Vette Ski

And I don't mean flounder! I found two fish eyes on the front "bumper", (not gonna be any help to guide me down the road either,) ( soon after I brought the car home past Dec. ) Can these be wet sanded without repainting or does it have to be re-sprayed ?

Rich K ( Vette Ski)

rsvette12

If fish eye is under clear coat you own it - if its in clear coat you may be able to get it out depends how deep it is - once you break into base coat game over - hard to tell without seeing it

Avanti

Most likely you'll have to live with it. But, be sure that the dealer CAN make it worse.

PatternDayTrader

This isn't sarcasm.
I would consider this very seriously.

Vette Ski

I do understand that you can't tell without actually seeing it. I will bring it back for the 500 mile oil change and show them. See what they recommend and go from there.!
Thank you,
Rich K ( Vette Ski )

kennyjames21

Just leave it dude - if they wet sand the area to make the fisheye less obvious you're losing a ton of clear coat in the process, and you are taking the chance that whoever does the work might screw up and make it look worse.

Vette Ski

Your are all probably right. Thanks. Will have 2 extra eyes guiding me down the road!
Rich K ( Vette Ski )

dork

If it really bothers you, you can buy some clear. I don't know what's available; an auto paint supply house would have the real thing, obviously, but it'd probably only be available in quart cans. If they dispense it themselves, you might be able to buy or cajol them out of a teaspoon's worth. An alternative would be to buy a rattle can of clear and spray the clear into the cap and then apply it with a brush... Whatever you acquire, you could apply very small doses by a fine-haired, finely-tipped brush until the fisheyes are 'hills'. Then you could wet-sand it with some worn 1000 grit wet. You don't wanna use a new virgin piece of 1000 grit unless you've got experience wet-sanding an automotive finish. The way to wear down virgin sandpaper is to lightly fold it over on itself without creasing it, and thoroughly rub the surfaces together. By "thoroughly" I mean---don't miss any spots (leaving an area 'virgin'--that area will be much more abrasive); I don't mean to rub, rub, rub. It doesn't take much to knock off new sandpaper's "sharpness". No exaggeration, a couple rubs (like in, "two") will do; much more than that and your paper will be worthless. You don't want the sandpaper to be smooth, you just don't want it to be "extremely" sharp. Feel how gritty a new sheet of paper is, then after you lightly but thoroughly knock it down, check it to see how much progress you've made. You can always rub more for it to be smoother. The trick is not to press the sandpaper against the clearcoat. Let the paper do the work, not your muscle. Guide and glide the paper; that's one of the reasons why it's done 'wet'--the paper's bare friction alone will accomplish the job. You don't need to "lean into it". Also, use a rubber sanding block or a 3M glazing putty applicator ( to back the paper. That way, a more level surface will cut mostly against the top of the 'hill' you've created, and not its' slopes. To do it barehanded takes a real experienced touch and talent (no offense meant); most guys who barehand sand can't alter the contour of an automotive finish unless they sand it completely smooth. That's because they sand the slopes simultaneously, which in effect just means they're sanding the entire contour equally and only accomplishing a lowering of the (cross-sectional) contoured surface.

rsvette12

Good luck Rich you will work it out

Vette Ski

Thanks everyone. Just purchased the car in December. Will bring it back to the dealer and get their "honest" opinion. <
Rich K ( Vette Ski )

vdavenp802

Whats a 'fish' eye????

Vette Ski

It is ( in my case ) a factory defect (dust) in the paint or clear coat ! A tiny bump in the finish.
Rich K ( Vette Ski )

dork

https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=h...defect.jpg&f=1

https://i.stack.imgur.com/sGnkm.jpg

Those are pictures of typical "fish eyes". The finish is completely dry; there are little 'craters' in the finish. The phenomenon is caused by some kind of contamination in the surface to which the paint has been applied. Anything can cause it. Dust, foreign chemicals (oils) in the air that settle on a surface to be painted. (The oils can come from other workers who've used heavily-lubricated pneumatic tools nearby; another hack painter who's substituted a couple drops of liquid silicon in his paint/clear to allow it to flow out smoothly because he lacks knowledge and technique, etc.)

The cratering is the reaction of the sprayed paint or clear coat avoiding the contaminant; in essence, the surface tension created by the contaminate restricts the ability of the sprayed material to flow over the contaminate; a wall builds up around the site. Fish-eye.

The remedy is to stop and let the surface dry enough to wet-sand the fisheye(s) out after a thorough cleaning.

LarryFL

Those from a '70's Lada? Please say those were not produce in a US assembly line.

Vette Ski

Larry, and all forum members,
Scroll up a few posts and you will see the "factory" fish eyes on my black G.S.
Hope I did this correctly,
Rich k (Vette Ski )

kennyjames21

To correct those you'd have to repaint the panels. I have a pretty good sized piece of dirt under the paint on the rear quarter panel behind the passenger door - the dealership offered to repaint the panel but I'd rather keep the factory paint job than take a chance on a dealership repaint. If it becomes an issue (like the paint comes off the dirt...) during the bumper to bumper then obviously I'd have them repaint the panel, but I've had cars with this issue where it never became a problem over many years.

GM needs to do a better job painting their cars, especially their higher end models like the corvette.

Vette Ski

Kenny,
I know, I will probably just bite the bullet and leave it that way. This is my first "American" made car since my wife's '84 T Bird Elan ( which had a few small issues ). All Toyota's Honda's and Mazda's, all without a hiccup. Now I have fish eyes, can't sleep at night because I might have A 8 transmission troubles down the pike, & God knows what else?
Thank you
Rich K ( Vette Ski,)

pedalpusher

I took delivery of my new 2019 Blade Silver Vette in December 2018. The nose has 37 "fish eyes". My dealer claims he can repaint the nose and solve the problem. I'm not sure about that. I also wonder if there are other November/December built Vettes that have a "fish eye" problem.

Bob-G

This, and I am assuming the OP's car is a 2019 as well. Thinking back to when the all the hype was that the "new" paint process is supposed to be so much better than the old process and will take care of a lot of the issues.

vdavenp802

Thanks, have never this of known of it ...........