GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hey, i got some great news. I'm taking the Vibe in to get some of the paint chips fixed under warranty. None on the hood, but i got some in weird places that normally would not get chipped. So, i'm dropping it off and getting i think about 5 chips fixed. Might try to bring this up to your dealership.

Make sure they use the right paint... I brought mine back to the dealership and they touched it up (before they sent me the free bottle of touchup paint), and touched it up with Salsa! It's red, but Salsa and Lava are a WORLD of difference...so now I have some dark red touchups on my bright red car...gah..

i'll watch them!!!! trust me, some of those mechanic should not be in a garage, but kinda don't have a choice. I already had to get new lugs free cause when they rotated my tires, they stripped 3 lugs completey round.

My dealer touched up some of my hood chips when I was there for my tires..they look dark and blah compared to the rest of the paint...not sure if it's an absence of clear coat, or just hte nature of touchup paint.

Touchup is really for the "far away" look..and in my case, prevent the car from rusting before I can get it completely redone...I'm not gonna rant about the paint though, I think that's been done too much. GM really needs to step up their responsibility for this.I'm also getting paranoid about the windshield, i've noticed a few "pits" on the outside, and really need to figure out how to seal them before I find a $1000 bill for a new windshield...

Windshields really aren't that expensive. I had to replace one on my Tracker and it was only about $120 for a brand new one, insallation included. Dings in the windshield can usually be repaired at an auto glass shop. If you notice some already, take it in and have them filled before they develop into cracks. I think it's rather inexpensive to have those small repairs done.

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »My dealer touched up some of my hood chips when I was there for my tires..they look dark and blah compared to the rest of the paint...not sure if it's an absence of clear coat, or just hte nature of touchup paint. It's something that often happens with touch up paint. Metallic silver is one of the hardest colors to match. You have to get the tint AND the amount of metalflake just right or the difference will show. Often, when you touch up a metallic paint, more metalflake sticks to the touch-up brush and is deposited on the surface when you apply the paint. It can make the touched up area look darker. There are some other possible causes as well. If the paints were not mixed from the same batch, some variations in the color can occur. Just like cans of paint for your house. Also, the additives in the touch-up paint have to be different than those used in the spray gun at the factory or a body shop. OEM or body shop paints, when all the necessary additives are mixed into the paint, will set up to a thick gel consistancy after several hours and should just about completely harden after a few days. That would never work for touch-up paint so it has to be formulated differently. And touch-up repairs are thicker as far as the depth of the paint goes. Sprayed on paint gives a much thinner layer of paint, but is applied more evenly and flows out much smoother. This difference can cause a variance in the final look of the paint too. There are paint chip repair shops around here that are somehow able to fill the chips in so that they are undetectible in most cases. I haven't looked into them much, so I don't know how they actually do it. I have a hunch that they are using an airbrush and automotive paint to fill in the chips. Not sure how they are able to make it so seamless when finished, though. Maybe they wet-sand, compound, and polish the repaired areas when finished? I'm not sure.

Well, the guy at the dealership is not to good as blending in spots so he took off the complete panels and painted the whole side. Looks great

I had a quote on a new windshield from the dealer.........1000$ ouch!!