Odd Paint Issues
 

UPDATE: SEE POST 22 FOR HIGH QUALITY PICS

2011 black cherry 370z

Today I noticed my car had multiple dark transparent spots all over the hood, fenders, and trunk ranging in size from 5mm to 10mm. These spots were raised and appeared to have a "cracking" texture on the surface, similar to dried sap. Additionally, some of these spots seemed to streak across the paint linearly following swirl marks or what appeared to be light scratches in the clear.

I did not park under any trees today and the only other cars I parked near did not have this on them either. From what I have read, the OEM Paint Defects are generally not raised as they are under the clear coat. I'm not sure what else this could be.

I treated one of the spots with goo gone, and another one with hand sanitizer (which has done wonders on my 240). The goo gone didn't do anything and the hand sanitizer discoulored the paint surrounding the spot. Havn't tried peanut butter yet. I've had the car for 5 days and it has a new coat of wax on it (product unknown) and this paint issue has come up over the past 24h. I will try to get pictures, but it is very hard to see on a black cherry anyways.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me to try?
Thanks, Read

Before I went to the dealer I tried a clay bar and sap remover. Neither worked.

At the dealer I was told these spots were tree sap and the one near a scratch was touch up paint (that I guess a gnome put on overnight to a scratch just through the clearcoat not into the paint :ugh2:). The two techs who looked at it shrugged it off and made me feel like an idiot. They suggested trying ethanol/methanol to get it off.

I went home and tried hand sani again (70% ethanol) with no success.

Then I went to Advance Auto where I know a few of the guys who work there. Two of them came and checked it out and said that it was NOT sap because a) it is perfectly clear and transparent b) it did not come off yet c) it was much harder than sap should be.

Anyways, I am moving 3 hours away in 3 weeks so I will probably just go to a dealer once I move. The car is still under warranty at least. Can't believe an auto manufacturer would overlook this. I also know that there is a thread already started relating to this matter so if I should post there let me know, otehrwise I will update this thread.

On a side note about nissan techs:
I dont normally like other people working on my car unless I know them previously and trust them. The last time I went to a Nissan dealership (2005) two of the techs complimented me on my nissan skyline (I was driving my STOCK 97 NISSAN 240sx) and once I corrected them one of the techs asked me why I put the skyline front end on my 240sx :icon14: For some reason I let those Nissan technicians install a waterpump in my 240. Picked it up an hour later and started driving down the road and it overheated. They had fogot to refill the coolant :ughdance: they put coolant back in it for me and I finally got it home. The next day the main belt that goes around the waterpump shredded. This is why I do not trust Nissan and honestly would rather have my nissans serviced at my local Toyota dealership. So, wish me luck in dealing with Nissan on this one.

Forgot to add, I started a written log of everything I have done (with dates) for the paint and will be taking measurements and pictures of all of the spots to see if they change. Sap doesn't grow.

take pics and post them on here.

^ Will do, have to recharge camera. Maybe I can borrow a friend's SLR

These are crappy ipod pictures. It was really sunny but raining and I couldn't get it to focus. These are raised and darker/redder than the surrounding paint. Ignore my house and the sky

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...23129282_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...72503680_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...23129282_n.jpg

mosquito bite.

^ I wish. The pics don't do it justice. They are all over the hood, pass side fender and boot.

When the sun hits it they stand out pretty bad from a distance.

are you talking about the dots or the big mosquito hump?

if dots, then it could be rail dust. claybar and lube can take care of that. if that's a hump, that will be a warranty repair. that looks like contamination under the paint.

dots are rain, mosuito humps (those are actually pics of 3 different ones. should have include a penny for scale). Humps are all over hood and body.

Next time I would do some research before putting all sorts of crazy things on your paint...

Try claybar with the addition of a light compound... I had some similiar dark spots on my paint and that did it...

^
I've used alcohol/hand sani on paint before and normally it works great to remove things. The dealership guys also told me today to use methanol/ethanol. Which is the same thing.

I've used goo gone in the past to help debadge or destripe cars with no problems. The other products I used are automotive products (Meguiars). Except for peanut butter which I don't think would hurt the paint too much. (unless my car was allergic).

I have tried claybar and compound already, I guess I can try them at the same time though. If you have any other suggestions on places to do "research" could you enlighten me.

<Forgot to add that I have been reading all the "paint/clearcoat defect" threads on the site. I'm 99% sure this is my problem>

This looks like its under the paint. Now did you point this out to the dealer and what was their response? Please speak to the manager and not any techs. Trust me been and still going through something similar. Do you have better pics? Was it there when you purchased the car?

Not there when the car was purchased, it has just been there the past 2 days (maybe there was some heat cycling outside). I did point it out to the techs and they said it was sap and that it would come off with alcohol. I will be following up with them and will get better pics.

You need better photographic resolution to further determine the cause

^ I know, only camera I have with me is ipod. You are welcome to come see it in person :rofl2:

Tried to get better pics today but it didnt work for me. I've noticed multiple other spots which I think are new, and in other areas the clear coat is cracking.

edited, better pics below

Just going from the photos, it looks like rust bubbles. But you'd expect to see that on a 10 year old car, not a newborn.

There are literally dozens of these spread over all metal body panels (mostly hood). As you can see on one of them, it is tracking along a scratch in the clearcoat.

http://www.the370z.com/members/read-...50-zpaint6.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/read-...49-zpaint5.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/read-...48-zpaint4.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/read-...47-zpaint3.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/read-...46-zpaint2.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/read-...45-zpaint1.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/read-...51-zpaint7.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/read-...52-zpaint8.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/read-...53-zpaint9.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/read-...4-zpaint91.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/read-...5-zpaint92.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/read-...6-zpaint93.jpg

That looks like a bad touchup paint job- covering scratches or areas from rock chips and the like. Otherwise, it's oxidation (rust) under the paint, which I don't really think is the problem.

edit: not to mention your paint is a disaster. use some detergent soap like dawn and strip all the crap off, then claybar the crap out of it.

^ The paint just has a bunch of dust on it in the pics. It has a decent coat of wax and is otherwise pretty good.

Also, it's not touch up paint because it's clear.

(and I havn't put touch up paint on the car).

Also it would be wierd if they had touched it up that the front bumper is fine, and the sides and rear deck have rock chips.

The bumps are too close in color to be touch up. Sure looks like rust or contamination under the paint. The cross hatched areas are clear coat failure.

In the last pic it looks like a blob of touch up covering two small scratches. As far as it being too close in color... I'm not too sure what that means in relation to this pic. Definitely doesn't look like there was ever clear coat over it. On the others where it looks like its bubbling under the paint... that's what concerns me a bit more.

Sorry, in the last pic I had picked at the spot with my fingernail and it did that.

op, i'd suggest taking it to a paint shop just to get their opinion. otherwise, you could consider using a dual action polisher to fix those scratches and also see what you can do about correcting these blobs. IMO, though, nothing will beat an expert's opinion when they can see it for themselves.

let us know how it turns out :)

If this is a brand new car I'd raise hell about it.

Good luck op

:iagree:

Any resolution on this? Just curious becasue...

This weekend I was washing my truck and I had let it sit under a tree (stupid me). It had marks on that look EXACTLY like the bubbles you have. If I didn't know it was sap I would have thought it was bubbled. Washing didn't touch them. So I tried some Stoner's B&T remover and a microfiber. Didn't touch them. Now I'm beginning to get worried. Tried the B&T again and let it dwell for about 5 minutes. Finally softened it up a bit. Each time I'd spray it, got maybe 10% of it off. I've never seen stuff this tough. After about a dozen applications I got the majority of it off and then cleaned off the last of the residue with some polish.

Had I not known it was sap I would have given up and assumed it was a defect. I've been detailing cars for 20+ years and I've never seen stuff like this. Don't know what kind of tree it is, but I'll never park under it again!

Havn't gotten by the dealer any to discuss further. I'm in the process of moving and just drove the Z 1600mi round trip to go visit a friend in the hospital so I've been kinda busy. Fun car to roadtrip in though!

Update:
I went by the dealership today (East Charlotte Nissan further referred to as ECN), called beforehand and they told me to come in and that their service director Rich DeBusk would help me out. Rich went over the car with me and I pointed the spots out. He said that it was something they would try to correct, and could tell that the paint was not right and that they would need to contact Nissan NA (NNA). I brought a bunch of printed off copies of other threads I had found on this forum to ECN and he said he would not need to see those but that he would be contacting NNA and his service manager Tony Panno. He said that warranty stuff is a little different for paint/finish and that Tony would have to be there to handle it and being a saturday, he was not there. Since Tony was not there today I am also going to go by later this week to have them take pictures to send to NNA. Overall I was really pleased with my experience there SO FAR, but I think it's going to be a long process after I got the wheels rolling today. Wish I had known thattheir Service manager wasn't there today too but oh well.
RT

Went Back by dealership today and spoke with Tony Panno. He read through all the threads I had printed off and looked at the car. Asked me to forward pictures I had taken to him since the only camera he had was a smart phone. He also referred me over to the shop that does bodywork for most of the dealerships in the area. I met with the bodyshop service writer Steve Kling at Wilburn Auto Body. He looked at the paint and got one of the other men from the shop to look at it. They informed me that it appeared that while the car was at carmax (whom I bought it from) it had:

1) multiple areas of paintless dent repair
2) multiple areas of touchup paint
3) many areas where fallout (bird crap or acid rain) had sat on it for an extended period of time and had damaged the paint to the point where the clear coat is cracking

Basically that for the year the car was with carmax it hadn't been washed. I'm quite pissed off right now at carmax, as there were 1 or 2 of these spots when the car was purchased but now there are dozens (at least 50) spots where the clear coat is bubbling, cracking, or the paint under the clearcoat looks roughened (like a pumice stone under the paint). I just called back to the bodyshop to get them to write everything down for me. I will also go to another bodyshop to see what they say. Basically the diagnosis is that the car was not cared for at carmax, so nissan will not cover anything with warranty work. I need the hood, fenders, doors, roof, back deck, and back fenders repainted to resolve the issue. FML and F*ck you carmax. the car was bought from carmax and the PO was the dealer so I am the first person on the title of a year old car - that has paint that is cracking and bubbling off.

If I were you, I'd get it detailed and polished, then trade it in for a newer model. Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't want to have to worry about the paint getting worse and worse as time goes on.

I wish that were an option but I'm not in a spot financially to do that (I'm an intern). And it is getting worse. I first noticed a few spots that were raised. Now there is cracking paint on multiple spots on just about every body panel, and more spots have popped up that arn't yet raised or cracking but I'm guessing will progress that way.

I don't have the thousands of dollars to repaint the car, and if I did it would show up on carfax and the car would be worth thousands less on top of that. My little brother who paints cars in a tent in his friends driveway has much better looking paint than my car.

Sorry to hear that OP! :confused: I would be pissed off too!

I just cannot believe you did not catch this when you first looked at the car. Did you purchase the car at night? dim light conditions? These dealers really do a great job a concealing cosmetic deficiencies to make the car look practially brand new. However these are only meant to keep the car looking new for a few months after purchase.

I remember my personal expirience when I purchased a used CLK 350. it was blue with the really light tan leather. When I looked at the car from the dealer it looked BRAND NEW! the leather looked absolutely amazing. come to find out several months after there was some sort of spray on paint that masked the leather wrinkles that were pretty bad in some parts. It was only through continued seating and usage that the spray paint wore off and I noticed this. I said to my self this would be the last time I would ever buy a used car again.

I was not the one who purchased the vehicle, it was a gift for my grad school graduation. Also there were only about 2 spots at the time it was purchased, they are spreading.

I just noticed the same spots on my 40th. I went about two months without washing it. Did your spots have a sticky texture to them? Maybe mine is just sap.