Hello all. New here and I have a question. First a little history. I was in the market for a C6/7 convertible but with used prices where they are I decided to just order a new 2022. Well, the other day, my wife bought a Chevy Bolt and when we went to pick it up, they had a 2019 GS convertible 3LT with 2900 miles sitting outside. I called a friend who owns a Chevy dealership in another state (the one we have the 2022 on order with) and he looked up MMR and shared some prices they were paying at the dealer auctions. Turns out this 2019 GS was a pretty good deal so I pulled the trigger.

Now the question. I noticed a small hairline crack in the left rear quarter where the wheel well edge breaks and rolls up. The quarter panel feels fairly thin and I was wondering if it was fiberglass or plastic. There is no evidence of exterior damage or inner wheel well liner damage, so I'm thinking this should be a warranty issue. Headed to the dealer to see if they agree.

Has anyone seen anything like this?

Thanks in advance for any insight.

Update: So the dealer said it looked like a defect out of the mold. They have seen a few cases. They will fix it under warranty but they want to fix the existing quarter on the car. I'd rather they replace the quarter but I have to go along with whatever Chevrolet tells them to do.

 

As I recall in or around 2016 GM touted switching to a new light-weight body resin or some such, that saved something like 20+ pounds per car. I've not seen problems with it as you are experiencing, but I would expect the material to be as thin as possible. I appreciate your wish for a new panel, but I doubt that's ever going to happen, as you've already learned from the dealer, it seems. And, with things as they are, who knows when you might or might not see one,anyway? I hope either the dealership has a competent, late-Vette experienced body-shop or is willing to send it out to one. All the best.

 

They sounded competent. They told me about a yellow 2018 that had the same issue that they fixed on the car. The car is arctic white, so at least they won't have to match any crazy metallic. The panel seems to be available, but GM wants to take the cheaper way out, which I guess is fixing it on the car. As easy as it is to get the panel off, they will probably spend more time masking and taping than it would take to R&R the panel.

 

I think I’d offer to pay the delta cost to get the new panel. 2 years from now and the car is out of warranty, if it happens again you’ll be ticked.

 

If the dealer is agreeable, this would be a good option. Otherwise, just make sure the body shop knows what they are doing when making the repair.

 

It is made of a material called TCA Ultra Lite.... Basically, it is fancy plastic. I imagine it would be difficult to fix properly, and probably cheap to just replace. Hopefully, the dealer helps you out.

Source: https://netcomposites.com/news/gener...ca-ultra-lite/

 

It's still a type of SMC (sheet molding compound). There are well established repair techniques for those materials.

A new quarter panel is roughly $600, depending on where you get it from. I suspect the bigger issue is GM doesn't want to pay for the labor to take it off the car. So they're just looking to do a spot repair while the car is fully assembled.

 

They are pretty intent on repairing. Is there a someone at GM that I could call to discuss? I talked to the only non-dealer body shop that I trust and he considers these panels non-repairable. He says for the time it takes to remove these panels, it's not worth having a failed repair come back. I guess if I can't get them to play ball, I'll have them guarantee the repair in writing.

 

This guy seems to be using standard techniques on a wrecked C7. Fiberglass, epoxy and body filler.

 

Standard is that the warranty is for 12 months. If it cracks again in month 13, you'll get the full bill. With no pics, it's hard to really know how bad this is. If we're talking a half inch long and it takes a magnifying glass and luck to find it, that's a lot different than something that's 3 inches long, the crack edges are separated from each other and it's glaringly obvious.

Basically you'd be out the labor hours to R&R the panel but you should save on the hours it'll take to fix the existing panel. If not a wash, it should be damn close if the crack is bad. Again, pics would help.

If this dealer is incapable of letting you pay the delta cost, I'd find another dealer or look for a body shop that does GM warranty work.

 

The worse one is about 3" and fairly noticeable. They keep say it is superficial and easily repaired.

 

The first one looks more like a crack in the paint rather than the underlying material. It might even be a deep scratch.

The second one looks like a scuff mark.

 

I would prefer they repair the panel Vs remove and replace it. You can get into bigger issues when removing the panel. First, the rear fascia has to come off which means you now have to worry about getting it back on straight. You can actually affect both sides of the car doing that. Quality work means reducing the chances of human error by reducing operations that involve humans doing anything. Changing the panel means more human work and a greater chance of error. Repairing SMC panels is a well known process that has been around for years. Corvettes have been built with SMC panels since the 1980s.

I have had a cracked door panel and aperture panel repaired with no issues. Both were cracked during an off track excursion that resulted in the right rear of the car hitting a tire wall.

Bill

 

They are both cracks to some degree. You can drop a knife edge into the cracks. How deep they go is something they can't determine until they get into it.

Bill: That's the way I'm going to go. They are confident in their ability and I don't have much choice. They aren't interested in doing anything other than what GM approves. Anything more would mean going out of pocket with an non-dealer body shop, which is always an option down the road if the repair does not hold up. The car is new to me and I want to keep it perfect, but I also plan to drive it, so dings and scratches are probably inevitable. The first one is always the hardest, especially since it wasn't my doing.

 

I found more paint cracks. These cracks are appearing along body lines and contours. If the panel were to flex, this is where you would expect to see paint cracks. I have cracks in both doors and the left rear quarter. This is what I would expect from a poorly prepped paint job.

 

So body shop confirmed that these are all paint cracks. I opened a case with GM. A google search showed that this is not an isolated case. I wouldn't say it is common, but there are enough people reporting the same thing that at least I know I'm not alone.