Oddball Paint Repair Question...

B

Boongie

New member
A paint defect in the hood of my five-month old Dodge Grand Caravan has been bugging me for a while and I have been reluctant to let the dealer's body shop work on it. Apparently, the defect would be covered under the warranty but I don't know if the repair would be worse looking than the defect. The paint is a clearcoated silver metallic. The defect looks like a little pointy pimple in the paint below the clearcoat level. I could probably live with the "pimple" but there is a several square inch area around the pimple where the paint looks like it was rubbed before the clearcoat was applied. The color of this area is just slightly different than the rest of the paint on the hood. My guess is that the body shop would grind the area around this defect down to metal and then re-finish it. My concern is the dealer being able to match the rest of the hood.



Here is the oddball question: Instead of grinding down the defect area, is it possible to ask the dealer to re-paint over the entire hood followed by a new clearcoat? Would new paint adhere over the original clearcoat? Just the thought of them grinding off the paint of a new car disturbs me. And I think the dealer might call the funny farm if I asked them to order me a completely new hood from the factory or take the hood off another car in the lot. Any suggestions??
 
The easiest thing for the dealer paint shop to do is to re-paint the whole hood- It's way harder to fix just one spot- especially with a metallic finish.



New paint will adhere just fine over the factory finish-

They'll sand it first- there are paints made expressly for this purpose. I think lots of hoods get repainted before the new car is sold... my bumper was...
 
You do not want a "spot repair", it will look horrible. The blend line will show up in a year to two because the new clear will seperate from the old stuff. The chemical makeup of the clears is different, the structure of the film build is compromised because it's not a "whole" layer, then you get into the solvent contents when applied and all that. The short of it is, don't accept a spot repair.......you will be sorry later.



The only way to fix it correctly is to have the entire hood repainted and clearcoated. Sanding down to the bare metal is the best bet, but I seriously doubt the warranty will pay for that because it can get expensive due to all the e-coat layers being resprayed and the entire film build being rebuilt.



Good Luck!
 
Hey post the paint shop name here cause I may need one too- I live north..(should have quoted- talking about paint shops in atlanta area...)

I only know of one to avoid... in canton....
 
Showroom, what specifically should I request of the dealer? Can they just re-paint and re-clearcoat over the factory finish? Or would you just live with the paint defect? I will try to post an image tomorrow.

Thanks
 
I would get an estimate for the repair, then you can decide if you want to live with it or not. Never hurts to ask. :D



As with everything prep work is the key. If they don't prep properly you will have all kinds of problems. Most likely they will sand down to the bottom layer of the basecoat and then begin the spraying of the basecoat and clear. If done correctly it will provide a very nice result.



I don't think they will go down to bare metal because it's very labor intensive, and you can screw up very easily, and costs a lot of $$$$. For a daily driver it's probably not worth the $$$.



Good Luck! :xyxthumbs
 
Actually Showroom, the car is less than half a year old so it should be covered under the Dodge warranty. What I need to find out is how much of a repair will Dodge provide. I am also concerned about the quality of body repair that can be done by a new car dealer. I want to see samples of their work first. Is there anything else that I can observe to help me determine if it is a quality shop?
 
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