Iconic

Many of us here have orders placed for a 2018 Corvette and most already have a TPW. I thought we should have a dedicated thread to see who new paint vs old paint.

To know if/when certain colors get the new paint, we might need Intel and info from some of our CF insiders and or maybe a GM release. This is just a consolidated thread for everyone to compare notes. I have a TPW 12-18-17 Admiral blue GS.

Relevant info to post would be;

The week your Vette was built
The exterior color of your Vette
If your Vette got new or old paint

Zymurgy

How is someone going to know if they got "new" or "old" paint? Orange peel is not a reliable indicator becasue some painted in the old paint shop have very little orange peel. Plus, I'm convinced there are a number of people here who just can't see it when it is there.

Iconic

I thought I covered this in my original post. And I actually thought you might be one of the guys in the know on this subject based on your extensive knowledge posted here. Maybe not.

For example, it is known that all Sebring Orange Vettes get new paint since GM has anounced this. Perhaps they will do the same with other colors. We have a CF member here who writes for the NCM magazine and he shares to ton of intel. That is how, in part anyways. Mileage may vary..

Zymurgy

I have seen conflicting information on this, so unless Chevy announces it, I'd be skeptical of any info.

mountainears

Sounds like an Ask Tadge question. How can one determine if their 2018 was painted in the new facility or the old facility, or can they?

767guy

Thats a good thought. Tadge should be able to find out what the starting VIN # for each color OR production date for each color on the new paint line would be.........or something like that

Avanti

If one cannot tell if their car was painted in the old or the new facility... I'd say that it really doesn't matter which it was.

Foosh

Mike Furman sent out an email last weekend, which I did not save or I'd post it here, but he said when the plant resumes production in early November, only black, white, red, and yellow (all non-metallic, non-tint coats) will be painted in the new facility. Sebring Orange will be painted in the new facility starting in early December, and other tint coats will be added at a later date (TBD).

elegant

Here is a reminder to all where the “each color paint is scheduled to be painted”:

Production at Bowling Green Assembly starts back up November 6, and at that time the ‘basics’ (Black, Arctic White, Torch Red, Corvette Racing Yellow) will begin rolling through the state-of-the-art paint shop. Tintcoats will follow the basics at a later date (Admiral Blue, Blade Silver, Cyber Matrix Gray, Long Beach Red, Sebring Orange and Watkins Glen Gray.”

However, we first learned from jagamajajaran about 7 weeks ago, as there is very limited storage space in the Plant right now due to two paint shops running (roughly 50% of the total plant size), and due to that limited storage space, Kai told us at the NCM event the end of August, that if there are assembly issues, they would use already pre-painted panels from the old paint shop to keep the line moving — and some cars thus might have panels coming from the old paint shop in contraction to the “norms” listed above.

Thus it is not 100% accurate to assume that any color other than Sebring Orange, in spite of the above plans for where each color will be painted, definitively applies to any specific car., i.e., it remains possible ifthere are assembly line production issues, an Arctic White, a black, a Torch Red and/or a Corvette Racing Yellow vehicle could have been painted in the “old” paint shop.

Perhaps VIN’s will be the definitive after assembly determinant, but I personally doubt that even that would work.

I have thus advised my friends for whom getting their 2019 painted in the new shop is a dealbreaker, to not begin to order any color other than Sebring Orange at this time, and perhaps not even until several months from now when we know how this all filters out. And maybe the only 100% guaranteed safe time to insure your car has been painted in the new paint shop, is the day after the old paint shop has been partially dismantled.

Patman

And as much as I would like to get my 2018 painted in the new shop, I really don't think it's the end of the world if it goes through the old one. Looking over the paint on my 12 year old Corvette I'm very impressed with it's level of orange peel. It's on par with my wife's 2010 BMW. And with my C6 being LeMans Blue, orange peel would be more noticeable than it would be with my Torch Red C7. I've looked closely at a lot of Torch Red paint jobs on the lots of new car dealers and have not found one yet that I thought looked bad in any respect.

Frosty

Just to add to the above- Panels from the old and new paint shop cannot be mixed on a car.

In addition while nothing is ever certain and there will always be a chance that you could get a Red, Black, White, Yellow car with its panels painted in the old paint shop after the plant re-opens, I am betting my $2K deposit that this won't be the case for a number of reasons that I can spell out if needed in another post. This production management hedge from Kai is nothing more than CYA (I would do the same in his shoes) and if it actually occurs after GM spent $400M+ on a new paint shop and close to $1B overall in improving production flow, heads will roll. You can bet one of their top priorities is to showcase this huge capital investment without any hitches.

I recommend that anyone with a White, Yellow, Black and Red 2018 car on order should rest easy.

dvilin

Good point, if your paint is free of op then who cares old or new .

Frosty

I went to the Vettes on Space Coast car show last weekend where there were a ton of Vettes, many of which were C7. Since I have ordered a C7, I focused my attention on that generation and while I agree the paint looks good, I could certainly see what everyone talks about with regards to the orange peel when I looked down the sides. IMHO, they were not glass smooth and I can see what management is talking about when they say there will be a noticeable decrease in orange peel with their new paint shop.

robertbruce

I am more worried about panel rub making the paint chip.

Foosh

Just another reminder that OP is not the only finish appearance issue. SMC panels also have variability coming out of the molds. Panel waviness is another issue that can only be resolved by sanding before paint.

A lot of people are reporting panel waviness as OP, but it's a different issue. However, like OP, you have to look for it at certain angles to see it.

Bob-G

Agreed. It sounds like folks have some high expectations for the cars coming out of the new paint shop, I hope there isn't a lot of disappointment compared to the expectations. The rest of the car isn't perfect, there isn't any reason to expect the paint will be. If you go over every inch of the car looking to find something, odds are you will.

Frosty

The way the new production line operates should help avoid this, especially in the front fender to bumper interface where it seems to happen. Apparently the necessary clearance seems to disappear in the first few hundred miles of road operation and with body flex. Panels will be now be bolted in place with the wheels loaded instead of hanging from a rig, thus less adjustment or re-work should be required during final QC.

Kevin A Jones

Very good points made above

Foosh

There will be disappointment because of unrealistic expectations. I have no doubts that on average, quality will improve, but they aren't going to be anywhere close to perfect. No mass production vehicle on the planet is.

c54u

I have noticed the waviness mostly on the hood and rear hatch, and only at certain angle and light combinations on my 2017. The car still looks great and has some orange peel. I will take these trivial flaws (to me anyway) over any mechanical, or electrical problem any day! The new paint shop will continue the improvement of the final product and will continually evolve.