scratches

MikeZ · 07-05-2004, 05:37 PM

Hi All,
I bought my new XE CC last Monday. Upon deleivery I inspected the vehicle and everything looked great. The next day I stepped up into bed and noticed on roof several scratches that wouldnt come out with wax. These are small scratches, very visable. I never thought about looking at roof before accepting vehicle. I took it back and the detail guy there put the buffer on them and they still didnt come out. They then told me to come back this Wed so the "expert" detail guy could work on it. I asked what they will do to it. He said they were going to wet sand it and then polish it back up.
My question is, won't this take the clear coat off and make this area in roof more acceptable to fading a year or so down the line? Looking for opinion on what you guys would do at this point.
Thanks
Mike

Mildewy · 07-05-2004, 05:50 PM

You usually only want to do that once or twice in the vehicles lifetime before getting a new paint job so I would be leary about doing it 1 week into ownership.

MikeZ · 07-05-2004, 07:39 PM

Okay, for you guys that are experienced with dealerships, what should I do at this point? Let them do it and bite the bullet? Demand a fix without wetsanding? Different vehicle?
Thanks
Mike

BigRedTitan · 07-05-2004, 10:30 PM

Dealer's make-ready scratched my tailgate when taking off another dealers nameplate (my dealer traded w/ another). These scratches (made w/ a screwdriver) were nearly all the way through the clearcoat. So I gave their body shop a chance to fix it. When I got it back, the area that they fixed was smoooooth, with a GREAT shine, while the rest of the gate, after being blended, still had the original "orange-peel". I wouldn't let them touch the paint on the truck. When I went back to talk to the body shop manager, he told me that due to EPA regs regarding solvents, etc., that it was "impossible"

for them to duplicate the orange-peel. So now I am demanding a factory painted tailgate.

The BS manager told me straight out that color sanding or wet sanding WILL decrease the UV protection, as the clearcoat is about as thick as a matchbook cover.

So as far as options on your truck, if they sand it, they WILL reduce the UV protection on the roof, also may have the possibility of future peeling and/or fading. If they paint it, the part that they paint will most likely be much smoother than the rest of the truck.

If they could give me that smooth look on the whole truck w/o taking out the UV protection, I would do it in a micro-second, as it is alot nicer looking than the orange peel.

Good luck, I hope it works out for you. Le us know how it turns out.

carbap82 · 07-10-2004, 03:50 PM

I red on here a while back that someone asked Nissan about the orange peal and the said "it was to inhance the refelection on the truck", or something of that matter. that is the bigest load of bs I have ever heard. I took a year in auto body at NMU and all of the cars we put out were wet sanded then buffed to a shine. The orange peal is from spraying on with to high of air pressure, or to low of pressure and moving down the car to fast. Soemone telling you that it inhances the apperence of the paint is full of it and tell them I told you that. I'll take the blame.