Hello....

I have an 05, had it for about 2.5 months now...

In some lighting conditions, I can see a "shading" effect in the paint on the doors, on all four of them, in the lower sections.

It is almost as if you can see the spray pattern, as if you took a can of spraypaint and sprayed it non-uniformly. It is hard to explain... and i know i know, i need to take a picture showing it...

but just picture someone taking a sprayer and spraying it, but not all the way or something, or coming back and feathering it with a different color....

I am going to take it to the dealer today to show them, i never really noticed it before... but, the only thing I'd want them to do is replace all four doors with four other anthracite doors... i wouldnt want them trying to repair my doors!!

 

I think you mean orange peel. I see them on all makes of cars, including Benz, BMW, Lexus, Infiniti.

 

good luck getting them to replace all 4 doors!! It ain't gonna happen dude. Paint them mabe....but they'll never replace the doors. Where do you think they're gonna get 4 doors? They're not gonna take them off another car, and doors don't come painted from the factory. Besides, I've got Anthracite...and what you describe is the way the color looks with all the metalic in the paint. Get yourself some Zaino, put about 3-5 coats on your car, and you won't believe how good Anthracite can look. My friend who is in the detailing business thought my paint(Anthracite) was just average to poor when I got my '04TL. After several coats of Zaino, he now says it looks like a show car paint job. Zaino is that good...try it and you won't be sorry. Just make sure you do more than one coat. Zaino has a "layering" effect...and the magic starts after the 3rd coat. BTW...use the Z-8 spray between coats..not the Z-6.

 

My parents bought a honda accord, and by their own mistake, took delivery at night time, the next day they noticed a paint defect. Honda didnt honor their own warranty, my parents contacted BBB, and contacted Honda, they wouldnt do anything, they then got this Auto Lawyer who I believe got paid only if they won. They wanted the car replaced, or money for the lost value on the car, Honda eventually offered to replace the car, however when they sent the paperwork it said any honda accord, did not specify a year or anything. They would not specify this so the case continued to go to court, and my parents won. I think they won about $5000. It was 3-4 years ago so I am not sure on the specific details, I just remember Honda being extremely difficult.

 

1) It is not orange peel, i have that too, as most every car does these days... that's not a problem...

2) I know getting them to replace all four doors will be next to impossible, but i want to go there and see what they say.

3) If the VIN is not on the door, then I will certianly try to get them to put doors from another one, dealers do actually do those types of things, a friend had two scratched wheels when he got the car, they took them off and swapped them with another car... then they were just going to try to sell that other car with the scratched wheels hoping that the second buyer wouldnt notice.... what a shady dealership!! (not mine).

I guess one option, other than living with it, would be to get them to repaint them, but i would make dam# sure to get a VERY good, firm, clearly written, lifetime warranty (or like 15 years) from the owner of the dealership (they do body work too). At this dealership, Acura is cheapest make they sell.... the others they sell (same location), Mercedes, Porsche, and Jaguar.

As for wax.... I hvae not used zaino, but i have used NXT on it, and use quick detail spray weekly... It is not my only car, so i dont have to wash it very often at all, and i use a duster about every 3 or 4 days on it... it has now been 3 weeks since i have washed it, and it still looks like it did the first day i got it. After 2.5 months, it has not seen rain yet.

 

the door look like it been repainted or something...not even color but the worst part is my hood...from certain angle it look even color but at some other angle there are 2 spots that look whiter than the rest of the car...front hook ...i am so pissed..i am not sure if i should complain and get it repainted

 

i noticed this as well, i just thought my mind was playing tricks on me, it would be interesting to compare the last digits of the VIN on our vehicle. our cars are sprayed in goups with the same color, maybe our vehicles were painted in close proximity

ill post my last digits of VIN later as I am not howm right now

 

The car could have been damaged, and they repainted it and sold it as new. That is illegal I think. Take it to a body shop and see if they can tell if it has been repainted then you can go from there.

I bought a 2001 Mustang new back in 01, and I took it to this guy I knew at a body shop and he told me that it looked like it had been repainted. And he showed me all the things that indicated that. I took it back to Ford but of course they denied it. Later on I had other issues with the Mustang, so I filed a lemon law complaint. The Ford rep came over and we resolved most of the issues, then I showed him some problems I was having with scratches on the paint, and out of the blue, he offered to repaint the whole car. Stupid me agreed to have the entire car repainted and my resale value went into the toilet. Now I think he offered that to cover his own a$$ and not really help me, because once the car was repainted, he knew I didn't have a case against Ford even if they did sell a damaged car new.

 

Okay, i went to the dealer yesterday... they claim it's just the way the metal flakes are in it, and just the nature of the way this paint is... there were no other anthracite TLs/TSXs so i couldnt look at another one, and most the ones i see on the road are not clean enough to see it.... oh well... I'll try to get a pick sometime, but the light has to be just right, so it might be hard to see on camera.

 

there are little metal flakes in there, depending on the light, and the angle you are looking at it, you can even get that "whiteish" spot to move! It shows up in Antracite more than any other color. It's not a defect but the nature of this particular color.

Your probably looking at it to hard. It will never look totally uniform as different parts of the car will reflect light slightly different, more so than just the angles of the car body parts, but actually the reflective content in the paint will make seemingly make highlights appear where they shouldn't.

I do believe this is what you are seeing. However to be sure, compare it to a clean new TL at the dealership, side by side.

 

I know exactly what you are talking about. I have been waiting for someone else to notice this too. At the dealer in my area are 2 Anthracites. One has what I would call "blotchy" looking paint. It appears darker in spots just like you said and has the appearance it was painted with a spray can. This was the first TL I test drove and I was ready to buy it when both my wife and I noticed this blotchy effect. I then told the salesman I would wait on a Satin Silver Mettalic they have coming in next week. They called the other day and said they had another Anthracite come in. We went and looked at it and the paint is perfect! When parked next to the "blotchy" one the difference was quite evident.
I don't know if you have any remedy for this. If your dealer has another Anthracite on the lot with nice paint then have them call the district Acura rep in and show him the difference.

 

The effect you're referring to is called "mottling."

It occurs when metallic particles do not spread evenly. Honestly, unless is extremely noticeable, I would leave it alone. It should not affect the durability of the paint.

And, BTW, Acura WILL NOT replace your doors. This request will be considered unreasonable. A repaint is all they will do, since the metal panels are not considered defective.

Trust me when I tell you, you don't want the doors replaced anyway. This will probably devalue your car much more than a partial repaint.

If it were me, I'd leave it alone

 

mottling is exactly correct... the metal in the paint will reflect light in different ways as it doesn't lay flat floating in the paint. When refinishing these panels you are very likely to get the same thing to happen as there are many variables that create this issue:
air pressure on the spray gun
size of the metal flakes used in mixing paint
application of the paint
airflow over the car (what type of paint booth etc)
temp of paint booth
etc.
Anthracite will always have this issue and most metallics do (some are just easier to see.)

 

ATL2NV is absolutely correct. What you are seeing is mottling. It's something you have to watch for with any light or high metallic flake paint. And Bluenote is also correct, you don't want to swap out the doors. Here's why:

In the manufacturing plant, you'll go through many batches of a given color over its lifetime. And even though each batch is the same "color", they all will exhibit differences in color when applied online. So, for arguments sake, let's say your particular car was on the dark end of the acceptable color, and the doors you swapped out for were on the lighter end - now you'd have two doors on each side that look a LOT lighter than the rest of the side panel, and you won't like that very much. If you're dead-set on getting this fixed, you should have the doors repainted. You color match won't be a problem, and it should look pretty good.

Sorry for the long post - it's just a subject near and dear to me - I'm an engineer in the paint shop at the East Liberty Plant - and I own an Anthracite TL. I don't have a mottling problem, but the body and bumper color match is another matter entirely ...............

 

I noticed the same thing on my Anthracite car & for months kept thinking my mind was playing tricks. As the last few posters have described, the paint sometimes looks mottled. With a good coast of Zaino though it looks great

 

If I'm not mistaken, all cars painted in Marysville are painted by robots. I've heard that the robots sometimes need a teaking or two. My guess is they had some issues with some cars and not with others as fixes were performed. I wish they'd put it on a little thicker. It's a little thin IMO.

 

Yeah, i guess I'll probably just live with it... I also have noticed that it is much less noticeable when it has a thin coat of dust on it, but when it's just been washed, or if it is clean and I dust it off, it is noticeable, more in some lighting conditions than others... However, I do think if I wanted to get it repainted, the dealer should do it with no question IF I i can put it side by side to another one on their lot and see the difference... but, we all know how dealers can be... and also, I'd be leary about having it repainted anyhow... I'd want them to give me like lifetime firm written warranty, like a lot of body shops will do.

 

To make a long story short, if anyone with this problem really wants to get it fixed, Acura will do it. I met with the factory rep, and when he saw it he was surprised. I was offered several options, and after negotiating, settled on getting the car swapped out. Acura Corporate contributed 75% of the difference between the new car and mine. One of the options was a repaint, but I did not want to go that route.