Dealer Prep & scratch 2010 Black SS

[Paul alienn]

just took delivery of 2010 black ss. Dealer washed before I took it home. Was getting ready to Wash & Zaino it. They scratched it all over. spoke with dealer and seeing them tomorrow. what should be the fix? Do I need to force them to take it to a shop and wet sand / clear coat paint again? it makes me sick. Any advice would be great. Have 120 miles on it

[TommyTSquared]

Hopefully they will believe you in that they were the actual cause of the scratches and rectify it. Post pics of the scratches? Depending on how deep they are wet sad and a new clear coat might be overkill.

[80Zedder]

I am not surprised, for some reason or other the black paint is very crappy comign out of GM. Same problem on my black silverado. I have scratched it with a fine microfibre cloth.

Get used to it. At least i can fix it myself, but i dont bother anymore.

[Camaro_Custom_Painted]

If the scratches aren't deep they can buff them out. They should a least agree to do that.

[newagemuscle]

If its just surface scratches you will be fine. Don't feel bad. When I picked mine up and I got it home I found a ding in the door. I was in a panic also. The sent a paintless dent removal guy to my house and he took it right out. Don't lose sleep over it. I'm sure they will make it right.

[67MellowYellow]

Black is tough and it's compounded by the fact that it's the middle of winter. When these cars are transported they are not covered and get covered with dirt, road grime, and even road deicers from the interstate highways. You should see them when they roll off the truck, they all look brown and hazy from all the grime. If a lot guy isn't careful during wash and prep, they will put spider web scratches all over a dark finish. If that's all it is, they will easily buff out by a good detailer. If they are deep horizontal scratches, someone may have ran it through an automatic car wash. That would be bad but probably fixable too.Better get used to it, black is a nightmare to keep perfect and it's not just a GM thing, it's any black car.

[PB3]

I had something like this happen to me. We took delivery to my wifes ride and with the help of the sun we noticed micro maring or spider webbing all over the car. It lookrd as if they washed it with sand paper. It was horrible!
I brought this to the dealers attention and they told me it would be "fixed" by days end. Turns out all they did was a quick wax job on it. Becasue it wasn't concentrated on one spot they decided to wax it and said that trying to buff it out would cause more harm than good. After a few washes and their sorry a** wax job faded off it was back to square one.

I adopted the Mothers clay bar and three step wax system. Thier products are amazing! After a good clay and three steep wax the paint looked fresh and wet. It really helps to conceal the micro maring. Thats pretty much all you can do once the damage is done...conceal. I dont know the severity of your situation but like others have mentioned before it eventually will happen, especially with black paint. Any good carnauba wax will help conceal those type of scratches.

[ApolloWar]

It's not the "crappy" paint. It's the crappy combination of crud on the car as it's shipped (rail dust, etc.) and somebody who could care less taking a filthy sponge and rubbing the crud into the paint in the make-ready stage from the dealership. That's why I didn't let them perform the make-ready on my black SS. And 5 months later it is still looking swirl free. You're right you have to work hard to keep it that way and sometimes on a daily driver it might be impossible.

Depending on how bad your Camaro is I think the guy called junkman in the cosmetic section shows you how to get back to something much better. At this point I would question the dealer if he thinks he can fix it. He's 0 for 1 at this point in my score keeping.

Originally Posted by 80Zedder

I am not surprised, for some reason or other the black paint is very crappy comign out of GM. Same problem on my black silverado. I have scratched it with a fine microfibre cloth.

Get used to it. At least i can fix it myself, but i dont bother anymore.

[OUR72GTO]

I never let the dealer do the 1st wash. If that is what it is it can be fixed but will take more than a wax job.

[Seneca SS]

Black is a amazing color but very hard to keep clean without scratching--i had 2 new black vehicles--i ordered white for this reason--buff it and you'll probably be ok--at the worst wet sand and buff--unless its real deep no need the re clear

[Mr_Draco]

Some name brand waxes have a formula designed to remove or reduce spider webbing and micro scratches (not simply cover them up). You could try a few coats of this first. If that doesn't work to your satisfaction then you can try to buff them out.

Remember the factory clear is VERY thin and you can easily burn though it if you or the person buffing don't know what they are doing. If you have to result to wet sanding, the car must be recleared as there will be almost none left by the time the sanding gets finished.

[DangerZL1]

I'd be cautious about letting the dealer's body shop buff out the car, even if they agree to do it. If they just polish it with a rotary buffer and some cleaner/compound, then it might have circular swirls all over it. If they agree, try to find out exactly what type of process they'd use. You might be better off getting some scratch remover, like Meguiar's scratch x, and trying to remove the scratches by hand. I'd be suprised if the damage is anything beyone surface scratches that are easily removed.

[2SSONLY]

Originally Posted by Wyoming T/A

Black is a amazing color but very hard to keep clean without scratching--i had 2 new black vehicles--i ordered white for this reason--buff it and you'll probably be ok--at the worst wet sand and buff--unless its real deep no need the re clear

This is right on. If I was to order again, I'd change colors. Even the IBM hides dirt, bugs and scratches better than the black. It mirrors every imperfection! Lots of good advice in the threads for black car owners.

[Junkman2008]

Originally Posted by PB3

I had something like this happen to me. We took delivery to my wifes ride and with the help of the sun we noticed micro maring or spider webbing all over the car. It lookrd as if they washed it with sand paper. It was horrible!
I brought this to the dealers attention and they told me it would be "fixed" by days end. Turns out all they did was a quick wax job on it. Becasue it wasn't concentrated on one spot they decided to wax it and said that trying to buff it out would cause more harm than good. After a few washes and their sorry a** wax job faded off it was back to square one.

I adopted the Mothers clay bar and three step wax system. Thier products are amazing! After a good clay and three steep wax the paint looked fresh and wet. It really helps to conceal the micro maring. Thats pretty much all you can do once the damage is done...conceal. I dont know the severity of your situation but like others have mentioned before it eventually will happen, especially with black paint. Any good carnauba wax will help conceal those type of scratches.

First off, you are totally incorrect when you say that all you can do is conceal the damage. That is what shady detailers do. If you truly understand the damage that you are looking at, then you will understand the process used to repair the damage.

The last thing that you want to do is "cover up or fill in" the damage. This does absolutely nothing but waste your time. The damage that you see is in the clear coat, not into the paint (in most new car cases). The damage being microns in depth, can be removed by shaving down the clear coat to below the damage. Although this sounds scary, it is actually a simple and safe process which can be accomplished by a novice to paint care. Using safe products that are readily available via the Internet such as Meguiar's, Adam's and Zaino, this shaving of the clear coat can be performed safely when using a polisher like the PC-7424XP.

The damage that you see can be 2 microns deep (for example in this scenario). The shaving process using the PC-7424XP may remove .3 microns of clear coat with every pass that you make. If the clear coat on your car is 80 microns thick, you can see that it may take 7 passes before all of the damage in this scenario is removed. The key is, the damage is being removed and not covered up or filled in. You are left with plenty of clear coat remaining and your paint is back to flawless.

Now these are hypothetical numbers and you really don't know what you're removing or how much clear coat you are working with unless you use a quality paint thickness gauge. Thus, don't use my numbers as gospel because other variables such as the polish, pads, and the manufacture's clear coat play significantly in the scenario. The point I want to make is that the damage can be repaired and I do it daily. The videos that I have posted on this forum show my step by step method to repairing this damage.

Originally Posted by ApolloWar

It's not the "crappy" paint. It's the crappy combination of crud on the car as it's shipped (rail dust, etc.) and somebody who could care less taking a filthy sponge and rubbing the crud into the paint in the make-ready stage from the dealership. That's why I didn't let them perform the make-ready on my black SS. And 5 months later it is still looking swirl free. You're right you have to work hard to keep it that way and sometimes on a daily driver it might be impossible.

EXACTLY. You have just explained one of the many ways that this damage is created. You are a smart man to NOT allow the dealership hacks to wash your car.

For those who want the dealership to fix the damage that they caused is like sticking your bitten hand back into the snout of a rabid dog and expecting it not to bite you a second time. You are just asking for trouble. The equipment that the dealership hacks use to buff on your paint does more damage than it fixes on factory paint jobs because the clear coat is much, much thinner from the factory. Of course, a person who knows what they are doing is a different story but most of these dealerships hire some high schooler with limited experience to do this type of work. From first hand experience, I can tell you that a lot of them are nothing but a bunch of hacks.

Originally Posted by Wyoming T/A

Black is a amazing color but very hard to keep clean without scratching--i had 2 new black vehicles--i ordered white for this reason--buff it and you'll probably be ok--at the worst wet sand and buff--unless its real deep no need the re clear

Not so if you are conscience about car care and what creates the damage in the first place. Again, I explain this in detail within my videos. Have a look at them and you to will see that maintaining a black car's finish is no different than maintaining a white car's finish. The reality is, a black car just shows how bad you are when it comes to taking care of a car's finish. A black car is like that innocent little child... it can be brutally honest at times.