Paint chipped on hood... options for repair?

[jlc]

Hi all, I have a quick question for you guys.

The morning after purchasing my 3.8 grand touring, I saw a paint chip on the hood. It's about 2-3mm round and it's just the upper layer of paint/clearcoat. The primer was still underneath. Obviously this chip was present before I bought the car. It just wasn't something I could see at 9pm when the deal was closed. After the car was bought, I drove the car straight home. The next day, I returned to the dealer to finish some paperwork. This paint was the first thing I mentioned and they took a look at it, and offered to fix it.

Flash forward a week. I return to the dealer and while getting the financing paperwork in, the sales guy has someone take care of the paint. I was suspicious because he didn't need my keys and he said it would only take 5 minutes. Before I could get to the car, there were two guys using a touch up pen on my hood.

First thought: crap.
Second thought: Chip is still 100% visible
Third thought: It looks worse. Blobby clearcoat over the mark.

I tell them this is unacceptable. Sales guy then tries to pin it on me. 'Damage was done after you left.' Yeah right. I took the car home late at night. Nobody was on the roads to kick up rocks. I drove gently as well. I drove straight home and back.

I get him to talk to a manager. After about 10 minutes of waiting, he tells me it will be taken care of. Just bring the car in on Wednesday. I tell him I want that in writing. A few minutes later tha manager personally comes to see me and hands me a signed offer to fix the paint in writing. "Ok" I say. "What are the details of the repair?" After all, I'm not looking for another shoddy touch up pen job on a 30k car. They couldn't say until their paint guy looked at it, but they told me I would not be able to know a chip was there afterwards.

So my question to you guys is, what am I looking at as far as this repair goes? From talking to other people, it looks like something like this would be fixed by leveling up layers of paint above the surface and then sanding it flat and polishing it smooth. Is there anything I should keep an eye out for? What kind of repair should I settle for? I'm a little weary of them now that they tried to pull such a half as*ed repair on such an expensive car.

 

[LACERTOSA]

WOW that sucks extremely... my center console broke last week. the clip that holds it down is still there but the spring that keeps the tension in it fell out. i dont even use it, it holds my ipod and i have gone in it maybe 3 times since i received it 6 months ago. they said they wont replace it for free and its "wear and tear" we will see about that when i go donw to maintenance.

 

[VLDragon]

WOW that sucks extremely... my center console broke last week. the clip that holds it down is still there but the spring that keeps the tension in it fell out.

The same damn thing happened to mine... Its very annoying.

 

[LACERTOSA]

yes, its ridiculously annoying when you hit bumps and it just opens up

 

[57nfr]

i saw two scratches in the hood after i got it home. they had already been touched up. but i thought the touch up job needed improvement. i took it back to the dealer and they touched it up again and it looks ok. i don't think about it anymore.

 

[LLT]

I think we need more details -- what color is the car?

If it's a non-metallic color and a small chip, they may be able to get it to the point where you really have to look at it to tell.

If it's a difficult color to match and metallic and/or a decent size chip, the reality is, it won't be perfect.

Be careful what you wish for here .. ie: don't make/let them respray the entire hood. You run the risk of it not matching, excessive orange peel, runs, or a number of other issues that exist in a non-OEM environment. Ask me how I know.

Good luck. I know how frustrating it is. It's brand new, you paid a good amount of money for it and you justifiably want it to be right.

 

[jlc]

Be careful what you wish for here .. ie: don't make/let them respray the entire hood. You run the risk of it not matching, excessive orange peel, runs, or a number of other issues that exist in a non-OEM environment. Ask me how I know.

All right, for future reference, how do you know?

 

[LLT]

I had what most reasonable people would consider a few minor rock chips on the hood. I did not realize the car had an aluminum hood (very difficult to properly sand/repair) and thought it would be a great idea to just have it stripped and repainted. Two body shops later, it looked terrible. I ended up having to replace the hood and have it repainted - it was still not as good as the OEM finish.

It was an expensive lesson for a few minor rock chips.

Of course, your mileage may vary.

Good luck.

 

[jlc]

Yeah, man that's a bummer. That's exactly what I want to avoid with this hood. They've already undid the damage from the touch up pen and filled it in better with paint. The only issue now is the paint isn't completely level with the surrounding paint. They'll buff/polish it out next week. Hopefully it won't be as noticeable.

 

[socrbob]

Has anyone suggested, are had any experience with the the clear coat (3M product I believe) film that you can put on the front, hood, mirrors, etc.?

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[Matt Z]

Just had the 3m film put on last week......So far so good ...When the car is dirty (painted black) you can barely see the line where the film ends... I'm pleased thus far!

 

[socrbob]

How much coverage did you opt for? Front +hood + mirrors?

 

[Matt Z]

Did it all, Bumper, lights, lower hood and mirrors

 

[Resnuncio]

Okay, I have a similar problem. I bought a new black Genesis two weeks, but a demo with 5K. Long story short, before I signed the sales agreement, the dealer agreed to take care of any swirls/chips on the car (mostly on the hood). I took the car back few days later to the dealership so they would tint the windows and take care of the minor swirls/chips on the hood. They did so, but, after I brought the car home, I noticed a larger scratch on the hood, along with round swirl marks on top of it. The scratch is not noticeable when you look at the hood right from the top. You can only see it an an angle (i.e., when the sun is reflecting on the car from an angle). I am very sure that the damage was done when they were attempting to fix the other minor scratches.

I brought it back to the dealer. They tried buffing it again without success. The dealer service manager indicated that I should not repaint the hood. Of course, he did not admit that the damage was caused by his employees. He sent me to a body shop to buff the hood (at the dealership's expense). The body shop buffed the hood, but the owner said that they could not completely buff out the scratch. He said that he was afraid to burn through the paint. He suggested that I take the car home and examine the scratch under the light. He said that if it still bothered me, then the next alternative would be to repaint/refinish the hood. He cautioned me, however, that the new black paint would "weather differently" than factory paint. I tried Meguiar's Swirl X last night very lightly but I don't see a significant improvement from the job done by the body shop. Any thoughts or comments about repainting a black car vs. just leaving the factory paint alone? By the way, I noticed that the body shop was restoring a 50s vintage car (and it looked gorgeous), so I believe they may do a pretty good job.