Ok, so I did the clay-bar / Zaino thing today in the following order:

Dawn
Clay-bar/Z-7 lube
Z-7
Z-2 / ZFX
Z-2 / ZFX

(I know, don't flame me for no Z-6 between steps....It's on order, I just couldn't wait) ;-)

I've only had the car for a couple of weeks now, but the amount of crud that came off into the clay-bar was amazing.

The car looks pretty darn good, but I was applying the Zaino in the garage (and after dark by the time I got the second coat on), and I was working with a flourescent shop light, and that damn thing shows you every little imperfection on the car.

My impression of the paint-job overall is that for a 35K car, it's really not up to par. There are some weird faded spots under the clear coat on the right front fender, and the back bumper looks like they tried to buff out some orange peel, but didn't get it smoothed all the way down, so now there are hundreds of "half-buffed" looking spots about the size of a BB all over the bumper, very visible when viewed at the right angle just below the hatch-lid. Don't get me wrong, the car looks great (I'll post pics tomorrow when I can get it in the sunlight), I just think that it's got alot of flaws for a brand-new car. Anyone else find this to be true too?

Maybe some of the folks at the East coast Z meet can take a look at it and tell me what they think.

 

fun isnt it? luckily its the only time you ever have to do all that. it is a PITA, but its well worth it for any wax. the finish can only be as good as the base.

 

Since your car is new, I wonder if the faded spots are similar to what I had. When I picked my car up, I had a quarter sized light spot on the hood, and a light streak on the fender. Since I'd just gone several states away to pick the car up on a Sunday, I took the car after the saleman told me they often saw that and that it was paint that still hadn't completely cured and seemed to be worse in the cold. He assured me that with a heat gun, he could make it go away, but we didn't have access to one. I made him write it on the sales contract, and drove the 6 hours home.

Sure enough, the engine heat of the long drive had gotten rid of the hood spot, and the fender streak went away with a heat gun.

Yours might be something different, I don't know. Worth a shot, though. I wish I'd had a camera to take a pic of what mine looked like.

 

Here's a few pics.....

 

Another...

 

And another...

 

(Don't mind the goofy guy in the picture....That's just me) ;-)

 

One last picture showing the imperfections on the rear bumper..... :-(

Note the "freckles" in the sunshine on the bumper. This looks like poorly buffed orange peel, or almost like improperly laid fiberglass, where the fiber was painted over and not smooth...Not sure what this is or what caused it. This existed before the clay bar/Zaino.

 

Looks really great!

 

You are correct. The paint is not one of the 350Z's better attributes.

 

Do the Z-7 and call us in the morning. The z-7 brings out more of the wet look and does wonders.

 

I know that Zaino is good but would it really mask half-buffed orange peel bumps? Sounds like the prep crew at the dealership or port tried to fix the paint and didn't complete the job. If the paint was partially buffed, it sounds to me like finishing the job with the appropriate buffing/polishing technique would be the way to go assuming the remaining paint is thick enough.

 

TCL,
You're right, the Zaino didn't help the bumper....Do you all think that what I've described warrants a trip back to the dealership to express my concerns given that I've had the car for a couple of weeks now?

 

How does Z-7 (car wash) bring out more of the 'wet look'? Or were you being facetious (wet car = wet look)?

 

If it bothers you it wouldn't hurt to have them take a look at it. The question is do they have a good body shop in case work is needed (e.g. buffing or bumper repainting). I read posts on various boards about poor body shops doing more harm than good when trying to fix a cosmetic issue. I had to do a lot of seraching when looking for a good body shop when dealing with a paint issue on my car.

 

Yeah, I kind of wonder if it's worth the trouble. The problem is that as far as I can tell, no amount of Zaino is going to help. The imperfection looks to be in the paint (possibly under the clear coat). I might ask them about it next time I'm in there, but I'm not going to push the issue too much....Thanks for the input.

 

Sweet Redline! Can't wait to get mine out of the garage after the winter and get some Zaino on it. When you were talking about faded spots, you talking about something like this. This one is over my driver side rear fender

 

Everyone has their own tolerance for the level of paint quality they consider acceptable. I went to the extreme and had the whole car redone. In your case, sounds like a bumper respray would do it if you later decided you didn't want to live with the imperfection.

 

Have you tried a heat gun on that? How old is your car?

That looks just about like what my DB had on the hood that went away. If your car isn't new, though, it is probably a different type of flaw.

 

I guess my car is "OLD" as far as Z's go. I have had it since March of '03 and it is #4,2XX with a build date of Sept. '02. So it's one of the earliest Z's. I haven't tried a heat gun on it. I noticed it about 6 months ago and have been trying to get my dealer to get the regional manager to look at it ever since....no luck yet...lot's of empty promises.

I really don't know what to do to fix it, if there is even anything I can do....sorry don't mean to "thread jack".