dr_whigham

This entire post is hilarious, let alone T's response; always playing the "best we could" card.

The orange peel is unacceptable, plain and simple. I mean it doesn't really get more "to the point" than that. Those of us that have or want a C7 are told to hurry up and wait. Boy, where I have I heard that before ��

Bottom line is you guys need to realize your paint process is absolute *****, and actually admit it, rather than skirting around "what we'll do in the future."

LT1 Z51

I hope when everyone compared paint jobs you look at cars with similar materials to Corvette.

I'm not one to defend Tadge, as is well known, but here he actually speaks the truth.

The fiberglass composite is extremely hard to paint. Harder than carbon fiber even. So when you compare paint you can't look at or even expect results you would get on a steel or even aluminum bodied car.

That BMW i8 has bad paint for the same reason, it's Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic, nearly the same thing as fiberglass.

Aluminum cars have worse paint than steel typically as well, this is one of the reasons aluminum hasn't been adopted as quickly (the others are joint repair and body "welding") for body panels.

The problem you have is most exotic material bodied cars are basically hand built. We have a unique body, and are mass produced. Not a lot of knowledge out there on the process as Corvette basically has to invent new ways to paint the car.

gary92109

Total agreement with Boost Monkey. I had a 2014 Base model and the paint was so thin that not even Chevrolet could work with it. The paint was just too thin. I now have a 2016 Z06 and the point flakes where the tolerances between panel is poor. Chevrolet still can't fix the problem and I have talked with other owners that have the same problem. The paint had so much orange peel that I took the car in for a color correction (rather expensive but cheaper than a new paint job) and rock chips usually need to be sanded and repainted in most cases, again because the paint is too thin to be spotted and sanded (even with 3000 grit paper. I agree with the comments that it would be a nice for GM to offer a better finish and thicker clear coat as an option. They could possibly even make a few dollars on the option. As for me, I have had six Corvettes over the years and this will be my last. Next car will be of better quality because it will likely be my last weekend car. My first C7 and the current one have seen the repair shop just too many times. I am tired of being a test car owner for GM at my expense. My C5 was a great car.

Bondojohn

Thaks so much for this interesting article. It's nice to here that your trying to improve your product as much as possible all the time. My C7 is a wonderfull vehicle in many ways. Regarding the paint. I like to go to car shows and show off my car I'm proud of. The finish is my pet peeve. Such as the polish and waxes I use to make is shine to the extent that I'm seeing my image in the finish. I'm going to ask a question that I think I know the answer. Is there anyway I can improve my vette's finish regarding that orange peal we've been discussing other than sanding and buffing the clear without going through to the paint colour ?????

Maxie2U

Tadge noted they "developed a new process for painting our Silver that produces a bright harmonious finish that accentuates the Corvette’s crisp lines". I wonder why this new process is only used on silver and not all colors?

I for one really appreciate Tadge's insight to the Corvette paint processes.
It's true best way to get paint on a body panel is to use an electrostatic charge. We as customers really don't understand how difficult composites are to paint and how hard it is with today's water based paints to get it to flow like the old oil based paints. I was surprised to learn they hand sand at many points in the process.

It will be interesting to see how the new paint shop can overcome these challenges.

Maxie2U

I was at a big auto and every premium car had lots of Orange Peel; Tesla, BMW, Maserati, Audi, Infiniti and others.