree that trucks and cars are way too expensive now a days....

[C. Charles Hahn]

There's no way that older gm white paint is a good as it is now. How many gmt400s have you seen with the white paint pealed off in sheets, same with silver.

 

That has more to do with the way ELPO primer used to be applied than it does the paint itself. Bonding issues with the substrate were very common during the late 80s and into the 90s, which is why so much clear coat failure and delamination were seen on those vehicles.

[mdauwald]

The best way to reduce paint chips is to increase your following distance on the highway and never follow behind a big rig directly.

[jdubya]

I can understand the paint chips from rocks and stuff but you can actually see uneven spray marks on the bed of my truck. After I washed it last time it looked like there were spots of dirt all along the side, and after further inspection I realized it was in the paint.

 

Furthermore I had some body work done (after a minor fender bender that turned into $2500 worth of damage to my bumper and bed) and the owner of the body shop pointed out how much dirt was in the paint. He also spotted the splotchy-ness on the bed and pointed out that the bed doesn't match the cab (I did not see this one, I think a trained eye could though). I asked if it was ever repainted and he said "nope that's factory" LOL.

 

Bottom line is the paint is shit. It seems watered down probably because of the environmental crap someone was talking about earlier.

[Sinkhole]

A bug deflector would definitely protect the hood. but isn't going to help with the bumper corners. If you really want to protect the paint in those areas you need to use 3M Scotchgard or Invisi-mask protective films. When I worked for Land Rover we used these systems on brand new $100K Range Rovers. They work awesome. Check out this site.

Here is a link to the pre-cut films for an '09 Silverado.

[jdubya]

A bug deflector would definitely protect the hood. but isn't going to help with the bumper corners. If you really want to protect the paint in those areas you need to use 3M Scotchgard or Invisi-mask protective films. When I worked for Land Rover we used these systems on brand new $100K Range Rovers. They work awesome. Check out this site.

Here is a link to the pre-cut films for an '09 Silverado.

 

HAHA! When I was trolling through the site above I had a vision of the plastic that old people used to put on their furniture.....

[pm26]

There is a way to make paint much more resistant to chipping in critical areas. It is called "gravel guard", which is basically plastic containing compound that is sprayed on primed metal befor the paint is applied. It is typically applied in 6 inch wide band along the bottom of doors, behind the rear wheel wells, etc. and gives the treated surface orange peel appearance. GM used to do this on older high end cars. My father's 1980 Cadillac had it. Interestingly, my '99 Mazda 626 has it too.

 

There is no reason why GM could not apply this stuff given the thin paint applied today. The only reason why they do not. is cutting costs.