camillian

I have had my brand new white 05 sc for almost a month now and have been slowly noticeing imperfections in the paint on my hood. I do my detailing in the garage under bright flourescent lighting and let me tell you the flourescent lights expose everything. I have noticed clearcoat run off on the last 3 to 4 inches of the edge of the hood near the windshield wiper sprayer nozzles. they are about 1cm wide and run 3 to 5 inches in length. Also under the right florescent lighting I notice what appears to be fine sanding marks under the paint on the rounded part of the hood above the grill.

Could these hoods be getting a final hand sanding at the factory to get that round shape? If so maybe my florescent lighting is just exposing this? The paint matches the rest of the car perfectly which i think is quite difficult especialy with the pearl color. However there are no imperfections that i have noticed anywhere else.

Keep in mind these imperfections are not noticeable under direct sunlight or any other lighting except florescent.

I would appreciatte any feed back or experience any one has had

Thanks
Mario

rominl

iTrader: (4)

umm, maybe you should bring it to dealership's attention. also have a good body shop using those camera and see if the color matches perfect and whether there was repainting before?

KevsSC

I have a 05 also bought new. I noticed in the light that there are some parts of the car that have black overspray in the paint (really small patches). It dont bother me tho. I also noticed that my rear bumper does not sit flush with the body on the left side.

tfischer

My car is a black '02 which I work on (wash -- Zaino) in my garage which has extra flouescent lights, and I have not noticed any imperfections in the paint.

I doubt that the hoods get any sanding at the factory to shape them. What you could be seeing is marks from the crappy cleaning and waxing that many dealers do to a car prior to delivery. They use sponges and certainly do not dry anything off with a ww mf towel.

In any event, the damage to the clearcoat should be corrected, and I would bring it to the attention of the dealer right away.

camillian

I have just done a Zaino job myself so they are not wax streaks. if this hood has been sanded and painted that means this car has been in an accident. Can the dealer lease me a vehicle that has been painted without telling me or disclosing the info? If it was painted before the dealer got it , then Lexus is responsible.

tfischer

You ask: "Can the dealer lease me a vehicle that has been painted without telling me or disclosing the info? "

Well, he can, and we know that it happens, but if you discover it you have a nice breach of contract claim against the dealer for starters, and there might be some FTC regs that are violated also, I'm no expert on FTC regs. What you need is an opinion from a person qualified by training and experience to look at the hood and give you an opinion as to whether the car, leased to you as new, had been in an accident previous to the lease. Without that evidence, you have nothing.

With the evidence, you should be able to cut a new deal quickly for a different vehicle or return the car and cancel the lease.

Put your case together before you go back to the dealer so you know what kind of leverage you have.

As you can see, collecting evidence has been very, very good to me:

camillian

Thanks for the insight and i enjoyed your closing statement.

I plan to go to a couple of reputable body shops to get some opinions. However I am not sure they will be willing to give me something in writing when I explain to them my concerns. They probably wont want to get involved.

Also I have had the car since August 31 that is almost a month. I haven't used it much and have only put about 600 miles on it. It hasn't even been washed yet. It hasn't even gone out in the rain. I just start noticeing the defects over the past week while I was doing a zaino wax job under the florescent lighting in my garage. However If it has been repainted, will the dealer not try to say that i could have had it painted since it has been in my possesion? Sort of my word against theirs. There is no way for me to prove that I didn't paint it. Or is there?

tfischer

I would not expect that reaction from the dealer.

You are expected to bring the car in at the one month interval for an oil change (free, I think) and at that time they expect a list from you of any problems or questions you have. With Lexus, these lists are usually short, and at Lexus they usually bend over backwards to correct anything that is not working correctly or not fitted well.

The suggestion from a dealer that you repainted the car or a part of it during the first month would be hard for most people to agree with.

Your testimony that you did not paint the car is evidence, since it was in your custody and control, and the dealer's suggestion that you might have painted it is just speculation. He would have to come up with something better than that to rebutt your statements.

I think your next best move is to get a causal opinion from a body shop guy and then show the problem to the dealer. If the dealer does what he should to correct the problem you're all set, and you'll be in a better position to talk about that if you can let him know that you have investigated the paint condition a little.

Good luck.

. . . . . PS: Zaino is not wax. I hope you took off the dealer's crappy wax before you applied the Z1 and Z2, because polymer finishes do not adhere to wax.

lkirchner

"and at Lexus they usually bend over backwards to correct anything that is not working correctly or not fitted well." Maybe at your dealer they do at mine they basically said that is all that we can do with problems with my leather seats. Not all dealers are created equal.

camillian

Ok I went to a body shop that i go past to and from work everyday. I only see high to very high end cars there. I spoke to the owner and he came out to look at my car. He looked at the paint on my hood and could not see any difference in the daylight. He then opened the hood and looked all around the underside of the hood. He then inspected inside the front bumper and fenders. He said everything looks untouched so far. He then took the car inside where there was no daylight at all. He looked at the hood under some type of florescent lighting and seen the defects I mentioned. He did something else with what looked like to be a scanner to me. He said this is the original paint.
He concluded that these are factory defects. He said he has seen them on several high end cars including MB and BMW. I asked why coincidentally are these defects isolated to my hood only and not to any other parts of the car. He went on to tell me that at the factory there are separate painting stations that do each part of the car. For example one station does all hoods, while another does all fenders. They are computer controlled machines. So there could have been three or four hoods in a row that had paint defects if that machine was not working at a 100%, while the other body parts at other painting stations were perfect. Under his scanner he noticed some blochiness in the pearl paint in the area where the faint sanding marks are. He said that there is a light sanding in between the primer coat and painting at the factory. It is done to create proper adhesian between the primer and paint. The computer controlled spray painting automatically compensates for this by the amount of paint flow it distributes to fill in these lines. By the looks of the blochiness in the paint the spray nozzles where not flowing properly. So not enough paint was applied to cover the lines.

In any case it was the first body shop I have been to, I will visit a few more.

Any opinions on what he said to me

mmarshall

I don't claim to know more than that body shop man you talked to....he sounds like a real professional....but I can give you my opinion based on what I DO know. Pearl paint jobs are some of most difficult single-color jobs to do perfectly, for a number of reasons. Only the camelion-color jobs, which change color with different angles and sunlight, are more difficult. If the paint jobs looks OK under all but a lighted flourescent, and the car shows no signs of being in in accident or having its hood replaced, I wouldn't worry about it. Besides, IMO, what is the point of spending all that time and effort trying to get out the last tiny bit of imperfection whan you could get a stone chip...or worse.....on the way home from the body shop?

camillian

Yes, that is my way of thinking too. It is only noticeable under florescent lighting with absolutely no daylight and under the right angle. I mean you really have to tilt your head to get the florscent to shine on it in the right way.
My goal was only to find out if it has been repainted and if so to what extent. Was there a scratch durring shipping or was it in an accident. Those are the only things I wonder about. If neither is the case I would rather have the factory defects with the original paint than take a chance of having it repainted and open another can of worms.

Gojirra99

Yes I agree with mmarshall too, as long as it has not been in an accident.

BTW, I recall you said that your white/ecru is the last 2005 SC430 in Canada & it's shipped from Vancouver to Toronto for you right ? If that's the case, I think I might have seen your car in personal in my local Lexus dealer (Open Road Lexus Coquitlam). I saw a white/ecru SC430 sitting in their showroom for at least a couple months until August . . .

camillian

Hey Andrew,
yes it was the last 05 white/ecru and it did come from Vancouver. I was told it was at head office and hadn't been sent to any dealers yet. Apperently Vancouver is the entry point for Lexus vehicles coming into Canada. However you could be right because it was shipped in the last couple of weeks in August.

GSXOTIC

iTrader: (6)

Interesting.... I have the same issue with the rear bumper on the left side. The problem is I have add the rear lip to the car and don't know what the dealer will say if I bring the car back to try to address the issue.