Orange Peel

[catbert]

At this point, just give me my money back............ I'm not so sure I even want to buy another car from GM Bye, Bye

GM doing what they do best yet again. Losing loyal customers. Whenever business gets good, GM gets arrogant again. They lose customers, and have to start eating you know what again.

 

[Mac]

GM doing what they do best yet again. Losing loyal customers. Whenever business gets good, GM gets arrogant again. They lose customers, and have to start eating you know what again.

Eating what? Tax dollars?? :L

Mac

 

[catbert]

Eating what? Tax dollars?? :L

Mac

Not exactly what I was thinking, but...

 

[Flyboy]

I am so very sorry for the situation you are in right now! :ugh

I would not want to make that choice either. I am glad that there are options to chose from.

Please keep us updated.

Kelly J.
Chevrolet Customer Care

The link would not work for me. I don't know if it a bad link or something on this end.

 

[LLC5]

I just saw a blue C7 at my local dealer (only 10K adjusted market value which I thought was fairly decent considering the buying fury) and the orange peel was terrible. You have to look from a low angle or you won't see it but It was all over the car top to bottom and front to rear. The other GM cars in the showroom were fine. I checked all 3 of my cars at home the same way I did in the showroom (under fluorescent lights and the proper angle), and saw no orange peel at all. Anyone buying a new C7 may want to carefully look at their paint before taking the vehicle, and don't just look from the sides or the top, kneel down and look the length of the vehicle so that you get a good straight sight line under good lighting, you may be very surprised .

 

[Midnight 99]

We saw a Laguna blue convertible at a dealership yesterday. The orange peel was horrible. The hood was ok. The rest of the car was yuck!!! Glad we bought the leftover 2013 Grand Sport convertible instead.

 

[vettedreamer]

wet sand

Sorry to hear about your paint problem, but congrats on your C7 purchase. I think what they need to do is wet-sand the clear coat, then re- apply it. This worked fine on my car, all you have to do is pester them!
Look, you spent a lot of money for a new Corvette, and you deserve a proper
paint finish. Go to a high end body shop for a second opinion first.

Good luck!
Donvett.

 

[Hog]

you can thank the EPA for it restriction on emissions from paint booths for your orange peel

GM has put out crap paint on numerous platforms no matter what chemicals are used. This has been happening way before these new techniques were used.
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There are always issues on a new model, this happens some times when folks buy something they sight unseen under the assumption it will be perfect. Maybe folks when they order new cars should insert acceptance clauses such as "provided the vehicle is free from defects".

The only way to properly fix an orange peel car is to sand it down, and re spray the car. Any other way is a Band-Aid. The problem can not only be with the paint, but surface prep as well.

This is why most quality restorations have paint that is better than original, esp. with older vehicles. This is where the 2000 grit wetsanding comes in.

Someone said something about a "pre-acceptance" viewing. I assume this would happen after the cars PDI(pre delivery inspection) but after you actually "take the car".

GM's $131,000,000 investment and $52,000,000 new body shop is having some issues, just like all new paint shops do. Problem is some managers get bonuses for production. I can see them getting pushy to get the car out the door. Ive seen it 1st hand on GM production lines.

Still doesnt help guys that are getting shafted when buying these cars. Peopel buy a new car to get a problem free car, if they didnt, they woudl wait a few years, and buy a used car for 1/2 the money. C'mon GM.

 

[Hog]

Hell yeah!

Looks like even 10 year old Krylon (gloss black of course) works better than Bowling Greens best effort........:L

This would be comparable if you were comparing a 1997 first run car with a 2014 1st run car. AFter the 1996 model year run was finished, Bowling Green got a full makeover then as well. I doubt the orange peeled C7's are "Bowling Greens best effort".

 

[LLC5]

This would be comparable if you were comparing a 1997 first run car with a 2014 1st run car. AFter the 1996 model year run was finished, Bowling Green got a full makeover then as well. I doubt the orange peeled C7's are "Bowling Greens best effort".

I hope you are correct for Bowling Greens future, as it needs to be fixed quickly. But as for now all the 2014 C7's I have seen up close (3-4 so far), and looking down the flanks of the quarter panels have shown a LOT of orange peel. From straight on about 1 foot away it looks ok, but look carefully and it is there.

 

[67vet]

My C7 had very little, if any, orange peel.
I have had the car clear wrapped now and it looks very nice.

 

[LLC5]

My C7 had very little, if any, orange peel.
I have had the car clear wrapped now and it looks very nice.

Good to hear, maybe it's been fixed now.

No OEM paint job is going to be perfect (even the Germans and Italians), you would have to pay $10K-$20K or more at a specialty shop for that. Some small amount of orange peel is to be expected from any factory paint application.

 

[WhalePirot]

fluorescent lights

I have learned from my rework, will show everything that is not easily visible under other lighting. I have seem nearly 10 C7s now, and one looked quite good. I am not faliliar with the paint used by GM, but some current aftermarket paints specify a maximum of one hour between color coat and the clear. Simply sanding and reclearing will obviously require different chemical compositions, as a minimum.

Also, a reasonable man is due a quality product, which is not a matter of deserving it. Define quality.

 

[lgvenable]

I'm the technical director at a regional paint company out of Tulsa OK. We fight issues on orange peel and how well paints will wet the surface and level all the time. I'm just surprised that PPG and GM would allow some of the degree of orange peel I've seen. The three C7's I've seen up close, two had sections where I would have had issue accepting the car. There is always there is a degree of orange peel in a car finish; certainly there is some in my C6Z. One of the replies discussed the use of a sanding series up to 2000 grit, I'd say even smaller grit used - up to 5000 grit to get an ultra-smooth orange peel free finish.

You literally have to physically reduce the hills and valleys in the paint to eliminate orange peel. I have very little in my C6Z; but I'd bet that if you used a spectrograph from BYK Gardner
https://www.byk.com/en/instruments/products/?a=1&b=14&f=0&faction=#fam3
to measure the degree of orange peel in a C5Z or C6Z compared to the C7; you would see a measurable difference in the degree of leveling. Its pretty easy to measure orange peel and distinctness of image; and assign numbers to what you eye's can easily see. The first car I saw was especially bad; but given the asking price I was surprised that they would do any changes for the C7 finish from the procedures used in a C6 coupe/C6Z; until it was at least as good as or better than the procedures they used previously. One last caveat, you do need to examine the finish under different lights, and especially under oblique lighting (extreme angles see edge to the finish tangent) as any surface irregularity will jump right out at you.

 

[catbert]

My C6 has a paint job showing no visible orange peel, so it can be done. The fact that Bowling Green is releasing $70K cars to customers with paint quality that MAACO wouldn't let out of the shop is a disgrace. Why buyers are accepting a junk paint job is a mystery to me. If the General had to eat at a few hundred of those cars, they might be motivated to get BG assembly squared away. Cars aren't always perfect, especially first year models, but the manufacturers should stick the purchaser with correcting the reject.

 

[Toms007]

I actually saw a new Corvette "in the flesh" last week for the first time. I wandered out to take a look, and even if I had not known about the paint issue (read this as I was NOT looking specifically for it), this one had orange peel on the rear fender right behind the passenger side door. Not terrible but as I walked around it the sun hit the spot and it was, without a doubt, there.