Post your factory paint defects

[72firebird]

Well me and Jim were just talking about how shitty the paint was on these car straight from the factory. So lets post up some of the things you've found in your paint that give it personallity haha.

To start with, most TTAs that I have seen have a clear drip on the rear hatch includding mine and the actual pace car that Indianapolis Motorspeedway has in their museum. One of the weirdest things that I have found on my car is what looks like a fingerprint on my passenger headlight, I don't have any pictures of it but I'll have to get some next time I'm home. Also, I don't remember exactly where but I think it's on the drivers side a-piller I have what looks like a big piece of dirt in the paint, it's like a large sharp bump in the paint.

The paint on these cars is very thin and far from high quality, but it's nice knowing you have the original paint with it's original defects.

 

[PhillyTurboSix]

Yes the 80's in general were horrible at the factory's. To many humans were still putting these cars together and left room for all types of flaws! I took my car to 3 different body shop owners I know. I told them that I didn't buy the car yet and for them to go over the entire car and look for anything wrong with the body. The lines going down the fenders, doors, and all of them seem like they could be adjusted better. All of the shop owners ( including a guy who worked on nothing but F bodys in the late 80's) all said it's untouched bone stock. They said a wrench has never been on any body panel on my car and that's just the way they were put together. The guy who worked on all the F bodys said to me before even looking at the car.. I bet there is a paint drip on the rear deck on at least one side. Sure enought there it was. The quality control was poor back then and people just didn't care. Get them together, done, and out in the dealers so they could make money!

 

[Quiky One]

I might have a picture of the fingerprint you are talking about...on this topic, how come the door jam paint always turns yellowish? Is this because the paint is thin and any wear does this?

I too have the clear coat drip...

 

[Midwest Muscle]

WOW! I just now read this about the clear paint drip on one side of the back hatch. My 1,200 mile car has affidavits saying it has never been painted, touched up, or even washed. (I know, you can make an affidavit say anything ...) But I noticed that same thing on my TTA. My first reaction was "paint repair", but I sure like thinking "factory defect" better! The original owner told me it was like that when he bought it - But I was of course skeptical. Maybe I should call him back and apologize!

Mike

 

[tx_1987_gta]

The things I notice on these cars are the thin paint ( or poor paint coverage )on all the inner structure under the hood ( inside lips of fenders, hood hinges, top of Firewall or Cowl area, Strut Towers & Aprons, underside of hood & Liftgate ). However this is something that I see on most every 3rd Gen F-Body I have ever had or seen. Course I can say ever single body panel on my car still has the OEM VIN Label on every part. Like everyone has said before on these cars Quality control back in this era wasnt the greatest. Course if you look hard enough on any car, 3rd Gen or Ferrari, they all have flaws of some kind. These are production cars and production usually means that the quality will be somewhat ...... I want to say sacrificed, but that word isnt good either. There is just a HUGE Difference in production paint work and Show car paint work. Course there is a big difference in the price of the 2 different types of finishes as well.

 

[72firebird]

The things I notice on these cars are the thin paint ( or poor paint coverage )on all the inner structure under the hood ( inside lips of fenders, hood hinges, top of Firewall or Cowl area, Strut Towers & Aprons, underside of hood & Liftgate ). However this is something that I see on most every 3rd Gen F-Body I have ever had or seen. Course I can say ever single body panel on my car still has the OEM VIN Label on every part. Like everyone has said before on these cars Quality control back in this era wasnt the greatest. Course if you look hard enough on any car, 3rd Gen or Ferrari, they all have flaws of some kind. These are production cars and production usually means that the quality will be somewhat ...... I want to say sacrificed, but that word isnt good either. There is just a HUGE Difference in production paint work and Show car paint work. Course there is a big difference in the price of the 2 different types of finishes as well.

I guess I wasn't really meaning flaws, yes every factory paint job has it's flaws. But the paint in 89 was sprayed a people, whereas cars today are sprayed by robots. Also the prep work that they do in the factory today is much better than it used to be. Since the paint and prep work are all done by machine today, the defects in the paint are all pretty much the same from car to car, for example the orange peel in most 4th gen F-bodys. But since in 89 everything was done by an individual each car kind of has it's own key traits and kind of has that persons signature to it. For instance, the clear drip on the rear hatch, for those of us where that is there that part of the car was probably painted by the same person and overlooked by the same inspector.

 

[tta299]

I might have a picture of the fingerprint you are talking about...on this topic, how come the door jam paint always turns yellowish? Is this because the paint is thin and any wear does this?

I too have the clear coat drip...

My car has a yellowish tint to it too. I thought it was just mine

 

[DaveGershon]

On my Festival car the bumper caps and door sills are a silghtly different color of white from the body. The GM line painted the plastic trim pieces at a different location than the assembly plant. So it is possible to get different colors.

Body fit (panel gaps) are poor to say the least on both cars.

- Dave

 

[72firebird]

On my Festival car the bumper caps and door sills are a silghtly different color of white from the body. The GM line painted the plastic trim pieces at a different location than the assembly plant. So it is possible to get different colors.

Body fit (panel gaps) are poor to say the least on both cars.

- Dave

are you sure on them being painted at a different plant? I always just thought that they used the same paint and it adheared to the plastic different giving it a different color. Similar to the old 2nd gens with the nose cones, they always faded until the primer came along that would keep it from happening.

 

[DaveGershon]

When I visited the plant in 1992 to see the assembly of the cars. They told me all the plastic parts were produced and painted by a sub-contractor and sent to the Van Nuyes plant for final assembly. You could see the body of the cars painted and go down the assembly line and the plastic trim and bumpers were attached later. This includes the strips that protected the door. This process was used for many years.

George was part of this tour and he can make a comment as well.

- Dave

 

[Turbota6]

I've been on several tours at the Corvette plant in Bowling Green and being that this is basically GM's highest performing sports car you would think with the latest and best technology everything would match. Well, the painting process is done robotically and all the panels are placed on a jig and painted at the same time. From what I've seen in some cars that my friends have owned (both C5 and C6) is that panels still tend to have a different color shade to them on the same car. I'm not sure if this has something to do with the panels being different composites or not but it's a tough cookie to swallow for the price of one of these cars new. DontKnow: :wall:

 

[mr.turbota]

Gee Dave,
You are really making me feel old!
Hard to believe that we have been friends for so long, showing, and racing our cars around parking lots, meeting in all kind of places, like Reno, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Irvine. Let alone, at each other's houses on both sides of the state.
I do remember going on those Van Nuys plant tours.
I do remember seeing the parts assembled onto the cars, and us asking tons of questions.
What really stands out, was seeing those "export" cars going down the line.
We were stumped for awhlie.
I even remember seeing, at the end of the assembly line, guys getting into the cars, and running them on the dyno. We all know what jobs we wanted.
I even remember seeing , at the end, guys standing there, circling small imperfections with a grease pen, and the cars going back for repaint.

:beach: