Clear coat cracking, having car repainted

[rockhopjohn]

A few weeks ago I was giving my car it semi-annual bath, and I noticed these hairline cracks starting to appear all over the hood, roof and quarters. So I took the car into the local dealer, and had them take a look at it. They decided that it was definitely a warranty issue, and today had me stop by so their district service manager could take a look at it. He concurred that there was definetly a problem, so they had me go down to their local paint shop to have them work up an estimate to repair the problem. It looks like it is going to require repainting the whole car, because on closer inspection we found there were these cracks on almost every panel of the car.

After talking to the paint guy, he said that this is typically caused by an over application of clear coat at the factory, which prevents the car from curing properly. He said he had seen it before, and that it wasn't atypical.

So now we will see if Subaru balks at the cost to fix the car. Hopefully they won't give me too much of a hard time. The rough estimate at the body shop was in the $4000 range, so I am sure they will cringe when they hear that. But we will see.

Talking to the body guy, it sounds like they do a good job. They use Dupont products, and they do a full wet sand and polish on the car after the paint job, so I should have a sweet paint job when I am done! I will keep you posted.

[Boxxerace]

How about a nice change to STI blue?

[rockhopjohn]

Yeah, I asked them about a change, but i don't think that it going to happen. It requires a lot more work because they have to deal with the jambs engine compartment and all of that stuff.

BTW, Not sure STI blue would mesh too well with the brown belly stripe.

[bheinz57]

Sounds like another dilemma for SOA to deal with. Let's hope your car gets a new lease on life with a new paint job.

Brian

[rockhopjohn]

Well, heard from the service department at 4 Seasons Subaru today. Guess they were fine with the cost of repainting the entire car, they scheduled me to bring it in to them on Monday morning, and they are going to be providing me with a loaner (I assume for the duration). They said it was going to take a week, possibly longer to get the car taken car of, so hopefully they give me a sweet ride. This dealer is a Subaru/Volkswagen/Audi dealer, so I can't strike out too bad on whatever they give me.

[06baja spt]

I had a defect in the clearcoat of my old cherokee.Real bad. After lots of lobbying Jeep/Chrysler finally agreed to pay 1/2 of a new paint job. Stay on em' & good luck.

[rockhopjohn]

Well, dropped the car off this morning for the paint work. They are having an outside body shop do it, and little looks like they are gonna repaint the whole car, so that is good. Will be interested to see if they do any body work (i.e. fix parking lot dents and dings) or if they are just gonna strip it and re-shoot it. I plan on stopping by the shop every couple of days, to see how things are going.

They expect it to be out at least a week possibly as much as two. They gave me a Impreza 2.5 RS, so nothing too exiciting to report there, other than I wish I could drop some wait off my OB to make it as quick as the impreza.

[rockhopjohn]

Well, went in checked my car yesterday and WOW. They had that bad boy stripped, I should have taken a picture. They had both the front and rear bumpers removed, they had removed the Windshield, rear window, and the two rear quarter windows. That had dropped the headliner in order to be able to remove the roof rack. They actually broke the front windshield trying to get it out, so I am going to get a new windshield free, which is great, I had two pretty good cracks in the old one.

I inquired as to why they went about removing the glass especially the rear window and windshield, and they said they didn't believe they would properly mask without doing that, so it sounds to me like they were going out of their way to do things right.

I noticed they just snipped the wiring connections for all of them lights in the bumper, which kind of p1ssed me off, but as long as they wire them up well, when they reassemble I guess it is all good, if they just use crimp on connectors I am gonna be upset.

Anyway, I will see if I can get some pictures.

[FMGreen]

Wow, impressive.

I can't wait to see the results!

[csonics]

I have this same problem on my 2000 OBW._ I'm thinking about taking it in to the dealership to complain._ Do you guys think that they would cover it for me even though its out of warranty?