Taken from another post:

Having read the many and varying posts regarding the chipping on coupes I have been doing some research. It it obviously not a problem with everyone or any particular color, at least from what I was able to ascertain with our unscientific way of gathering info on here.

In any case last week I called R-M and spoke with some of their technical people and they told me they would do a little research and call me back. Instead of them calling me back I received a call from a chemist at BASF on Monday.

I explained to him what some of you were experiencing. He asked a lot of questions regarding the coupe and he too said he would get back with me.

Well late today he called me with a theory that sounds plausible, at least to me.

His theory is that the effect is caused by 3 seperate events.

1. The paint product used on the coupe, and many other new cars, is a new product that gets harder the more it is exposed to direct UV.

2. The cars are built, shipped and sold without ever having the opportunity to sit on a storage lot and simply "bake" in the sun and harden as most other cars would. In other words it is a hot product and is in a constant state of motion.
This alone will not cause the chipping problem to the extent some of you have described. It seems it is the 3rd event that MAY be causing the problem.

3. The addition of waxes, sealants, polishes, etc., are in his opinion the problem. The fact is most of them are petroleum based which may cause the chemicals to be absorbed by the paint and thereby not allow it to continue to harden properly. In other words the paint stays soft and may even become softer with the addition of petroleum based chemicals. His suggestion is to not put such products on the paint until it has had sufficient time to "cure" properly.

Now I am not a scientist and I have no statistical data to support anything regarding the information that I provided him. My information was simply relaying what many of you posted here and using that information this is what he came up with.

Maybe, just maybe this is the problem.

 

this sounds like a bunch of bull $hit to me !

Charog
"I'll Be Your Huckleberry"

 

yeah IDK about what he is say but then again i am not a chemist and i failed chemistry in high school so what do i know. But it sounds like bull [censored]

 

lol.

 

Baking in the sun is the old-tech way of doing things. New high-tech paint booths do all the baking before the parts are put on the car. There shouldn't be any additional hardening time required.

2003.5 G35 Sedan Desert Platinum/Graphite Premium/Sport/Aero/Nav/Winter

 

Thanks for the info but I have a couple of questions.

Who/What is R-M and how do I get in contact with him/her/them in order to discuss this problem?

As to the chemist from BASF, I have to disagree with his conclusions.

1) I waited 3 months just to be <font color=red>sure</font color=red> that the paint had cured. (An old habit for that is how I was taught.)

2) As of 3 weeks ago I had one thin chip (could see the light colored base coat (I have a BS Coupe)) on the hood above the grill. I also had one large chip (almost the size of my small finger nail) on the lower edge of the trunk where it meats the rear facia/bumper.

3) As of 3 weeks ago, almost 3 months to the day my Coupe was driven off of the delivery truck) I let a professional detailer hand apply a coat of a polymer wax (recommended for light colored cars).

4) Yesterday I washed the car myself with a power sprayer (but didn't use a brush or get within 12" of the surface). After drying the car off I noticed hundreds of little white specks. Due to problems with my eyesight I could not tell what these specks were.

5) Today I washed the car again and determined that about half of the white specks were a poorly done job waxing the car by the mobile detailer. But, there are still a number of suspicious white spots and definite chips down to the bare metal on the hood, roof, trunk, fenders, etc...

6) At 12:30 today, I have an appointment with a professional detailer to clean the car properly (including bug, tar, etc. remover) so that we can use his eyes to check a professionally cleaned car in order to determine if there are indeed an inordinate number of paint chips in less than normal places on my G35c.

7) Depending upon the determination as to the severity of the chipping, the detailer will either wax the car with a carnuba wax (because there are too many chips to waste time with a sealant until I decide to repaint the car) or he will apply the professional version of CrystalGuard sealant (if we determine that there are not that many chips).

Does anyone know if CrystalGuard is any good at preventing chipping?

Does anyone have any recommendations as to how to approach sending an official grievance up through the bureaucracy of Infiniti's service department?

Screamin' Daemon - L5AT

 

my car was in an accident 3 weeks after i bought it, back in feb. i just clay barred the car the other night and it feels lovely. so much smoother. i used the instant detailer with the clar bar. i don't run into the problem with chips so much though as alot of others have. then again i'm always in the front of traffic. hehehehe

 

I'm not sure who RM is. I got this thread off of some 350Z forum. Just thought I'd show you guys and see what you think. I haven't gotten my G35 yet. Any suggestions to what I should do/how I should treat the body when I first get it?

 

Looks like the clear bra is the only way to go. I've been procing them out for about a month and a half now and when my coupe arrives I am pretty sure that I will be getting one.