[speedracergirl8]

Today i finally had a chance to begin the process of putting on the Liquid glass polymer and a coat of wax .

I washed the car as i usually do with overcast skies and pulled it into my sisters garage where i am house sitting this weekend.

Turned on her flourescent lights and began applying the LG, as i moved up the rear clam upper quadrant just below the fuel filler door on the flat surface i noticed it was dull compared to the surrounding area.

I looked at it from a angle and saw a 8" - 10 " long 3"- 4" tapering streak of dullness, with buffer tracks skipping along the edges as the buffer wheel hit the surface and jumped along the car! When my car was detailed at the dealership the guy used a buffer and didnt know what he was doing from what i can tell. He obviously cut through the clear coat down to the bare paint! Fortunately it doesnt look as if the paint was burned through anywhere along the streak.

I am now going to go over the car tomorrow with a hand held flourescent lamp and see if i have missed other spots like this along my car. I cannot believe anyone would use a buffer on such a small car to begin with and then to do this on the 1st waxing for a delivery.

Everyone check thier car out and if it came from Palm beach Motors then check it twice!

I fired off a email to Eliseseller, Ryan Moore, who was the salesman i delt with there, he is a great guy i am hoping and pretty sure i wont be having any trouble with getting this fixed right. but what a pain it is to just have to do it in the first place, and to think they charged me nearly $300.00 for thier PDI

Any suggestion/comments on what it will take to repair this? can it just be sprayed in this area or will a overspray be visible? Will the enitre rear clam need to be clearcoated again? Isn't the clear coat baked on at the factory and what effect will it have being done over in comparing to the other panels?

I don't know much about paint work and clear coats, I made a attempt to see if just adding the LG would solve it but it did nothing, still dull after a thin coating of LG applied.

 

[xxxotic]

When I got my car I noticed it was waxed but the paint didnt look that great. Sort of dull and not shiny. I waited about a week, and washed the car and went over it with the ps100 wax and it made a huge improvement. I only wash and wax my cars by hand, and
I noticed their were 2 small spots where they got wax on the plack plastic rear and front grills, but it cleaned up easily with Plexus. I didnt notice any areas that look like they had been burned by the buffer.

I also waxed the bottom and side parts of the door, the painted areas on the doors that were not covered in leather, and the inside the back part of the rear hatch that is only visable when the trunk is open, since most places never wax these areas.

I dont know why they are using a buffer, maybe it is just easier and faster. But the car is so small that it is easier to do it by hand.
Its not like waxing a cargo van, that's for sure.

Speedracergirl8- You emailed me that people were right on your bumper and that you had to leave space to speed up and then tap on the brakes on your ride home after buying your car. I noticed my brakes lights dont come on until I press almost all the way down on the brakes- Maybe this is why it appears people are tailgating you, since they dont see the brake lights coming on. I'm going to have this checked out at my 1000 mile service, since other people have reported it too.
To test this try stepping on the brakes at night and looking in your rearview mirror and seeing if the hi-mount light lights up the rear area of the car.

 

[James A]

SRG8 if they have to redo any clear coat make sue they do entire panels. You cannot spot repair clear it will "rainbow" if you do. Make them redo the entire panel with the clear.

 

[eliseowner2b]

SRG8 if they have to redo any clear coat make sue they do entire panels.

Im sure Jim meant "sure" but I think he might be trying to tell you something with this freudian slip?

 

[speedracergirl8]

I am sure he meant S-speed, R-racer, G- girl, 8

seems simple to me perhaps it is you who is seeing the freudian slip only??? And what would that slip be by the way?

 

[Stan]

>>SRG8 if they have to redo any clear coat make sue they do entire panels.<<<

Freudian Slip = Sue / Sure

 

[eliseowner2b]

SRG8,

Please read Jim's post a little closer. Honestly, I'm on your side here. If I found this kind of damage to my car I would put my foot down, for su(r)e!

 

[Goose]

I know that a few of us have told their dealer NOT to prep the paint. Does doing this prevent problems with the paint, such as swirls/burns?

I remember some people said that Lotus USA preps paint prior to distribution. Have they swirled/burned the paint?

I'm think I'm going to tell my dealer not to touch the paint.

 

[eliseowner2b]

My car came from LOA and the paint looked great. They did wax it but did a very good job. If you let them do it, ask them to do it by hand or with a low speed buffer. A monkey can buff with this and not burn the paint/clearcoat.

 

[Stan]

Buffer burnt paint = very common Elise problem...I've seen 3-4 Elises with dealer-burned paint. It's not an easy car to buff compared to an SUV with all the flat surface area and lack of creases and recesses.

I'd prefer they leave it alone or do it by hand or use a small orbital which is more forgiving.

It's also very common to have your car delivered with wax stains on the various black grills. And this may not be immediately apparent - it can take some time to show up.

 

[MattG]

but what a pain it is to just have to do it in the first place, and to think they charged me nearly $300.00 for thier PDI

That right there is the real problem if you ask me. They charge you for PDI, something they're not supposed to do, and then they don't even get it right. Good luck getting this sorted out.

 

[raggedy1]

there are more than a few of us that have issues with the paint. the consensus is to be more forgiving because it is a small production, hand assembled and painted car.

my car has a few pinholes in it and there were some areas that were dull. initially i was told by a detailer that there were a few areas that had primer showing through the paint (!) and the dull spots were caused by color sanding at the factory.

after a lot of buffing using meguiar's body scrub, the dull spots came out as did the dark spots that were feared to be the primer showing through.

now i'm going over the car inch by inch and buffing out any spiderwebbing or dull spots i find before i hit the car with Zaino

i have SY so there is no clear coat.

 

[speedracergirl8]

I also have SY i thought all cars had clearcoat , 2 coats of it baked on at the factory?

OK just finished with the liquid glass, I found more then a dozen dull spots, burn throughs and buffer marks on my car in various places, i am sorry i am not going to forgive and forget! The car should be alot better ESPECIALLY since it was hand built not in spite of it.

I talked with my salesman, he said bring it in and every thing will be taken care of to my satisfaction by thier body shop, which was good to hear.

Another disturbing thing i noticed was on the rear left fake vent was overspray and it was also in the joint just above that vent, seems odd that there would be paint overspray on that?

I thought the black parts were inserted after the car was painted, makes me think there was some sort of damage and repair done in that area??? I looked at it from the inside and all looked normal and the same as the right so i don't know.

 

[raggedy1]

i'm assuming there is no clearcoat just by looking at the paint.

does anyone know for certain?

the 2nd gen mr2 did not have clearcoat on their solid colors (red, yellow, black), but did clearcoat their metallics. the elise SY looks suspiciously identical to those early toyota paintjobs (no clearcoat).

 

[Maverick1]

SRG8-you should have held off with putting on the liquid glass, because I read that it is a real bi_ch to get off, almost like an acrylic coat which will have to be taken off before the dealer can repair the paint.
Hope everything works out for you.
Cheers

 

[etypeiii]

i'm assuming there is no clearcoat just by looking at the paint.

does anyone know for certain?

I don't know Lotus' paint process, but if you buffed it to take out paint imperfections, and the buffing pad or polish wipeoff cloth didn't show any base color, it is likely clear coated.

(might be hard to see with your color if you use the common yellow polishing pad though...)




DLY

 

[raggedy1]

I don't know Lotus' paint process, but if you buffed it to take out paint imperfections, and the buffing pad or polish wipeoff cloth didn't show any base color, it is likely clear coated.

(might be hard to see with your color if you use the common yellow polishing pad though...)




DLY

hmm, good point. i'm using white cotton towels and there is not base coat coming off. the body scrub is very mild (despite the name) and i'm buffing to the point of exhaustion to get rid of some spiderwebbing. i want to use the most mild compound to get the job done, but at this rate it's going to take me a month to get the whole car done!

 

[fastliz]

Good to hear speedracergirl. Especially since that's where I'll be getting my Elise. Ryan at Palm Beach Motorcars is a good guy. My preference is for the dealer to NOT "prep" my car by washing / waxing it for delivery. When I got my Subie STi, I asked the dealer to give it to unprepped. It wasn't a problem. Then I could have at it with my goodies from Griot's Garage.


Mike - future owner of Chrome Orange LSS Elise