Is it me or Nissan's Paint really bad? Front bumper looks nasty with Stone Chips

[bembol]

I've driven my last Coupe ('02 Acura RSX Premium) in far worst places and it didn't look this bad until the fourth year.

What is up with Nissan's Paint Quality? I only had my 3.5SE for SE7EN months and it's disgusting/rough to look at.

I'm thinking of visiting my dealership this weekend. Any NICO with current/past experiences and did you get Nissan to fix it?

It even get more ridiculous that Nissan Canada charges $160 ($285) more for Satin White.

[mpbclutch33]

No.... It's not you. I just hit 4,000 miles in mine and the front bumper has about 4-5 paint chips already. I kinda figured it though, my 2005 Nissan Frontier was the same way.

[Scott21384]

My bumper and front of the hood has so many little chips from road debri. It pisses me off, why cant Nissan use better paint or more coats? I had a Tahoe for 5 years and it looked no where near as bad os my coupe has in 6 months.

[NissanAltimaGuy]

Mine has a thousand miles on it and I already have a couple of chips.

More alarming, there's an area around the trunk where it looks almost like the paint's pealing. You have to really get down there and eyeball it, but it's there.

[LongBeachCoupe]

This has been covered before, but yes the paint is crappy and considering a clear bra isnt a bad idea if you can find a good installer with a decent price.

Ive probably got amongst the most miles on my coupe, and its black... im at 17k, and its mostly highway (where rocks hurt).

The bumper is good to go, but the hood has 5 or 6 chips in it. Repainting the hood will cost you atleast $400 i think.

Taking that into consideration, a clear bra that costs $700 to install is a good value.

Its good for 5+ yrs(and covers hood and bumper), and if you paint your hood today, it can get chipped tomorrow.

I really really want one, and although im the value buyer here, i still cant bring myself to get it done.

[R1Wolf]

It's not you, my hood is starting to look pretty bad too. If I ever get to getting a Stillen front fascia I may have to get the hood repainted at the same time with a better quality paint.

[Cali 2 Balti G]

Yes Nissan (at least on the Infiniti G - cant comment on the M) paint sucks - my last car before this - was a Lexus LS with 5 layer paint - no comparison.

Get the clear bra if you can.

[l33th41]

I plan on going the clear bra route myself.

For those in the NOVA area:http://www.clearbraofva.com/

[hangtime23]

I've driven my last Coupe ('02 Acura RSX Premium) in far worst places and it didn't look this bad until the fourth year.

What is up with Nissan's Paint Quality? I only had my 3.5SE for SE7EN months and it's disgusting/rough to look at.

I'm thinking of visiting my dealership this weekend. Any NICO with current/past experiences and did you get Nissan to fix it?

It even get more ridiculous that Nissan Canada charges $160 ($285) more for Satin White.

Hey bembol, I actually went the clearbra route myself, I didn't get the actual 3M clearbra, but another type, I can't remember the name of it now, but it's been good so far. Seeing as how you're in southern Ontario as well, I can give you the name of the guy that did it for me (I don't have his info on me right now), but he did the clearbra + tinted my windows for $400 or $450, tax in. The clearbra covers about a foot up the hood, as well as the side mirrors.

[LongBeachCoupe]

a foot aint worth it to me... cali2 bali's goes to about 4 inches before the front windshield!

FULL HOOD FTW! all my rock chips are more than 12 inches away from the edge of the hood anyways...

[bembol]

This is was surprise, I dropped by Airport Nissan and said they would see what they can do and get back to me because the Service Manager has seen this before.

I was shocked with 401-Dixie (were we picked up all thee, two '08 Coupes 3.5SE & 2.5S and '08 Rogue SL). Right out they're like "okay, what do want us to do, it's Stone Chips." At the end all they can do at the end is re-paint it at cost.

If Airport says no, I will like just get the Stillen's Front Fascia.

[TrueFaith]

I work for a car-hauling company that brings new Hondas, Toyotas and Nissans to the dealerships. My drivers have always said Nissan's paint is thin and chips easily compared to the other two makes. According to them if you look at a Nissan the wrong way you are guaranteed a blemish that will be written up on delivery at the dealership. None of that prevented me from buying my Coupe, however. I can live with thin paint on an otherwise wonderful car, but it would be nice if Nissan corrected this obvious problem.

[hangtime23]

This is was surprise, I dropped by Airport Nissan and said they would see what they can do and get back to me because the Service Manager has seen this before.

I was shocked with 401-Dixie (were we picked up all thee, two '08 Coupes 3.5SE & 2.5S and '08 Rogue SL). Right out they're like "okay, what do want us to do, it's Stone Chips." At the end all they can do at the end is re-paint it at cost.

If Airport says no, I will like just get the Stillen's Front Fascia.

hmm that's surprising, I've had only good dealings with 401-Dixie Nissan so far. I cracked my bumper recently, and when I asked them for an estimate, the service guy there was actually nice enough to tell me that it pretty much wasn't worth it to do it there, and recommended a body shop down the street instead...

and it's funny, I'm actually considering getting the Stillen front fascia as well now, depending on how much it'll cost to fix my bumper. I am a bit worried about what other people (dangeris and adidas2go to name a couple) have said about the front fascia occasionally popping out, and them having to pop it back in.

[adidas2go]

Someone dented the hell out of my fender on that side though. Thats why I have to pull mine in

Also, for the OP. Nissan paint is an eco-friendly, thin, paint. All the auto makers are merging into using it now

[hangtime23]

Someone dented the hell out of my fender on that side though. Thats why I have to pull mine in

Also, for the OP. Nissan paint is an eco-friendly, thin, paint. All the auto makers are merging into using it now

ah...damn that sucks...so does the stillen fascia fit just fine normally? there was another guy that started a thread saying that he had problems with it popping out too...

[adidas2go]

If you install it right, it does

[racingtiger03]

eco friendly... and WEIGHT SAVING! all those paint layers add weight!... enough that it would matter in a superstock class where every 5 lbs makes a difference in winning and losing -.- ...

[hangtime23]

If you install it right, it does

hahaha...hmm maybe I'll order it and take it to a bodyshop to get installed in that case.

[dimitrinassis001]

Im getting mine done on monday. Tinted and clear bra on hood and mirrors for 400 cash. Said it would be an extra 300 for the bumper and I would have to leave it for a day cuz the application is hard. Im getting stoneguard done (which is owned by 3m since a couple months ago). The guy says he was using 3m and it yellows faster then stonguard (all of them yellow eventually). Will let you know what happens. Wish my A/C luck.

[AppleBonker]

Wow, I'm glad someone revived this thread. I just joined so I would've probably missed it otherwise. I stated in my "hello" thread that I work with automotive coatings (read: paint) and I want to correct a number of incorrect statements here. I know a lot of the information given was in good faith, but not all of it is true. Brief warning, this will probably turn into a long post.

First, your car is painted in a number of different places. My bet would be that all of the paint on your car (inside and out) was applied at no less that 20 different facilities. The main assembly plant (does the Tennessee plant manufacture all NA A/Cs?) paints the vast majority of the car (pretty much anything that is metal). What are known as Tier 1 suppliers paint the majority of everything else. My company supplies mostly paint for plastic applications (fascias - front and rear, handles, splash guards, all over the interior, etc.), so I can't speak for the body paint (most likely manufactured by DuPont or BASF but don't quote me on that) too well. Speaking from a paint manufacturer's perspective (probably makes me a bit biased), the paint is really no different from one OEM to another aside from color (the resins that actually bond together/to the car are probably nearly identical). That being said, the problem is with the application. If not enough (or too much) paint is applied, it will have a severely negative effect on the performance of the coating.

Cost: Most exterior paint is probably around $200/gallon (some colors can be significantly more) when sold in bulk. If sold to a body shop, most companies will charge significantly more (because they can). The more expensive colors are metallic reds/blues/yellows and some whites (especially tri-coats - more on this later).

Application: For body paint, I believe most colors have only 4 coats of paint. The first is an electrolytic coating (the whole metallic frame of the car is dipped in this liquid to get the coating), which is baked before moving to the next step. This helps the spray process adhere to the metal. The next coat is a primer which is conductive when it is baked. The third coating is the basecoat (which can be sprayed by anywhere from four to maybe ten robots). There is a flash (or air dry) period after this coating before the clearcoat is applied. The clear (fourth coating) is what makes the whole thing durable as well as resistant to UV and other chemicals that may come into contact with the gar (namely salt and various liquids like oil/gas/etc.). The major difference between body and plastic parts is that the plastic has no electrolytic coating (you can't apply a voltage to a plastic piece very easily). So plastic only has primer, base and clear.

Note for tri-coats: Some whites (and a few select other rare colors) are known as tri-coats. The white for the US Altima is one of these. Between the white basecoat and clearcoat application there is a mica coat. Think of mica as little pieces of ceramic prisms that diffract light to produce multiple colors. If you have the chance to look at the US white Altima, check it out in the sun. Depending on the angle at which the light is striking the car (relative to your viewing angle), the car will look different colors (either white, yellow, or a hint of red). These colors are far more difficult to match because they depend heavily on the thickness of the mica coat layer. Too much of this will make the car look like it has more color (mostly yellow), and too little will make the car look too white/plain. This is the main reason why I personally do not like these color cars. I know from experience that the color never matches well from one body part to another (just my personal opinion - not an attack on those of you with white Alti's).

All manufacturers require the parts they buy to meet certain testing requirements. Nearly all of these are the same from one brand to another (maybe just very slight differences). Once the place that makes a part proves they pass, Nissan (or whoever) will then buy parts from them. They cannot test every part they receive as this would damage the paint and make the part unusable (I doubt anyone here wants a part on their car that was tested for adhesion/acid resistance etc. - adhesion is checked by cutting a grid into the part and trying to pull paint off with tape, and I certainly don't want a crosshatch cut into my car). Knowing this, once a manufacturer has testing approvals, they probably wont paint the same way every time. This may mean that some parts have too little or too much film (as stated early causing the problems we are seeing).

As far as nature friendly paint, EVERY manufacturer that is painting in the US is basically required to go this route (thank you government). There are a number of solvents used in paint that work extremely well but are deemed too hazardous to the environment, so they are being eliminated. However, when applied correctly, this will not have a negative impact on the coating.

Ok class, this has been your intro to car paint for the day. Any questions? Seriously though, I hope this has been at least somewhat informative to those of you who manage to read through this whole post. If there are any questions, please let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.

Side note: Some of the worst things you can do to paint are spill gas or diesel on it. If you ever do, make sure to wash/rinse it off quickly to help avoid problems. On the interior, sunblock (for whatever reason) is horrible to most of those parts. Make sure you don't spill it or touch the dash (etc.) when you have put some freshly on your hands.

[Afflicted]

Yes we're not the only ones. I haven't read all the post yet but after a few months of driving through WV salt coveed roads with a few trips to Pittsburgh our front end was tore all to hell. I'm guessing 50-70 little specs per square inch. So at about 3500 miles we took it into the dealer that we bought it to to have something done about it under warranty. They first refused to do anything and were a$$holes about it pretty much accuseing my wife of being a dumb women diver driving it through something like a truck that was leaking something that would eat thru paint, driving up a dirt road behind someone, etc etc BS BS. So we put in a complaint at Nissan corporate which there was alot of misconmunication of getting back in touch with us so finally the ahole service manager at that dealer calls us wanting us to take pictures of it so his district manager could see it when ever the next time he was in town again "maybe in a month". So we get a call from corporate after about 2 weeks saying we need to meet up with the DM when he was in town. A week or two passes then the same ahole service manager calls us at 5pm and gives us a 2 hour window for the DM to see it the next day at a dealership 40 min. away which is BS since we both work reason one that we drive a $32000 car. So I weasoaed my way around into tricking another dealer to give me the DM's cell number. So finally called him and got a time that I could meet up he looks at it and trys to say that it is normal wear and tear so I got rude and called him and Nissan out in quality since we have been a Honda/ toyota family (don't hold that against me) unknowning the other suit there was the regional manager which finally aggreed to repaint just the bumper and nothing else. Eventhough I didn't want to settle just for that I took it affraid I wasn't going to get anywhere else. It had to be painted at a independent body shop since no dealers around here has their own body shop which didn't do that good of a job.plus I still have a hood that has all kinds of marks in it with only about 6000 miles. I finally gave up since I knew we had plan to get a Stillen front end anyway. So the mural of the story is don't let Nissan screw you over on the paint complain until you see some kind of action for positive results. I hope some one from Nissan reads this because I'm still not satisfied over this whole thing. I loved my 87 maxima and I love the AC but I will never buy a new nissan again after this unless I mustard up enough for a GTR. I may buy an old 240 or 300z for a project car but that is it.

Sorry for the typos this is sent from my iPhone while ridding in a car.

[adidas2go]

my god, you guys type letters to each other

[AppleBonker]

my god, you guys type letters to each other

Yup, just getting the info out there. FWIW, it will be hard to convince Nissan to do much about chips in the paint under warranty. Even if they know their product is defective, this is a business they're running. I'm sure they will try to convince you that you were driving too close to a truck or something.

On the other hand, if the paint is peeling/bubbling/cracking/de-laminating/etc. they should take care of this under warranty. I know many of my company's customers have had defective parts returned to them for warranty work. That tells me that this is possible.