In bright, direct light, the Blade Silver paint on my '09 Z06 looks blotchy. Kinda uneven. First noticed it under florescent light; then in bright direct sunlight. Anyone else notice this in any of the other silvers or colors?

 

Yes. Every silver 2005 I saw was terrible in that respect.

My DSOM has a bit of that in extremely bright sunlight, but not to the same degree as the silvers.

 

Thats typically the resut of a bad aftermarket paintjob. I havent seen it a lot on original paint, but it happens very often with silver when the car gets repainted for whatever reason and the paint isnt mixed throughly or the air pressure going through the painters gun is unstable.

And yes, even zero mile, brand spankin new cars get paint and body repairs done at the dealer often times. Its typically due to transport damage / lot damage and they will not tell you about it if you do not ask.

 

most silvers do

 

Seems to be all over so I would rule out a spot repair. My Silver M3 was perfect so it sux that I have it on an $83K car. Bailout smailout!

 

Some are better than other but the lighter the silver is the more you can see it, my G35 has the same issue.

 

Factory paint robots don't have eyes, or judgement. They just repeat the motions programmed into them. They can't adjust their technique to compensate for paint batch variations, varying air pressure, varying humidity, etc the way a skilled human painter can. That's why factory paint jobs are almost always worse than the work of a good body shop.

 

I saw the blotchiness you are referring to on a cyber gray '09 that was in the Corvette Corral at Road America for the ALMS race in August. A dealer brought several new '09's for display/sale and in the sun with the hood up there were several of these flaws evident. This, also, on a brand new vehicle. Several of us noticed this and were commenting...

 

As a former GM mechanical and physical damage adjuster, and now body shop manager, I can tell you that your car may have been a victim of prior lot damage or transportation damage and repainted some time before you bought it. At the factory, there are robotic arms that paint the vehicle that gaurantee consistant base coat and clear coat coverage. If the car was painted after that by a body shop and the painter did not apply enough base coat (color) you will see blotches in the paint. Silver is one of the hardest colors to get the correct amount of base coat coverage because it is so hard to see as you are spraying it. Have a local body shop look at it and they will be able to tell you.

 

I saw many Blade Silver cars when I was shopping for mine and they were ALL very blotchy. I doubt every one was repaired. I think it is just a poorly designed color that can not be sprayed evenly.

 

The OP said "blade silver" which is a 2009 color tint. The 2005 machine silver metallic is much different and I've never seen a 2005 machine silver metallic look "blotchy."

I tend to agree that the OP's paint may have damage and if it were my car, being new I'd probably take it to the (gulp) dealer for a warranty covered fix.

 

I bought my 2010 Blade Silver C6 in February. I didn't notice any problems with the paint at the time, but I can't say I was looking for uneven/blotchy paint. My hood got keyed the first time I left the car unattended. After several attempts to touch up the paint, I decided to have it repaired professionally. When I dropped off the car at the body shop to have it fixed, the guy that did the estimate was looking over the car with the painter and called me back. He pointed out the blotchy paint and suggested that I contatact the dealer. He said the paint job was really bad. He said they had a similar issue with recent model GM SUV (in light blue) and got the entire car repainted under warranty. I looked at a number of Blade Silver vettes at local dealers and all were a little blotchy. It seems to depend on the lighting conditions and angle of the sun. However, I did notice that both of my front fenders were really bad with very uneven blotches. The rest of the car seems blotchy too, but the pattern is more consistent so it looks intentional. Some of it may be due to the lighting changes/angle where the body panels curve.

Anyway, I was able to get the GM rep to look at the car and they agreed to re-paint the front end under warranty. They are going to take care of the hood scratch while they are at it so this makes the most sense. I confirmed with the paint shop that there would not be a car fax report since this is warranty work. Would be curious to know what other options I have if the paint job still doesn't look right.

 

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