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Okay, so today I dropped off my TLX at an authorized detailer to get Opti Coat Pro installed (a ceramic clear coat). TLX is graphite colored.
I've never used him before, but he has over 25+ years of experience in the industry, came highly recommended, and has an impressive resume of caring for vehicles that cost 5 times what my TLX set me back. He's toured with customers for competitions, so I'd consider him 'master craftsman' level.
My conversation with him pre-detail about my TLX, the quality of the paint job on my TLX, very minor flaws he saw (likely dealer induced) was amazing. These were things like tape residue where the factory prep material left ultra-faint lines on the paint from the adhesive residue
He calls me to inform me of a few things. I could tell that he was annoyed at the detailing job the dealer did. Apparently, they left wax residue in a number of the parking sensors which irked him as well as other parts of the car, but he can fix it along with the typical hairline scuffs that they put in the paint.
Then the more serious things that I honestly, never noticed. He says there's a paint defect below the clear coat on the trunk deck lid. It appears to be where the pearl coat 'ran' during the painting process prior to the clear coat application. He said he was shocked that it made it out of Acura QC and either it got missed or it's been repainted by the dealer. Now here, I'm thinking there's a HUGE area that I somehow missed, but as the conversation moves on he tells me that it's about 1/4 the size of your pinkie finger nail. (wow, does he notice things).
Apparently, there's also a couple of 'dents' in an A pillar. Not sure how noticeable these are to the average person. I mean, I never saw it, but this guy has the eye of an artisan for paint and all things auto. He assures me they can be fixed by a person with phenomenal Jedi skills who the dealership is likely familiar with in the area.
Here's the rub. How exactly do you approach the dealership about these kinds of issues? I mean, the paint defect I'm sure could be addressed, but would I really want them repainting the whole deck lid? No way. I'm hoping it's in a spot where a spoiler would go, to be honest.
The A pillar, not sure. I've only had the car for 19 days and about 327 miles (mostly surface street). Are they going to try to say that it happened after delivery? Not sure.
1. If you were planning to install a spoiler and it covers the spot then negotiate a small discount with the dealer, and just move on.
2. If the imperfections are only noticeable if you know where they are and even then if you have to look hard, just ignore them. In a few years you may have stone chips or worse. Is it worth loosing sleep over and getting all fussed?
3. You can be anal and hard nosed. Negotiate with the dealer to get all everything repaired, but you will be without your car for at least 3 days. At worst the dealer will not budge and you will get all bent out of shape. Only you can decide how important this is to you.
I would have preferred not to know about these defects and will not be going to my car to search for any.
Thanks for confirming my internal thoughts, Quandry. I'm definitely inclined to choose a path of practicality and go with suggestion 1 or 2, provided that the deck lid issue isn't horrific. I really don't think that it is, though. I've hand washed the car once since purchase in a pH neutral soap and never noticed the defects he did.
Now, if I'd just dropped $350,000 on a new Aston Martin Vanquish, you can be damn sure I'd be going back to the dealership and adopting option 3 and perhaps dialing up my attorney for an option 4 if I didn't get a resolution from option 3.
The TLX is my daily driver, though. I'll take all precautions to ensure that it stays looking good, because that's just how I am with my cars. I'll Clear Bra wrap the front and back, Opti Coat pro it, drop 3M crystalline tint on it to mitigate interior fade, and then take the typical parking lot precautions to keep idiots from destroying it.
Beyond that, entropy is bound to catch up over time.
Could I please get someone to check the inside of their deck lid and tell me if the paint all the way across is smooth/polished or rough in texture?
It's my detailer's professional opinion that the deck lid has been partially repainted and the 'rough' area which begins about where I inserted the rectangle is over-spray from the repaint job. I couldn't take a quality photo tonight to illustrate the other issue. Below where the paint blemish is on the down-facing part of the trunk lid on that side, there's an oddly shaped run in the clear coat or paint that's approximately 4-5 inches wide and goes down at an odd angle about 3-4 inches. It's as if the clear coat ran over the edge of the deck lid top and 'dripped' down the back.
Legal Code for the State of California: Disclosure of Damage [9990. - 9993.]
9991 - Every dealer shall disclose in writing to the purchaser of a new or previously unregistered motor vehicle, prior to entering into a contract for the vehicle or, if unknown at that time, prior to delivery of the vehicle, any material damage known by the dealer to have been sustained by the vehicle and subsequently repaired.
I also took note of a paint defect the day after delivery. (I took delivery on a rainy day and didn't notice this until I washed the car the following day) It is on the lower right portion of the trunk lid. It doesn't seem to be something that will buff out, at least based on some modest attempts I have made.
I let the dealer know and we're going to have one of their detail guys check it out soon. It's disappointing to see this on a new car.
I have also shown them a couple of scratches on the left front rim, which they are also going to have one of their experts look at soon.
if on the underside of the trunk it goes from smooth to rough, that's an indication of over spray!
your detailer is spot on and rightfully so, he's been doing it for a while.
For the OP, I would say the A-pillar defect is so small as to be really unnoticeable. The paint defect on the trunk lid above the tail light would bug me though as it's a new car- that I'd probably get repaired at the dealer's cost, but you don't want it made worse which is the potential in this case. That is pretty unreasonable/poor QC on Acura's part. My TL has 100K on it, so a paint defect like that wouldn't bother me, but on a new car, yup, I'd be pretty disappointed.
A couple days ago I was washing my car and noticed there was a sand particle that was embedded in my paint back buy the rear license plate. At first I though it was something I could just pick off but then realized it was too deep into the paint. If I tried to remove it, it would probably just make things worse. Not real noticeable but now that I've found it I look right at it every time. I also found a rub mark on one of the front fenders around the wheel well that looks like someone sort of hit it too hard with a buffer. Some wax and elbow grease helped polish it up some but you can still see it if you know where to look. That trunk blemish and wheel scratches are unacceptable IMO. The dent would bug me but I would probably not mess with it. Strange. May have happened in transit.
Could I please get someone to check the inside of their deck lid and tell me if the paint all the way across is smooth/polished or rough in texture?
It's my detailer's professional opinion that the deck lid has been partially repainted and the 'rough' area which begins about where I inserted the rectangle is over-spray from the repaint job. I couldn't take a quality photo tonight to illustrate the other issue. Below where the paint blemish is on the down-facing part of the trunk lid on that side, there's an oddly shaped run in the clear coat or paint that's approximately 4-5 inches wide and goes down at an odd angle about 3-4 inches. It's as if the clear coat ran over the edge of the deck lid top and 'dripped' down the back.
My trunk deck lid on the underside is not "smooth/polished" either. Neither is it on the interior metal sides of the roof when the sunroof is open. I noticed this when I was looking to purchase. Didn't really give it much thought....
I think Acura did this intentionally...possibly to save $$?
My trunk deck lid on the underside is not "smooth/polished" either. Neither is it on the interior metal sides of the roof when the sunroof is open. I noticed this when I was looking to purchase. Didn't really give it much thought....
I think Acura did this intentionally...possibly to save $$?
Update:
I emailed my sales rep and made an appointment to see him on my lunch hour today and told him I wanted to discuss an issue with the TLX. I showed him the defects in the A-Pillar and the trunk deck lid. He could clearly see the pearl coat blemish and also the clear coat that had dripped down over the edge of the slanted end of the deck lid and onto the downturn. It's about 5" wide and varies in length. I'll try to give an updated photo of the clear coat.
While he and I were waiting for the Service Director, I asked to look at another GLM TLX on the lot. So we examined the trunk and looked inside. All of the paint on the inside was glossy and smooth all the way across.
When I finally saw the Service Director and showed it to him, I mentioned that it appeared as if it was overspray and stated that this would appear to indicate that the deck lid had been repainted. He (politely) stated that this might not necessarily be the case. I mentioned the other TLX on the lot and he said, he's seen them change the painting process during a model year run.
If, and I as of yet have no reason to believe he's being untruthful, he's actually right my thought was that perhaps at the beginning they omitted that phase of the process to get as many TLX's out the door as possible? Just speculation of course. After concluding the inspection, he told me that he'd like me to bring the TLX back on the 30th. The regional Acura representative will be there on that day. Any time, there's an issue involving a factory paint defect Acura must approve the repair and authorize it to proceed.
I haven't opened a case file with Acura Client Relations, but I'm tempted to do so. It's not that I'm dissatisfied with the dealership or the way that it's been handled thus far, but I want documentation. I also want something in writing from Acura acknowledging the factory paint defect and a statement that the paint will be corrected to meet Acura's quality standard, fully covered under the warranty.
I believe I had the same paint defect. It was on the trunk lid just to the left of the TLX emblem. It was a clearcoat run that the dealership confirmed and then sent pictures to the corporate rep to have him approve the repair. I would just bring it to the service advisor's attention at a good dealership. Good Luck!!
I spent many hours Saturday detailing my wife's new Mini Cooper. Cleaning, polishing, and Opti-coating. When you spend that much time looking at a car you see more defects than you care to think are there. There was a lot of left over wax residue and fine lines of adhesive where the protective plastic was applied. There were differences in the paint surface where the plastic coating was and where it wasn't. There were also about half a dozen very tiny orange dots of contamination in the white paint below the clear coat. Smaller than the tip of a needle. There was also an odd repair in the A pillar that I never would have seen. I polished some of it out. All these defects cleaned up to my satisfaction except the tiny contamination spots. I'm sure there are there on dark cars, I just never noticed before.
But the spot on the trunk lid should be fixed. Likely though you are seeing the side effects of a less than stellar fix already.
Here is something to ask your detailer. I have a TSX about the same color as yours. When I polished and Opti-coated it some time ago, the color darkened slightly. The Opti-coat changes the optical qualities of the clear coat. It reflects light differently and looks deeper/darker. I think it is more noticeable on dark grey cars like yours. Your detailer probably uses Opti-coat Pro, I was using Opti-Coat 2.0 (which I'm now out of and they don't sell it anymore) I assume they are very similar.
What I'm saying is if they re-paint the trunk it may not match the rest of your Opti-Coated car. Or.. if they try to match the trunk to the rest of the paint it may be slightly darker, then Opti-coated even darker. I'd ask your detailer this question. I'm sure he knows more about it than I do.
(...original quoted parts removed for readability)
While he and I were waiting for the Service Director, I asked to look at another GLM TLX on the lot. So we examined the trunk and looked inside. All of the paint on the inside was glossy and smooth all the way across.
When I finally saw the Service Director and showed it to him, I mentioned that it appeared as if it was overspray and stated that this would appear to indicate that the deck lid had been repainted. He (politely) stated that this might not necessarily be the case. I mentioned the other TLX on the lot and he said, he's seen them change the painting process during a model year run.
My car is in for hail damage repair today. When I get back to the dealership, I'll try to look at some of the TLX's on the floor to see if the underside of the trunk lid and the sides of the roof when the sunroof is open are all glossy/smooth.
I'd definitely like to know the "why" if some are and some aren't...
Many detailers, and dealers have paint depth gauges which should really help gauge whether or not the car was repainted. Surprised it wasn't mentioned yet.
I can't really see the A pillar dent, but a new wheel takes care of that issue, and is straight forward.
For the trunk, I would try to cover it with a spoiler. I would be hard pressed to allow a repaint on a brand new vehicle of mine due to no fault of my own.
Many detailers, and dealers have paint depth gauges which should really help gauge whether or not the car was repainted. Surprised it wasn't mentioned yet.
I can't really see the A pillar dent, but a new wheel takes care of that issue, and is straight forward.
For the trunk, I would try to cover it with a spoiler. I would be hard pressed to allow a repaint on a brand new vehicle of mine due to no fault of my own.
I'll ask my detailer about the paint depth gauge, Mr. Hyde. I'll get a straight up answer from him.
I'm in agreement with you on the pearl coat defect. It seems to be in the right place where a deck lid spoiler would cover it. I've been looking for a similar view of a TLX spoiler where I could get an idea of whether or not it would cover it.
I wasn't able to get a good picture (will try tomorrow) of the clear coat run. It's below the paint defect and in an random pattern. It's significant, so I think at the very least, they'll need to fine grit sand it to be even with the rest of the deck lid and polish.
FYI : the paint in the trunk are you noted is smooth on mine. There are a couple of small points where paint seems to have sprayed a bit too thick. Think of it as a drop of paint that drips onto an already painted surface and dries to form a bump. Nothing major and nothing "rough" like you said you see on yours.
So far, the only issue I found was a small piece of hair in my passenger door. I thought it was a rock chip from delivery. I reached out directly to my dealer and they are fixing it under warranty defect. Car is gone for a week
It appears that some of the issues may have been a result of the prep the dealer has to do when a new car comes in. Other issues are obviously from factory.
Well, I have an appointment with the Acura Regional Representative tomorrow at 11am, so I'll keep you posted on the outcome.
Instead of a re-spray which I would not want them to do. Try to get Acura to put a rear spoiler on it at their cost to cover the blemish on the trunk lid.. That's what I would do..
Okay, so I met the Regional Rep from Acura today and showed him the issues with the TLX. He and the service manager looked over the areas. He was cordial enough, but not really what I expected. I guess in my minds eye, I expected someone in this kind of a position to be...well, okay, just going to say it. More of a Silicon Valley, mid 30's sort of tech guy? Rather than a late 60ish gentleman in a business suite.
He really never commented much on what I showed him, walking with the Service Manager, acknowledging the items one by one. They were amicable enough and the Service Director asked me to get an estimate from a Body Shop they use (5 Yelp Stars, I looked) in the area. I mentioned the option of using other people and they were fine with it, so long as they're willing to accept what Acura pays as a standard rate for doing the work. The caveat is that if you choose your own people, Acura will not warranty the work (fair enough). One slightly annoying thing was the Service Managers comment of "If it was me, I probably wouldn't fix it."
I mentioned the spoiler option and they're willing to considering it. They still want the Body shop estimates, though. Since this entire transaction took about 30 minutes, I went to the nearby body shop. Both the estimate guy and the Manager conclude that the car has been "touched up" due to the overspray in the trunk lid.
Their solution would be to repaint the entire trunk with blending onto the panels (I start to feel uneasy). I asked about sanding/leveling the clear coat anomaly only, but they weren't sure they can do it (I'm getting a bit uneasy at this point). I show him the A-pillar depression. The solution would be to fix the A-pillar and blend. The blending would require the entire A-pillar back to the C-Pillar and down onto the rear quarter panel, then perhaps back up the lower part of the rocker below the doors! (At this point, I feel kind of sick).
I'm inclined to consider the following:
Paintless Dent Repair for the A-pillar to improve it's appearance. It might not be perfect but it's a heck of a lot better than repainting 40% of the car.
Installation of the deck lid spoiler. It might not cover the blemish, but it's very close to it. Enough to be distracting to the eye and shift focus.
Having my Detailer/Restoration guru even out the run in the clear coat. Something he is very confident that he can do.
As I sit here writing this, one thing that struck me as odd, was that the Acura Representative never once said "I'm sorry these defects are on your vehicle or I realize this isn't up to our standards and we're going to make it right for you". There was no resistance, but there was also no admission? Perhaps they're trained this way. Just "Okay, do what needs to be done to fix it and what's going to resolve this" and I'll move on. I guess I was hoping for some sort of apology for the inconvenience? Perhaps a statement about how this was below their quality level? Maybe I'm being overly sensitive, but gentle silence at times seems to infer "Gee, no one's hardly going to notice these things unless they look close, what's this guy complaining for?".
This is a bit of a power game. You know that an apology would go a long way but they may not be confident that an apology may have more liability consequences.
The Service Manager stating that he would not fix it may be partly a person view having seen load of banged up and dented cars after a couple of year, and partly cost savings.
As far as the A-pillar repair, to me it's difficult to see the full extent of the damage from the photo. But just for the heck of it have a paintless dent removal guy take a look, get an estimate and go from there.
As for the trunk lid defect, I'll say it again.. There is no way based on the pic that I would have my whole trunk resprayed for that, you may end up with worse issues. I'm sure the defect looks worse in person (especailly to you) but I would push Acura for the deck lid spoiler and leave it at that..
Good luck, sorry you're dealing with this nonsense.
"Paintless Dent Repair for the A-pillar to improve it's appearance. It might not be perfect but it's a heck of a lot better than repainting 40% of the car.
Installation of the deck lid spoiler. It might not cover the blemish, but it's very close to it. Enough to be distracting to the eye and shift focus.
Having my Detailer/Restoration guru even out the run in the clear coat. Something he is very confident that he can do."
this sounds like the smart thing. get estimates for all that and present them to the SM that made the remark 'i wouldnt fix it...'
from my experience people that are in the car biz see them as appliances and are numb to the way we car people feel about them. its deeper than that but a good start/
"Paintless Dent Repair for the A-pillar to improve it's appearance. It might not be perfect but it's a heck of a lot better than repainting 40% of the car.
Installation of the deck lid spoiler. It might not cover the blemish, but it's very close to it. Enough to be distracting to the eye and shift focus.
Having my Detailer/Restoration guru even out the run in the clear coat. Something he is very confident that he can do."
this sounds like the smart thing. get estimates for all that and present them to the SM that made the remark 'i wouldnt fix it...'
from my experience people that are in the car biz see them as appliances and are numb to the way we car people feel about them. its deeper than that but a good start/
Funny, I have also noticed this, not all the time, but quite a lot... They just don't seem to understand "car people"..
Ever talk to "client relations" people.. They are some of the most non-car people ever...
I've done PDR on several dents on my wife's car and they were amazing. You need to find a guy with several years of experience. And they need access behind the dent to get their tool in. That dent is pretty small, but they will probably charge you $60. MUCH better than re-spraying that much of the car.
I re-sprayed my wife's Civic bumper. Someone had backed into her and removed a half dollar size chunk of paint. I actually think I did a pretty decent job for my first DIY paint job. And I'm no pro by any means. I did this to learn about it and if it came out well so much the better.
Here is what I learned...
- Metallic paint can be hard to match because, at least in my case, the metal particles can be slightly different size, or lay down slightly differently than the factory paint and you can see the difference in the reflection that the repaired section gives off. Of course I'm not an authorize Acura paint facility, but that is probably one of the reasons to paint so much of the car.
- I used a '2K' clearcoat which is about as close to factory as you can get, the problem is, where do you stop? You need to stop at a factory gap. It is hard to feather the new clear coat into the old clear coat. You need to sand the old clear to give the new clear something to bite into since they don't completely bond chemically. But at the transition point there is a very very fine layer of new clear and when you go to polish that panel it will get so thin it flakes off. For the bumper cover, I ended up painting the whole thing and it looked pretty damn good if I say so myself. There was a spot on the roof where I just touched up a ~1sq ft section and cleared the entire roof, but the repaired section looked off. It was hard to see but light reflected differently. We had the car professionally appraised by two places and no one noticed, but I did.
Anyway, as I said professionals will do a professional job but they are telling you to make it look right it can be a big project. But professionals did the touch-up on the trunk and what did that get you?
I've done PDR on several dents on my wife's car and they were amazing. You need to find a guy with several years of experience. And they need access behind the dent to get their tool in. That dent is pretty small, but they will probably charge you $60. MUCH better than re-spraying that much of the car.
I re-sprayed my wife's Civic bumper. Someone had backed into her and removed a half dollar size chunk of paint. I actually think I did a pretty decent job for my first DIY paint job. And I'm no pro by any means. I did this to learn about it and if it came out well so much the better.
Here is what I learned...
- Metallic paint can be hard to match because, at least in my case, the metal particles can be slightly different size, or lay down slightly differently than the factory paint and you can see the difference in the reflection that the repaired section gives off. Of course I'm not an authorize Acura paint facility, but that is probably one of the reasons to paint so much of the car.
- I used a '2K' clearcoat which is about as close to factory as you can get, the problem is, where do you stop? You need to stop at a factory gap. It is hard to feather the new clear coat into the old clear coat. You need to sand the old clear to give the new clear something to bite into since they don't completely bond chemically. But at the transition point there is a very very fine layer of new clear and when you go to polish that panel it will get so thin it flakes off. For the bumper cover, I ended up painting the whole thing and it looked pretty damn good if I say so myself. There was a spot on the roof where I just touched up a ~1sq ft section and cleared the entire roof, but the repaired section looked off. It was hard to see but light reflected differently. We had the car professionally appraised by two places and no one noticed, but I did.
Anyway, as I said professionals will do a professional job but they are telling you to make it look right it can be a big project. But professionals did the touch-up on the trunk and what did that get you?
I agree completely and I trust my detailer who recommended a PDR professional,. although he has experience with PDR this guy was the best he's ever seen. He's recommended him to his high end clients that end up with unfortunate dents in things like Lamborghinis, so I'm sure this guy is a ninja.
I really think Acura will go with my solution over the body shop. I got the estimate back today and it was nearly $2000.
I haven't gotten the estimate from my detailer yet, but he's pretty reasonable. I'd estimate $400 for them plus Acura's raw cost for a spoiler/dealer labor. Can't total more than $700-800?
I agree completely and I trust my detailer who recommended a PDR professional,. although he has experience with PDR this guy was the best he's ever seen. He's recommended him to his high end clients that end up with unfortunate dents in things like Lamborghinis, so I'm sure this guy is a ninja.
I really think Acura will go with my solution over the body shop. I got the estimate back today and it was nearly $2000.
I haven't gotten the estimate from my detailer yet, but he's pretty reasonable. I'd estimate $400 for them plus Acura's raw cost for a spoiler/dealer labor. Can't total more than $700-800?
The dealer will probably charge Acura for the total cost of the spoiler. So it is probably not costing the dealer anything. They'll charge Acura for the materials and labor. The dealer may even make money on it just like other maintenance.
I submitted the estimate along with my suggestion to the Service Manager and he stated that he'd contact the Acura Factory Representative after reviewing the Body Shop Estimate. I wasn't sure how these things are tracked at Acura, so today, I also contacted Acura Client Services to inquire if the Factory Representative had 'logged' anything regarding my car. He hadn't and I want these concerns officially tracked so I opened a case and received a case number.
After taking all the information above, the client services representative transferred me to a Case worker who will reach out the Factory Representative and the Service Director. I did mention to her that my Detailer, the Body Shop Estimator and the Body Shop Manager, were all of the opinion that the car's trunk area has been touched up and painted, due to the overspray and lack of glossy area inside the trunk lid. She told me that Acura has a vehicle 'Controller' who has detailed records of anything that happens to the vehicle while under their control. She is going to investigate whether or not any touch up paint work happened to the TLX while in Acura's possession.
She does think that my suggestions are reasonable and agrees that they are more cost effective. She did state that I would likely be asked to sign documents stating I was satisfied with the repairs and a release of liability for the specific items if I elect to chose my route. I am willing to do this since it is the least invasive way of correcting the issues that doesn't involve disturbing the factory paint.
The local Acura Factory representative has the ultimate authority to 'yah or nay' the matter, though. I hope they decide to choose the route that makes me the most satisfied, as I am not certain I would proceed with a 30% vehicle repaint, if they chose to be adamant about the matter.
I was having lunch with a friend of mine whom is an Attorney and he mentioned that California has specific vehicle disclosure laws regarding damage to new vehicles, Dealers here are allowed to perform repairs on vehicles up to $500 or 3% of the MSRP (which ever is higher) on vehicles prior to sale. The estimate for repair of the TLX is 4% of the MSRP, which has some rather serious implications, should the matter be pursued.
In addition, should Acura have no record of the vehicle being painted, I will demand that an Acura expert inspect the vehicle to see if he validates the opinions of the 3 professionals who have already examined it. If Acura validates this, then the dealer has sold me a 'new' vehicle with failure to disclose material (>3% of the MSRP) damages.
I believe it would be in their best interests to make me happy on this one. The last thing I want is to be a Plaintiff in a lawsuit.
I've done PDR on several dents on my wife's car and they were amazing. You need to find a guy with several years of experience. And they need access behind the dent to get their tool in. That dent is pretty small, but they will probably charge you $60. MUCH better than re-spraying that much of the car.
I re-sprayed my wife's Civic bumper. Someone had backed into her and removed a half dollar size chunk of paint. I actually think I did a pretty decent job for my first DIY paint job. And I'm no pro by any means. I did this to learn about it and if it came out well so much the better.
Here is what I learned...
- Metallic paint can be hard to match because, at least in my case, the metal particles can be slightly different size, or lay down slightly differently than the factory paint and you can see the difference in the reflection that the repaired section gives off. Of course I'm not an authorize Acura paint facility, but that is probably one of the reasons to paint so much of the car.
- I used a '2K' clearcoat which is about as close to factory as you can get, the problem is, where do you stop? You need to stop at a factory gap. It is hard to feather the new clear coat into the old clear coat. You need to sand the old clear to give the new clear something to bite into since they don't completely bond chemically. But at the transition point there is a very very fine layer of new clear and when you go to polish that panel it will get so thin it flakes off. For the bumper cover, I ended up painting the whole thing and it looked pretty damn good if I say so myself. There was a spot on the roof where I just touched up a ~1sq ft section and cleared the entire roof, but the repaired section looked off. It was hard to see but light reflected differently. We had the car professionally appraised by two places and no one noticed, but I did.
Anyway, as I said professionals will do a professional job but they are telling you to make it look right it can be a big project. But professionals did the touch-up on the trunk and what did that get you?
As for the clearcoat, i wouldnt say 2k is as close to factory as you can get, especially on the new water based products. If the clear looked or reflected differently which is possible, it could be the clear. Not all clears are as clear as one another. Some have an ever so slight hue/ yellow to them and can cause this, especially on a lighter color car like white/silver. I like the Sikkens brand. Its expensive though, about 800 bucks a gallon but its not something most DIYers in their garage use. Its one of if not the strongest/most durable, clear clears i have sprayed. As for blending, if its a vertical panel you can blend very easily without a gap or factory seam (especially A/c pillars There are blenders you can use to blend the new with the old and once buffed you would never know. I have done this on countless projects without there ever being an issue or one ever being able to tell. Just my though
Well, heard back from the Service Director this evening who said that Acura can't compromise with any special deals. He said that the "FTC requires them to comply with the warranty."
To be honest, I can understand this to some extent. The warranty requires them to address the actual defect. Covering up the defect with a spoiler isn't fixing it. Okay, I'll give them that one.
I told him that I would entertain the deck lid/trunk repaint, however, under no circumstances would I authorize the left side of the vehicle to be repainted and him to have the body shop break that out from the estimate.
I also told him that I would not proceed with any repair until I heard back from Acura Client Services, regarding the repair history of the vehicle while it was in their possession. I'm now very curious about this. I've had 3 different people confirm that the trunk has been touched up/repainted. If Acura has no knowledge or records of this, it implies that they didn't do it. That only leaves one entity that could have carried out this repair; the dealer.
As for the clearcoat, i wouldnt say 2k is as close to factory as you can get, especially on the new water based products. If the clear looked or reflected differently which is possible, it could be the clear. Not all clears are as clear as one another. Some have an ever so slight hue/ yellow to them and can cause this, especially on a lighter color car like white/silver. I like the Sikkens brand. Its expensive though, about 800 bucks a gallon but its not something most DIYers in their garage use. Its one of if not the strongest/most durable, clear clears i have sprayed. As for blending, if its a vertical panel you can blend very easily without a gap or factory seam (especially A/c pillars There are blenders you can use to blend the new with the old and once buffed you would never know. I have done this on countless projects without there ever being an issue or one ever being able to tell. Just my though
What I meant is that the 2K was the best I could do in my garage and a can costs less than $20. It seemed to wet sand and polish up nicely after I let it cure for a few weeks. But I doubt it is as good as a pro painter would use or the factory paint. But it was a fun project to see if an amateur like me could repaint a bumper cover and make it look un-noticeable to a professional car appraiser. And the best part was it was my wife's car I was experimenting on
Well, heard back from the Service Director this evening who said that Acura can't compromise with any special deals. He said that the "FTC requires them to comply with the warranty."
To be honest, I can understand this to some extent. The warranty requires them to address the actual defect. Covering up the defect with a spoiler isn't fixing it. Okay, I'll give them that one.
I told him that I would entertain the deck lid/trunk repaint, however, under no circumstances would I authorize the left side of the vehicle to be repainted and him to have the body shop break that out from the estimate.
I also told him that I would not proceed with any repair until I heard back from Acura Client Services, regarding the repair history of the vehicle while it was in their possession. I'm now very curious about this. I've had 3 different people confirm that the trunk has been touched up/repainted. If Acura has no knowledge or records of this, it implies that they didn't do it. That only leaves one entity that could have carried out this repair; the dealer.
Has someone used a paint meter? What were the results? If you haven't had an inspection with a paint meter then now is the time to do it. That is the easiest way to "prove" a respray.
So, I to have had a similar case as you. A little over 1 year ago I purchased a brand new 13 Civic. After couple of days I noticed a huge color discrepancy between the bumper and the rear quarters. Upon further inspection, I found further evidence that the rear bumper was removed. The screws that hold the bumper to the chassis had been slightly rounded due to removal during repaint. I immediately called Honda NA and opened a case. I work for a dealer just down the street and have allot of experience with paint, body, and mechanical. I explained this to the Honda client person and asked for help.
Here is the deal, they will almost always agree with you, and kill you with kindness. It's free and doesn't cost anything; and you just might take less since they were nice.
Within a week I get a call from the dealer and they ask me on what they can do to resurrect the issue. I politely let him know that I work down the street at a another dealer and that I had purchased a defective car with no damage disclosure. To his credit, he was super nice and asked me not to blast him on Yelp or KBB yet, lol. I agreed. He proceeded to ask what I had wanted. I told him I want a new car for free or I would pay for an upgrade @ cost. He asked if he could call me back, I agreed. Through the next couple days, we spoke on the phone to iron out details of the transaction. On week three he called and said you can have a new car, he was very apologetic, and asked when I could pick up the new car. I was relieved because I was super annoyed about the situation and thought I would get screwed. In addition, it tainted my car buying experience.
All in all. it took almost 3 weeks to get this resolved. Honda NA really could not make the dealer do anything, but a certain amount of customers complaints could hurt the dealers allocation of special cars.
My recommendation to you is to be super super polite and kill them with kindness. Don't ever blow your lid and give them positive reviews after. In addition, this is a case by case type of deal. It really depends on the dealer and how cool they want to be. In my case it they were awesome.
Hope that helps you out, and sorry for all stress this has created you.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I took note of a couple of paint defects the day after delivery. (I took delivery on a rainy day and didn't notice this until I washed the car the following day) One of them was on the lower right portion of the trunk lid.
I let the dealer know and they were going to have one of their detail guys check it out. It was certainly disappointing to see this on a new car.
Before shot of one of two paint defects:
Fortunately I was able to resolve both issues, however ended up doing so on my own and thus obviously at my expense. Had a local well-regarded detailer look at both problems. He was able to use clay to remove one issue in about 10 minutes. For the other (in the picture), he suggested it could be removed with some additional work, polishes, compounds, etc. I ended up having him correct that defect and do paint correction on the entire car followed by an OptiCoat application.
Not cheap, but the paint is now flawless and protected on the entire car. Really didn't want to have the dealer's detail people do anything further. My guess (and the guess of the detailer who did the fix) is that the issue on the trunk lid may have been caused by the dealer trying to sand out a scratch or other imperfection. Frankly I just wanted someone I trusted to fix the issues and then protect with the OptiCoat and be done with it.
Glad a good detailer was able to get this right for you. The Opti Coat was a great move on your part. Hopefully it made the bitter pill of paying for the correction more palatable.
You should see if the dealer will reimburse a portion of the costs.
10-19-2014, 04:57 AM
