garye

I picked up my torch red C7 vert last tuesday, cloudy weather, rained wednesday and thursday I had a sunny sky for about 2 hours today. In those 2 hours I started giving my new vette a good once over, bad mistake, the trunk area and spoiler looked like someone took a small square of sandpaper and rubbed it all over the car, the tops of the doors the same and the hood had swirl and scratch marks and a sticky substance that were terrible. my girlfriend came out and asked what I was doing then said yea I see that, is the supposed to be like that, Its terrible and takes away from the stunning design.Any one else experience excessive swirling and scratching of paint. Now what, should I try to buff it out, pay someone to do it? It only has 234 miles on it and i’m tryng to figure out how to deal with bad paint. Any suggestions? Anyone else had a similar problem?

Glen e

Obviously take it back to them....

But if that does not pan out, You can learn detailing which will cost you several hundred dollars in pads, polishes and power tools or you can find a good detailer to correct the surface for about the same amount. Correction is long hard work , I'd find a good detailer.

If you want to learn, start here:

http://www.autogeek.net/dual-action-polisher.html

Goaty

Wouldn't be surprised if more C7's have this and people just don't notice. The cheap *** cover they use for transport probably does more harm than good. Take it to a good detailer and it'll be fine. Maybe the dealer will do something for you, worth a shot.

gthal

Dealer installed swirl option

Common place when dealers "detail" your car... the result of paying some guy $7/hr, while using dirty rags, to clean the car for PDI.

Easily corrected. I'd tell them you want it professionally corrected and they need to pay for it. They will say it was fine when it left the dealership and you did it. Either way, easily fixed with a good mechanical polish.

Mr Guns

Mine has a couple of spots with some swirl action. I just use a polish with a filler to mask it. It's a temporary fix that will wear off, but still lasts a long time if you keep your car away from rain. I would take it to the dealer to fix it, but being at the dealer is how it got there in the first place, and would probably just look worse afterwards. Their detailers SUCK!

I bought mine from a dealer that had it in stock. If I would have ordered, I wouldn't have accepted it unless it was perfect, and I would tell the dealer to keep their paws off of it.

BBBOOMR

I worked in detail at a dealership and agree completely.... I was influential in getting a detailer hired at the dealership where I ordered my vette. He does a super job, but has trouble with authority. I'm going to have him assigned to cleaning my car for delivery.

jokerdev

Agreed. The dealer probably swirled it when they "detailed" it. The good news is that it can be easily corrected. The bad news is that you may have to pay for it if the dealer won't. Find a good detailer that does "paint correction", get a quote and see if the dealer will cover it. If not, shouldn't cost more than $300-$400. I wouldn't try to do it yourself because it is a bit of an art. Depending on the severity, it can take a different combination of compounds/pads to get the correction done. They may have to start a little more aggressive and then polish.
Regardless, a lot of forum owners that know about polishing will get it done to remove all the swirls and make the paint look its best. Glen E has a great system on what to do AFTER the paint correction to keep it protected and looking great.
Let us know how it works out and good luck!

RedC7AZ

If you want the dealer to fix it, you have to convince them they did it. You should call them immediately and report it to them, even if you have not yet decided to ask them to fix it. Thank them for performing the ONLY detail the car has had so far in it's extremely short life, since you have not done any detailing yourself yet, and tell them the very first moment it was sunny and you had a chance to see the car under PROPER lighting, and you noticed the swirl marks THEY left on the car. Tell them you want their body shop to fix it not their $8/hour detail guy.

In the future, every time you take the car to the dealer for service, tell them not to wash the car, and go over the car with the service advisor and show him there are no scratches on the paint or wheels and get him to sign off on that (or over time you may get a scratch(s), but point them out). When you pick the car up, look it over and make sure there are no new scratches before driving off. That way if there is a new scratch there is no doubt the dealer is responsible.

garye

Thanks everyone. The dealer is 150 miles away. I emailed them today. If I don’t hear anything by Monday morning I will call them. I could kick myself for not taking more time to look at the paint, it was windy and cold and I was excited etc. etc., still my own fault, and I know better. The good thing is it sounds like a proper detailing will get rid of the disaster caused by the dealer. Hey, you guys are great, very helpful and supportive. I will keep ya’ll updated.

jokerdev

Don't think about it too much. As I said, most people that know about it have done a minor paint correction as soon as they got the car. Yours may require a little more time, but it is really worth it. Good news is you may get the dealer to cover the cost. Your paint will look better than new once it's done.

AZstingray

I had the same issue. I was planning some minor paint correction and Cquartz Finest coating by my detailer and he discovered much more damage than expected.
Here is the workup my detailer did. Excellent job!
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/show-n-shine/74252-az-detail-black-c7-stingray-save-pigtails-holograms.html

HalfMoon

My car was in sad shape when the cover came off. My dealer did no prep to the paint on my car during the PDI and delivered it "dirty" as I requested.

Later I found a lot of swirls and RIDS. I had a proper correction done before they applied CQuartz Finest, but all in the car got about 30 hours of professional detailing. Now it looks awesome.

shaan

I have a torch red and see few swirls marks here and there, no biggie, I got compound and some pads and it buffs out

LIStingray

My C7 was flawless at pickup - I don't know if MacMulkin did a great job during PDI or I was just lucky?

scott53

My Crystal Red Tintcoat has a lot of minor swirls and scratches. My dealer, Grabiak Chevrolet, does a far better job of being careful with the paint during PDI than your typical dealer. In fact they just ran their annual Adam's Polishes Detailing Clinic today. Their detailing guys know what they are doing and are very careful. My other Corvettes and Camaro I bought from them were all perfect. My bet is that the marks are from the transportation cover. I have all of the Adam's products I need to perform a paint correct. I will fix it.

garye

An update, Talked o my dealer today and he apologized for the condition it was in and told me to take it anyone I wanted and then submit the quote to them. What is the sequence and product that will eliminate the problems If the detailer suggest the same thing I’ll know they have their shxt together.