GM sucks at painting cars!

[TeeJay3800]

My car is having a problem that I've noticed on many other first gen W's. The paint begins to peel in small sections, gradually gettting worse and worse until all thats left is grey primer. When I bought the car 3 years ago, the roof was really bad, but the rest of the car still had gorgeous paint. So I had the roof repainted which turned out awesome. Its been very cold here (below 0 at night) and now I see white paint peeling all over the car: hood, front quarter panel, rear quarters!

 

Has anyone else had this problem?

 

Here is a pic where you can see a small patch starting to peel on the front quarter panel: http://homepages.wmich.edu/~t0dykstr/CSsnow1.jpg

[DiscoStudd]

Yep, I sure do. The hood of my Regal looks like it has 2 racing stripes running down the creases. The roof, fenders, and doors haven't started peeling yet, just the hood, trunk, and tops of the door frames. The hood started small, like you said, then every day once I got on the freeway another chunk of paint would fly off.

 

Good times indeed! I'm going to have to have the whole car stripped down to bare metal when I have it repainted, which means I'm probably going to spend more than the car's worth...

[TeeJay3800]

....which means I'm probably going to spend more than the car's worth...

That's exactly what I'm afraid of doing.

[1990lumina]

My Lumina isn't peeling *yet* but I niced at the very bottom of the fenders right behind the mud flaps the paint has a streak like if you spray paint to much in one area.. that's what it looks like. Not noticable from far away though.. I also noticed around that rubber trim on the wheel wells what looks ike rust forming under them so I'm gonna take them off in spring and see what's up.

 

- Jeff L.

[jeremy]

my blue '89 LE started to peel before she finally died.....

[TheCutlassGuru]

yeah my paint is totally shot. the genius i bought it from spray bombed all the bare spots and the entire roof so it looks like total ass my brother and sister-in-law both have 89 GPs with the same problem. i agree. GM needs to figure out that cutting production costs on things like shitty paint and cheap interior pieces just creates big headaches later.

[1BADVR4]

Dude, your car is 15 years old! The people that painted your car are probably retired. Your lived past it's life expectancy.

[digitaloutsider]

Dude, your car is 15 years old! The people that painted your car are probably retired. Your lived past it's life expectancy.

So what are you inferring?

[DiscoStudd]

The paint on my 87 Grand Am started peeling when the car was only 5 years old! This was before the "recall" covering 85-91 GM's with the defective primer. Even after the "recall" was implemented, you had to be the original owner of the car in order to get it repainted.

 

BTW, today GM has a "hidden warranty" for defective paint, (cause they started fucking up the primer again) but they will only repaint your car if it's less than 6 model years old...

[1BADVR4]

Dude, your car is 15 years old! The people that painted your car are probably retired. Your lived past it's life expectancy.

So what are you inferring?

 

That it's not that GM doesn't know how to paint cars. The vehicle has performend its expected service life. It's not designed to last forever. You can't sell any new cars like that.

[1BADVR4]

The paint on my 87 Grand Am started peeling when the car was only 5 years old! This was before the "recall" covering 85-91 GM's with the defective primer. Even after the "recall" was implemented, you had to be the original owner of the car in order to get it repainted.

 

Well that's another issue if there was a recall at one time.

 

 

BTW, today GM has a "hidden warranty" for defective paint, (cause they started fucking up the primer again) but they will only repaint your car if it's less than 6 model years old...

 

And what make/model has this "hidden warranty?"

[DiscoStudd]

I searched through my bookmarks and can't find the damn page that explained the whole thing.

 

Here's one site I had bookmarked, although it didn't have any specifics on the GM paint:

http://www.lemonaidcars.com/secret_warranties.htm

 

Check this page out, and scroll down to the bottom:

http://www.gm-v6lemons.com/recall.html

[1BADVR4]

I searched through my bookmarks and can't find the damn page that explained the whole thing.

 

Here's one site I had bookmarked, although it didn't have any specifics on the GM paint:

http://www.lemonaidcars.com/secret_warranties.htm

 

Check this page out, and scroll down to the bottom:

http://www.gm-v6lemons.com/recall.html

 

 

1997-2001 GM Minivans Show Premature Hood Corrosion and Blistering. â€â€

 

Just when we thought the Big Three corrosion and paint problems were ending (don't forget a BC class action against GM and Chrysler is still winding its way through the courts on 1987-96 models), along comes a GM TSB telling us that some of the above model years may have blistering or bubbling paint on the top of the hood or under the hood.

 

A dealer whistleblower tells me that dealers have been authorized to repair the hoods free of charge (refinish and repaint) up to 6 years/100,000 km. Second owners are eligible. Models affected are the 1997-2001 Pontiac TranSport (export only), Chevrolet Venture, and Oldsmobile Silhouette; 1997-98 Pontiac TranSport; and 1999-2001 Pontiac Montana. Alldata has the original bulletins.

 

 

 

This is completely different. It's on 97+ vehicles, not 15 year old vehicles.

 

 

Almost all cars have recalls.

All cars have TSBs. They are to aid the technician in diagnosis. They do not admit a defect in a part. If you see enough cars you're going to start seeing the same problem over and over. It does not mean there is a defect.

Some cars have special policies, which is what I think you are talking about. They may extend the warranty on a particular component for a set period of time/miles purely for customer satisfaction.

 

There is no such thing as a hidden recall.

There is no such thing as a silent recall.

If an auto manufacturer issues a recall, they WANT that car back to perform the repair. Why would they keep it a secret?

[jmblimo]

It was a deal that EPA requested GM and Chrysler to use "water born" primer. Paint wouldn't stick to it very long. It was used to reduce the emissions from the painting process. I don't know why Ford didn't have the problem - maybe they didn't go along with the request. Anyway, as mentioned before, there was a secret repaint program at both GM and Chrysler. You had to complain load enough. That program is long past history!

 

The fix is to strip, re-primer with normal stuff, and then the repaint.

[Guest Anonymous]

Ther paint is (was) peeling on my front bumper of the sedan. Then, I hit a snow mound with it, and I know have about 2 feet of paint missing. It came right off.

[Crimson Fury Z]

the smallest peel requires the whole section repainted, and man, my whole car needs it!!

[99RegalGS]

My Regal started to peel on the roof about a month ago. I need to get some touchup on the edges asap before it gets any bigger. I know my hood won't peel anytime soon though, that paint's only 4 years old.

[chadz34]

my car hasnt peeled but i never drive it. i ahve seen paint peel on GM vehicles especially Berettas and Corsicas

[TeeJay3800]

Dude, your car is 15 years old! The people that painted your car are probably retired. Your lived past it's life expectancy.

Although I agree my car has lived past it's life expectancy, I do not think my paint is performing as it should. Normal wear could be fading, oxidizing, scratching, or dulling. I hardly think the paint peeling clean off the car can be considered normal. I consider it a significant flaw in their choice of primer to use, or other significant errors in the painting process.

[digitaloutsider]

Exactly. We had a 1985 Chevy Van up until a couple of years ago. The paint was still all there, just dull. There's no excuse for it to be peeling right off the car.

[1BADVR4]

Dude, your car is 15 years old! The people that painted your car are probably retired. Your lived past it's life expectancy.

Although I agree my car has lived past it's life expectancy, I do not think my paint is performing as it should. Normal wear could be fading, oxidizing, scratching, or dulling. I hardly think the paint peeling clean off the car can be considered normal. I consider it a significant flaw in their choice of primer to use, or other significant errors in the painting process.

 

Well maybe you should go after GM then and see if they will paint your car for free 15 years later.

[Dirty Rockstar]

My Lumina never had a peeling paint isasue.. It had rust along the rockers, and where that silly ass rubber trim was in the wheel wells.. But.. I NEVER had any peeling paint.. The only colors I noticerd GM ever having issues with were the blues, reds, and whites..

[White93z34]

my boss was telling me about this, he says that at one point GM used a primer that after applyed had to have the paint applied a very short time afterwards, however it didn't work like that cars were left to sit around in primer for days before they got the final paint, and by that point the damage had been done it looked good enough and for the first few years no one was the wiser. not sure how true that story is, but it's believeable enough.

 

the paint pealing is not right for a car that is a mere 15 years old, sure its outlived its expanticy, however theres plenty of cars that are 20+ years old still running around if their origional paint.

 

this is just me, but i've noticed that cars made in canada are not near as likely to have pealing paint, it seems that the americain built cars tend to have this problem more often.

[TeeJay3800]

Well maybe you should go after GM then and see if they will paint your car for free 15 years later.

I never said anything about doing that. My point was that what is happening to my paint is not normal wear and that GM messed up. However, expecting them to pay for it 15 years later is ludicrous.

 

the paint pealing is not right for a car that is a mere 15 years old, sure its outlived its expanticy, however theres plenty of cars that are 20+ years old still running around if their origional paint.

Exactly.

[Carotop]

My paint isn't really peeling. I would say the paint job is done really bad though becaus I have like these beige speckles all over on it. And they don't come out