There are several whitish splotches in the paint on the top surfaces of my car (black 96 GS). If you look at them closely, you see a fine network of cracks. Its been getting progressively worse, and the rate seems to be accelerating.

Took it into the dealer, and they confirmed that this is a problem they've been seeing on some 95's-96's. Apparently they had some issues with the water based paints when they transferred over to them, and this is a result. Here in California the condition is accelerated due to the intense sunlight and heat we get.

I just had the car at the body shop, and they are estimating the cost at somewhere around $1500. Looks like they will only do the affected parts, which are the hood, roof and spoiler. MMSA should be covering this.

Anyone else run into this issue?

juan

i may be wrong, but isnt a 6 year old car gonna look goofy if you get sections of it painted? wont they stand out?

accually i may have early signs on that in two places on my car.. they are very small and not noticeable.. but considering that my car is 7yrs old im sure the pain it getting old too. btw who is covering the paintjob?

Hey Juan, if MMSA is gonna cover it, then I would try to take the cash and go to the shop of your choice. If you want, I can get your whole car repainted (outside) for $1300. It will be really hard to match a black car that is 6 years old perfectly. You might as well repaint the whole thing, especially if mitsu will give you $1500. You can add in a blue or purple pearl too, that is not too obvious, but will make it more custom. Good luck with it...let me know if you need any help.

well you see there was this really hot chick and man she was just begging for it.. and your car was the only one close.. so i dont know how the cracks got there but sorry about the white stuff bro..

you can just wipe that off prob..


hah sorry im wierd

anyhow if your going to pay 1500 for touch up.. you might as well do what marcus said.. just get it painted at a good shop.

6 year old paint will be very hard to match up..

or you can just get a nice new hood.

what is MMSA?

Minehas it too.. i'm thinking of just taking some clearcoat polish to is. No cracks, but it's getting a touch of that hazy oxidation.

it'll get worse.

I think this may turn into a huge problem for MMSA (Mits Motor Sales of America).

There is an aknowledged problem with the 95s where the affected people have probably already gone through the dealers (probs manifested within months after getting the new car). This issue is a little different, but basically related to the poor quality of the clear coat.

We'll see how things develop. I'd advise people to take good pics with close-ups of their car for baseline documentation.

juan

hmm i had a 95 and my stock paint was great.. well i also took very good care of it.. maybe its the users.. ahah.. many would ask if i had stock paint.. and i was like yea.. but now i cant say yea.. oh well

I have the same problem. Black 96 w/ skin cancer, hood real bad, and the roof also.

YESSSSSSSS Finally somebody else has it!! I was thinking it was something i had done. First of last summer it had nothing now all rasied surfaces on my car are white and cracked. Not totaly covering everything but the roof is the worst. I got a Black '96 RS. If anybody gets MMSA to pay for it...please e-mail me and tell me how you got them too...Cuz it is really gonna suck to have to pay $1500 to get my car repainted. And by the way....Clearcoat wax...doesnt work, dont waste your money i have tried either out there.

dido on that.. but my red paint isnt that bad except in some places, but i dont think i have any weird whitish sploches like some of you people.. but if mmsa ends up paying for it id be happy to get a new paint job.. :-)

Sorry to say this, but technically, mitsubishi doesn't have to cover the paint. It's fully covered under the 3 year bumper to bumper warranty. And then they haev a 7 year / 84k miles warranty on corrosion (that's if you car rusts and ruins the paint). Hardly any car will do that, and that's technically what is covered. PPG (manufacturer of factory paint) has a 5 year warranty on the paint product itself (but not the application of it because a stupid painter could ruin the whole paint job). I don't think anywhere has longer than a 5 year warranty. And for those $300 Maaco paint jobs, if you get their lifetime warranty, they just end up repainting your car many times, but it still looks nasty when the paint is brand new from Maaco hehe.

Well, maybe if we could get enough people together they might pay part of it....i didnt think they would pay for the whole thing. (Wishful Thinking) But I'm deffinately gonna have to have her repainted....looks awful on the roof.

I have a question on this. my car is a 97, but owning a talon my car is two tone as you all know. the top half of the car is a shit ass black paint. when i use a buffer it comes off. but down on the tail section of the car i have those white spots and cracks as well... i keep my car very clean its just been real hott here and we get a good amount of acid rain. is this also possible from the use of waterbased paint? and something i could get fixed?

Hey Marcus,

Does your shop give any kind of warranty on the paint?

If they do paint the whole car, do they take it down to the bare metal first? Can they fix small dents/dings, or should that be done elsewhere first?

Whats the name of the shop BTW? Do they have a web site?


juan

Hey Juan, there is a 5 year warranty on the PPG paint. Yes they fix minor dings and dents etc. It's T&L Auto Body in South El Monte. And when they repaint the car, they usually do not take it down to the bare metal. If you ask around, it's actually better to just sand off the clear coat and use the base coat as a primer coat essentially. Is the problem with your paint due to the clear coat or the base coat? From what you described, it sounds like a problem with the clear coat turning cloudy and cracking. It might actually be because they sprayed the clear coat too soon after the base coat (the two coats do not bond together well unless the base is dry already). If it's the base coat, then I guess you would have to sand down to the bare metal on those parts. But I really don't think it's the base coat if you are seeing whitish spots (since clear coat is actually a creamish color). I think that if you don't have too many severe dings, the total would probably be 1400 painted with all PPG paint products including fixing the dings. You can check out some cars they did on my site at http://www.importvenom.com. The only thing is, they are really busy, packed with cars, so they would need your car for about a month probably. If you were in a rush, they could probably mange to repaint the whole thing in 3 weeks. Below are some pics of some cars they have done (many others have been featured in various import magazines).











Let me know if you need more info...honestly, I think they do a really good job, but the only downside is that they are so busy that it will take some time...