I followed a new Black Mazda 6 yesterday. Seemed to be great quality. But like I said it was new. Unfortunately, won't see any problems for years.

On the question of poor quality paint.
Where does the poor quality and peeling and blanching come from?
Is it the base coat or the clear coat?
How many coats of clear coat does the factory put on?

 

Saturn is always demonstrating the way you can bang their cars and not damage them. What kind of paint is on them - or isn't that a conventional paint?

 

Let my say this i have a 1990 Probe and for the amount of years on the paint it looks awsome. But then again I take good care of my stuff.

 

they have polymer (plastic) side panels, which have a little more "give" to prevent small dents.

They may add more flex. agent to keep the paint from cracking if it gets hit.

 

I so totally agree with this!!! I have mentioned in this forum awhile back about the left side of my 2000 "BLACK" Mustang being repainted due to an old woman, who doesn't know how to drive turning left into it, anyways....(still haveing anger issues with that, not that you can tell :angry: ) The car was only about a month old & so It's not like I tried to repaint half of a 68 & not do the rest of it, but thats what it looks like. The original factory paint is so faded that it looks blue. Paid to have it detailed, through my dealer & it looked good for about 2 months & looks like crap again. It sits in the sun at work but I keep it in the garage whenever it is not being drivin. I would love to order my 2005 in black as it looks but I will not have a brand new car that looks 10 years old. Someone mentioned that the Satin Silver is hard to keep looking new. Is this true because that is what I'm probably gonna order (possible today) since Charcoal Grey is not an option for the 05?
My daughter has a Black 99 Ford Focus & her paint hasn't seemed to fade like mine. Is there anything Ford has done to fix this problem as they must have changed paint or they way they apply it between these years? Would like to know but still don't think I can trust them with the Black.

 

I Have A black colored cobra. I haven't hade any problems with it so far. If you want to maintain it's Black beauty, try waxing it. There Are two types of wax: one for light colors, And one for dark colors.

 

What year is your Cobra? I have some wax that I bought from the guy who repainted my car that he uses so I know that is made for black. It is pure carnuba (spelling) yellow wax. I use a buffer on so it looks good for a little while but not long. The body shop paint still looks brand new so I know that it is bad factory paint. I need to do something as I plan on trading it in for the 2005.
Thanks for the suggestion.

 

My Cobra's year is 2001. It's 3 years old. The Wax you have should be working. I also have the yellow Carnuba yellow. when you ues the buffer, try not to use it so much. Because you could burn the paint

 

I have had three mustangs since 96 all black and they all dulled and swirl scratched despite meticulous handling using meguiars 3 step system and always hand washing with only the best supplies....It has made me decide to not get black again. And this time I mean it.
Dave

 

In my experience... Birds seem to crap on blue more than all other colors that friends, family or I have owned.

 

you mean you guys actually wash and wax your cars? never owned black.. currently have dark blue, waxed maybe once in 3 yrs no probs.


then again maybe since i never wash it i cant see the probs.

 

 

Ouch. Yeah, I wash mine once a month (twice in the summer) and wax it twice a year. When it's brand new, you can go several years without waxing and not notice... it isn't until the car is about 10 years old that you see what the result of not waxing very often is. What clearcoat?

Dave

 

I don't think orange peel is limited to Ford. My Onyx Black '01 Alero has plenty of orange peel in the finish. So, don't feel bad.... you're not alone! The Aleros were assembled in Lansing.

 

Excessive waxing and washing should void your paint warranty coverage.

 

With production cars there will always be a certain degree of orange peel.

There are so many variables in automotive painting that result in poor finishes. Their primary goal is to avoid runs, fisheyes and dust in the paint.

I am happy with the Mustang moving to AAI it should have a much more modern paint shop and reduce some of the problems it had at dearborn (runs, thin paint, etc.)

 

Is it me or do MOST cars companies use the same paint company... only different mixes.

 

As far as I know, most car companies use PPG paint, I am sure they use PPG e-coat as they have a huge chunk of the market share. I did work in the automotive painting industry for a short time, so I did pick some knowledge up.

The key with paint is the mixture and the equipment. All new paint facilities have paint booth areas which are totally climate controlled (temperature, humidity, etc) These areas are usually sealed off and any workers entering have to wear special clothing and go through air showers to remove dust. With conditions like this it is easy to formulate the paint to be consistent.

 

Sorry to dig up the old thread, but I wanted to make a note on the "orange peel" effect people have been seeing. I was next to a brand new Porsche Cayenne Turbo today at a stoplight, and it had extremely noticeable orange-peel on every surface I could see. One would expect from a $70,000+ vehicle to get a decent paint job. If Porsche can't get it mirror-smooth these days, I'm not sure how well Ford will manage.

 

(A bit off topic)

I heard in England they don't bother pulling over people for stop sign tickets or other misc. traffic misdemanors. I heard they now use cameras which take pictures of your license number and they mail you the ticket to your home/ apartment.