VIPRETR

i have an 06 black c6 , i went to the dealership to have my 1k mile lof and noticed a spot near the drivers side fender where the paint is cracked under the clearcoat. the service manager said that it was a defect from body stress..

should i let them paint a new BLACK car . or am i being to picky?


Paint
paint or no Paint

C8-Vette

Are you talking about having the entire car painted or just the problem area. I would yes for a spot paint but not the entire car. Black is great
easy to spot,match should be no problem

AutoCutter

I let the dealer work on mine and boy do I wish they never touched the car-what crap work! Dust spots, fisheyes, and swirls-as you can guess I made them redo the work to get it right. I should have followed my own advice, contact the local Covette Clubs to get a recommendation, but check out their work first. Don't pick up the car until you inspect the work in the bright sunlight-the sun should be shinning directly at the spot you had repaired.

Top Flight Reproductions

That's a difficult question to answer. Some dealers are better than others. I hope it all works out.

vetdude

I'd find the best dealer body shop, or private shop for that matter, in your area and let them paint it. Naturally, a good dealer shop would be best for warranty savings but you're the one that eventually has to look at it all the time. Paint it. You could post a request here or on the C5 Forum for recommendations in your area. Best of luck.

tommy1727

Body stress? What the hell is he talking about? There shouldn't be any stress on any of the panels as they are not structure panels. Does the dealer think it was cracked before the factory painted it? If the panel is cracked it will need to be repaired, or the crack will translate back through the new finish. I believe the front fender is SMC or sheet molded compound and should be easy to fix, provided the tech does it right. I would want to find out the real cause of the problem before I decided to repair/paint it! If it is very small and not going to get any bigger, I would leave it alone. I would however take some good photos and insist they make a record in the event it gets worse down the road.

If you do decide to repair and paint it, do as the others have said and make sure you do your research, all shops are not created equal!

NVR LAT

I'm going through the same situation myself for a "crease" on my left front fender. You can only see it under the right light conditions. You can't feel it. I'm not sure I want body/paint work done on a new car...

Hope it works out for you - I'm still debating. I have an appointment Jan. 3rd to fix FM static/MP3 situation and have the fender taken care of, but I might chicken out on the fender.

joeking

It appears to me it was hit pretty hard to stress out the paint. I have seen people take their knee and push in the fender or quarter panels a couple inches with no damage. You need to get it repaired.

Dr. Guaranexx

If it is not extremely noticeable, then NO! However, if it sticks out like a sore thumb, then it might be worth it. One word of advice though: make sure you get a feel for the quality level of the dealership's paint work. I had to take my car in to get the passenger side door (paint chip from unfortunate incident while at the dealer for a TSB) and driver's side front fender repainted (spec of dust under the paint from the manufacturer). Needless to say, it was a headache getting the paint back to normal. It took three attempts to get it back to a point where it is satisfactory:

Attempt 1: Overspray all over the hood of the car when the front fender was being painted, and dried paint drip marks on the sides of the passenger side door. Needless to say, I told them to try it again.

Attempt 2: Horrible paint job on the passenger side door. Orange peel so bad on the bottom of the door, you could light a match off it. Yet another few days to wait as they tried again.

Attempt 3: Paint job is satisfactory, but I later noticed scuff marks on my front and rear passenger side fenders where they burned through the protective covering when sanding down the door. However, it's not extremely noticeable, and I don't feel like going through the headache again.

In summary, go for it if the imperfection is very noticeable, and you are comfortable with the dealership's service department. Also, keep in mind that it will probably never look the same, and it will probably show up in the carfax reports if you ever plan on selling your car later.