A question about the paint jobs
 

(No camaro yet, grumble grumble..)

I have a question about paint jobs: Any dealer painters in the house? Please reply!

I heard that if a dealer has to re-paint any part of your new car, that it is painted OVER the original paint. The original paint is not removed. Is this true?

I had a bad experience once where the beak of my Trans Am got squished by someone who didn't know how to park her damn car. I brought it in to be fixed and painted. It looked good when I picked it up, but later on the paint kept chipping off.

A Friend's mustang had the same fate. The day he had his car repainted, another doofus who should never have been granted a license, pushed the corner of her car into his bumper. The bumper being plastic seemed ok at first, until we noticed the paint was cracked. Soon afterwards, it started to peel off.

So are we just a couple of guys who got ripped off by their dealer's paint shop? Or is painting-without-stripping the original paint off first a common practice?

simple answer
 

The reasons paint will crack, flake, or peal on a bumper is generally due to the prep and "ingredients" that were used in the re-paint job.
Due to the ability of the bumper to flex upon impact the paint needs to have a certain amount of urethane added in the right amount to the paint. I am not an expert, but have been told that it is not as easy to do this correctly and is more expensive than painting other parts of the body.
Bottom line is a real expert in painting and body work will know how to do this - a shop using a "quick and dirty" method won't get it right. Both ways will look the same but the difference will show the next time you get tapped.
I hate to say this but I've always made sure that I know shops in advance who are excellent and have their number ready....just in case, rather than waiting til I need to know.
I'm sure the real experts can give a more detailed answer or correct me.

Surface prep is one major reason new paint will peel off of existing paint. The old clear must be scuffed to give the new base a 'tooth' to grab onto. If done right, it will be fine.

^^^^ What he said. If it was peeling, it was most likely not prepped correctly. Painting over existing paint is fine as long as you don't exceed a specified paint thickness (mills) and the surface is correctly prepped.

Cool thanks for the replies. The thing is, every paint shop says they know what they are doing. Hard to know who to trust... !

One of the things that has to be done when painting flexible parts is to make sure the flex additive is added to the paint mixture AND in the right amount.

My brother needed a new nose cone on his '80 T/A. It looked great when he got it back from the painter.
About a year later, little cracks started to appear, especially in the headlight pockets. The cracks started getting bigger and soon after the paint was flaking off.

We were told the by a very reputable body shop that the painter (uncle of a friend) did not use enough flex additive in his mixture and that's why the paint was cracking and flaking off.

Do paint shops guarantee their paint jobs? (And how could they know if a bumper-bump didn't crack the paint? )