I am freaking TOTALLY bummed out. My baby is only 1 month old. 1700 miles on it and I now have a paint defect developing. It is horrible. I am not a female over reacting...It is about 3/4 inch wide by 1 inch long and all bubbled up. Its on the roof above the passenger door. I am attaching a picture. The best pic I could take right now is with my cell phone so It shows how raised it is. Has any one else had this or similar problems? The dealership BETTER fix this problem. Check over your vehicles really close. I heard the paint is really thin in places but this is totally pathetic. I am already upset because my hubby is borrowing the car for the weekend and going to the Indy car races and I will be without it for three days, imagine what its going to be like while the dealership has it. Has anyone seen this problem and what are the dealerships saying about it???

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My brother had the same problem with his Dodge Ram Sport. His paint bubbled and started to peel. He took it back to the dealer and they repaired it. His wife has a 05 Honda Accord, same thing on the front bumper area. Bubbled up, took to dealer and they repaired it. As long as you bought your car at a reputable dealer you shouldn't have any trouble getting it fixed. Took two days to get his truck back and one day on the accord.

 

As Hemi Nuts said, the dealership should step up to the plate and repair this. But be critical of the repair job...that's a pretty narrow space that they will be touching up. Be sure that there is n't any clear-coat overspray on the glass or around the rails.


I'm sorry that this has happened to you.

 

Thanks for the words of encouragement fellas...My next big problem is I am going to fight for a rental car. You only get one with extended warranty. I will fight them for it though. I am going to go ahead and purchase the extended warranty today and them drop the bomb about the paint on Monday. That really sux though. MY BABY!! Thanks guys

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yeah seems they did not paint fender when you open door
and on the door neer hinges. and yes the paint is thin
im affraid one day im going to brush up against it and the
pant is going to wipe off.

 

Get my baby back from the dealership tomorrow. I CANT WAIT!!! They said there is a paint line in the clear where they taped around the sunroof and wanted to know if this was going to be ok. They said its in the curve part around the glass. You really need to be looking to see it. The only other option was to take the headliner out then drop the sun roof out. I called my twin sis who works for Chrysler (Band 5 DOM) and asked her about it and she said they have been having some problems with leaking around the sun roof after they have been pulled out for repair or replacement. She recommended if it is really not that noticeable and you have to look real hard to see it then dont drop the sun roof out. I will see tomorrow. They DID put me in a rental car ( I think only because of who my sis is and they know what her job description is so they wanted to please her as well)..Works for me. Will post up the results tomorrow.

 

Hey Girl

I'm glad your nearly done and you'll get your baby back shortly. I hope it works out to suit you.

I've mentioned in another thread my disdain for the paint and finish that comes stock from the factory. I'm told by friends that are dealers and body professionals that the dealer seldom will do anything to protect the finish while it's setting in the lot.

It's up to us to understand that there is very little protection on your unit when it comes off the lot. We need to put a number of coats of finish on the unit and preferrably a couple hard top coats over that to be certain that the paint & clear is thoroughly sealed.

I'm not suggesting that this was the issue in your case, but chose to use your hardship as a soapbox for the reader to understand his/her responsibility to insure their finish it properly protected.

Good luck out there.

 

Well I went to pick my baby up and had to leave it. It honestly looked like they put a texture on the roof before they painted it. (it was really just SCREWED up orange peel). I was either orange peel or the paint gun was clogged with something and it splattered. The conversation with the body shop manager went from bad to worse. It also had red fibers in the paint. It looked like strings off a red rag. The paint was "textured" looking up around the front passenger side window and at the Back glass on the passenger side. It wasnt there on the other side. This told me 1 of 2 things. First, he feathered the paint in around the repaired place or he got the technique down on the other side. Now I was hoping it was the second and not the first because I specifically told them to pull the front and rear glass but "NOT" the sunroof. When the guy told me "the painter had a hard time on the curve of the roof". I showed him how well the other side looked and he said "Well we didnt paint that side we blended it in..." BUZZ wrong answer. I told him "were you not standing right beside me and the service manager when I told you not to blend it. Paint the whole roof?"...His response "Well we thought we could blend it better". My remark was "obviously not". Her really didnt like it when I said "this will not do. I may not know a whole lot about paint but if I am not mistaken this is not a three step process, its a two step process. You cant tell me a single flat color - first process, then a coat of clear-second process, is too hard for your painter to do? If he cant paint a 2 step process color then what the hell does his three step process paint jobs look like?"..He was not happy but believe me I was not happier. I hated to leave my baby there. He was crying for me as I drove off in my rented Jeep Liberty. I could hear "Mamma dont leave me, I'll be a good little boy". How do you tell a kid its for his own good?

 

Definitely keep on the dealer's case and don't accept anything less than a proper refinish. If you need to call DC, go for it. Maybe your sis might know someone who could apply some pressure.

I had a similar service problem with my wife's new 300m Special. I had brought it back (again) for a transmission malfunction and the dealer scratch the front bumper cover (about 8 inches). This car was less than a month old and had less than 1K on the clock. To make a long story short, they tried to bandaid the damage on the cheap and it ended up looking up worse than the original scratch. It was quite insulting to hear the bull that they expected me to swallow about body and paint repairs. The last time, one of the guys at the service desk "buffed out" the bumper and pronounced that it was better than the one's on the lot and that was all that they would do. The finish had the texture of 400 grit and there was a definite color mismatch where they had "worked" on it.

I ended up paying a reputable body shop $700 to have the bumper cover removed and refinished (stripped, primed, new color and clear coats). It is a perfect match and the finish is actually better than when I bought it. The body shop warrantied the job for as long as I own the car. The dealer could have had the work done for a less at the same shop with their business discounts but did not want to put any more money into customer service than absolutely necessary. They didn't even try to fix the transmission but kept trying to give the car back to me saying drive it and the problem would go away on it's own. This was a $40K car for Pete's sake, not a Yugo.

I finally took the car to a dealer about 25 miles away and they replaced the front transmission pump (a documented problem) and I've since been driving the almost 50 mile round trip for 3 years for service. Before going to them, I checked with the Better Business Bureau and they had a clean record (no complaints filed). I bought my new Charger from these guys because of the good service I had been receiving with my wife's car. My original dealer had a rap sheet with the BBB (ya think?).

I hope you can get your baby properly fixed without the pain and frustration that we had to go through.

BTW, my wife also has same seperation anxiety when I drop off her car for service, even though it's usually only for the day. I think you two would hit it off.

Redbeard