RedComet

my paint job is ok, a bit of orange peel here and there but man I have never seen paint that is this weak. I have a couple of chips on my bumper and I haven't even hit break in, but I should today...

stonesfan

I guess what you're saying is that the paint chips from rocks hitting the car? My Z has a couple of small chips on the hood but all my guy friends have informed me that is normal. However, if my paint just started chipping you can bet your as* that I'd be trying to get them to repaint it. When you pay $30k plus for a car the paint job should be a good one. At least that is my humble opinion. :-)

JimH

I just rolled over 31,000 miles of which 15,000 is all high speed interstate running and I have a single chip on the front bumper of my LS. Of course, I had the clear bra installed early on! Regards, Jim

bhobson333

I have over 9000 miles. When I bought the car I thought about getting a clear bra, but I was skeptical and I had concerns. Now, my front bumper and the lip below the grill are pretty beat up.

I can't in any way, however, blame this on a sub-standard paint job. Debris damage is an environmental issue. Do you drive on debris-strewn roads? Do you follow other cars closely? (I think this may be a major problem among Z owners ) No paint job can protect against debris damage.

If/when I do it again (buy a new Z, replace or repaint the front bumper) I will probably have a clear bra installed.

MacGuru

I have to admit, I still get lots of stares and questions. I don't mind. I enjoy talking to people about it. I've been extremely impressed with the cars durability. I try and stick to the major roads and avoid as many pot holes as possible, NYC city streets aren't easy on a car. Stay away from lower Manhattan!

As for the front bumper, I've seen first hand what road debris looks like. Just drive behind a city bus (not in your Z) and follow about 2 car links behind. If you look directly at the back of the bus and focus on the mud flaps (behind ea. wheel) you will see rocks and road debris items kicking up behind the vehicle. This goes for ALL LARGE trucks that have flaps that are close to the ground. You would be very surprised to see how much crap comes flying out from underneath these vehicles.

With that said, I avoid traveling behind large trucks, buses and SUVs. And to my surprise, I still get the same rock chips across the front.

IMO. I think it's part environment and part poor quality paint. Different measures should be taken (by manufactures) to protect paint on cars that have low ground clearances. How about clear guard installed on the car during assembly. Now that's protection!

stonesfan

Does anyone have a picture of their Z with the clear bra? I've heard some people say that you can see it and others say you can't. I've been seriously thinking about getting one but would like to see what it looks like on a car first.

Sanderman

How much you see it depends on the type of bra job you have done, the material used and the skill of the installer. If you have it done using a pre-cut pattern there will be 1/4" to 1/2" uncovered edges around the fenders, hood and nose pieces that you will tend to see. The bra itself is pretty unobtrusive - it's the seams and edges that tend to show up most. The alternative is to find an installer who does custom bras. They will literally take sheet material rather than precut patterns and cut the bra to fit the car panels and wrap the bra material around the hood, panel and fender edges. The only seam that will show with this kind of job is where the bra ends on the hood and on the fenders. This kind of job can be hard to spot unless you are close and looking for it. From some angles the hood bra edge will show, but that's about it.

A big part of what influences how obtrusive the bra is is the material used. I have seen 3M, Avery and Venture and the best by far is the Venture film. Problem is, few installers use it, but it's worth seeking out if you can.

AVIOD AVERY AT ALL COSTS. The Avery material is preferred by some installers because it is easier to stretch and lay down, but it has a satin (rather than shiny) and severely orange peeled surface texture. I had a piece on my hood that my installer used to finish out a job and it looked like sh*t. I had it removed and replaced. The 3M and Venture are clear coated and look as shiny as the cars paint and neither has the severe orange peel texture of the Avery. The 3M seems to be a little prone to showing slight ridges, or irregularities in it's thickness and seams show up a little more with it than the Venture or Avery. But the 3M easily beats the Avery in terms of finished appearance IMO due to it's superior gloss and smoother texture.

The winner in my book is the Venture. It is smoother and more consistent in thickness than 3M while matching it for shine, and it does not suffer form the Avery's orange peel. Problem is finding an installer who uses it. It seems a little more fiddly and prone to bubbles if the install isn't done jsut so, so it takes more effort on the part of the installer to lay it down.

Oh yeah, if you want the bra to be almost invisible, while the custom fitted wrapped edge bra is the way to go - it will cost you. You can get a pre-cut 3M bra done for $300 - $400 or so. But a custom fully wrapped job will run $750 to $1,000. In my opinion, even a well installed lower priced patterned bra looks better than paint chips.

Regarding the installer. A bad instaler can easily make any of these material look like sh*t, Bubbles, silvering, wrinkles, smudges, ragged seams, stretch marks, etc. You definitely don't want to be the first bra a new installer has done. This is one thing where if you are stickler for appearance you will want to find an installer who has lots of experience, who has done 350s before and who can show you samples of their prior work. They should also warrant the install and fix defects and even replace pieces that have significant problems that show up after you leave the shop.

Right now, I dont have any pics handy since the custom Venture was done. I'll try to remember to take a few this evening and post them...

joe

stonesfan

Joe,

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain all that to me! I appreciate it!
Now I just have to locate a good installer here in NJ.
Thanks again!

Sanderman

Contact Thomas at Secondary Exposure. He's in NY and does cars all over the North East. He comes to your house and does it in your garage. And he does fully wrapped custom jobs. I don't think he uses Venture now due to it's fiddly nature. It caused too many call backs. But I know he does 3M. He also does Avery, but make it clear to him you will not allow that on your car in no uncertain terms.

I have attached a link to his web site. Tell him Joe Sanders sent you....

http://secondaryexposure.draconnect.com/contactus.html

stonesfan

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Boomer

The dealers uninformed answer sounds more like the tire noise while braking TSB to me, I haven't seen any posts where low speed gear noise was mentioned. I'm waiting for the annual road tests of some of the mags Nissan has given cars to, it should be interesting. Some of our long-term problams may show up to embarass Nissan, espcially the tire problem. One mag(I take so many, I forget) mentioned a noise beginning to get louder and they are just over 11,000 miles.

droideka

It's not the car they're staring at Christi.

"GRRRRR! Yeah, baby!"

happypants

Take a look at the pics of my car:

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....threadid=28918

kozik

there are not a lot of Z'sa round here, so i get a lot of looks..especially from the younger kids. The best story is, the guy that lives next door to me got an Eclipse, and was all sort of showing it off, etc. Then 3 days later I come rolling up in the new Z while he was trying to impress some girl from the nieghborhood and this girl who HAD been looking at his car came over and drooled on mine.


The dude just stood there..very bummed out. heh. He wont talk to me any more.
I swear to God he's even stopped washing his car.

nismor33

Yup, a girl driving a Z will do it everytime. It was a laugh over the weekend with my gf driving the car....especially when she was giving it a fair bit off the line.

You guys in the US now have the STi. Whenever you think that the Z has hard suspension, take an STi for a drive and see what you think. The Motortrend article was pretty much correct, it is a trade off and the japanese suspension parts make it harder again. Driving with RS*R springs in an R33 Skyline was unbearable.

The paint on the Z does not seem to be too bad on the aussie Z and no one is complaining about the feathering. The issue we are having seems to be the same as you, service sucks! We still dont have anyone taking responsibility on the window grease, people with crappy service during the sale and servicing. My car goes in to get the door repaired in the morning following its first service......



Mike