miltonb

I went and looked at my corvette that i should pick up this week. It has a door ding on it. I am pretty paticular about my cars and feel that i will never get the paint job like the factory. It also appears to have quite a bit of orange peel.

What would you do?

KenHorse

Depends on the color. Some are much easier to blend than others..

C7cmnthru

Doesnt matter what any of us would do. Sounds like you already know what you want to do. If its going to pi$$ you off every time you look at the car, then you should consider not taking delivery. You could have the repair made and then make your decision. And orange peel can be made better with wet sanding if you want to go thru the cost and time.

Glen e

I have no idea where everyone gets this idea that "factory paint jobs" are better than your local GOOD body shop. It is always better locally, if the guy is a pro.....a new car can be matched PERFECTLY by someone with computerized spraying and skill.

Steve_R

Spot on Glen. Good luck convincing many here of that.

And if you have an entire door painted there is no blending, which is how repairing a paint flaw on a door should be done (and is far easier for the painter anyway.)

69L79

With all these so, so paint jobs coming out of Bowling Green, I would think that a "local" guy would stand a better than even chance of exceeding factory paint. And, a ding and orange peel on a new Vette would be a no, no for me after spending 65K.

Mr. Gizmo

the C7's all seem to have quite a bit of orange peel. I wouldn't let orange peel stop me from buying it. The door ding would depend on how bad it is and what it looks like after the repair. If you don't buy it they will have someone touch it up and sell it to an unsuspecting buyer and the new buyer will never know the difference, unless a few months down the road they are waxing it and happen to look at it closely with just the right light and see the touch up job.

Who knows, the next one that comes along you would buy might have had a ding in it that was touched up and you are the unsuspecting buyer.

in any event $hit happens, once you own and drive the car. it will get chips, dings, things brushing up against it while parked safely in your garage.

you could use the ding as an excuse to justify a better price on the car.

There are bigger things to focus your attention on.

dvilin

Have to agree, I do not see spending that kind of money and having to accept a repair of a door ding and what I assume is excessive orange peel in the finish.

fsvoboda

Lots of new cars sustain minor damage in shipping, are repaired and sold. I'd ask the dealer to do the repair, then evaluate.

My take on this is that there is no perfect car, and expecting that is setting yourself up for disappointment. (However, that's not to say that you don't get to set your own expectations.)

Good luck, whatever you decide.

C7cmnthru

Don't know this for a fact, but I am sure paint damage occurs at BG and they spot repair the damage. I do know that cars get damaged in transit occassionally and get repaired by the dealer. Every dealer has a touch up guy that paints scratches etc. Usually the buyer never knows.

3 Z06ZR1

Best practice is remove the panel and repair and paint to match perfectly.

Never ever let anyone do a spray over blend repair.

I hope you mean color match instead of blending.

3 Z06ZR1

A good body shop can easy match or out do the factory.

The factory advantage of the "better tougher paint job (as far as GM is concerned) is LONG GONE!

3 Z06ZR1

BINGO!

KenHorse

That's what I meant, yup

(I don't even play a body shop guy on TV)

01VETTECOP

I wouldn't take it

Zymurgy

A "door ding" is not very descriptive. Did it go through the clear coat? If not, it can probably by taken care of by polishing. Photos would be immensely helpful here - for both the door ding and the orange peel.

Michael A

A) Computer or not, you will never get perfect matching. Even the plant doesn't do that.

B) Good luck finding a body person who is a "pro". Most just get by, if that.

Michael

Glen e

Sorry, disagree, had many parts matched perfectly over the last few years.

John Harry

Exactly right. I've tried to make that point in the past here. Cars are damaged in shipping, while sitting on the lot (just watch the amount of dealership and customer traffic sometime), and even while in for service. They are repaired and the owner never knows.

Pocket Aces

Nonmetallic colors can be matched very closely without much difficulty. Metallics (especially tintcoats) are near impossible to match. Even if you get the shade right the alignment of the metal flakes is not going to be oriented in the same direction as the surrounding panel so in some lighting the paint will look like it matches and in other lighting it will look like a totally different shade. This is why most reputable shops do blending on metallic paints.