bigorangexj

So, with less than 2 weeks of ownership of my new 5.5 gen, I am about to cry (not really). When I bought the car, there was not a single scratch or ding which amazed me for an '02. A few "ripples" in the reflection where acorns or something might have fallen, but nothing serious. Now, I don't know what the hell is going on, but I have tons, and I mean tons of small specs of paint off my front bumper and some on my hood as well. A few pics below (taken from my phone). I don't know if it's the fact that I drive more aggressively than most, and do 80-85 average on the highway. Maybe trailer trucks are kicking up sand and salt from the road. I have no idea. I had plans to add a Stillen or Maxxtuning (if possible) front lip, swap my tails to '01 SE, lower it and a few more minor mods in the future, but I feel like with every .5 step forward I am going back like 5. Thing is, my old JDM converted Integra was lowered 2 inches and front lip never had specs like this, but then again, I never drove in from November to April. Just hard to believe that it was mint for 8 years, and I seem to have tarnished it's beauty is less than 14 days. Anyone else have experiences like this just from normal lead-footed driving?

Waxima

iTrader: (3)

What?

Are you sure you didn't miss those marks when you bought the car or something? That bumper looks better than most for a 10 year old car. Hell, mine is ten times worse than that.

Wash it and ignore the marks. Those are barely noticeable.

MajesticBlue2K2

iTrader: (1)

Yeah I have the same problem, I just wax it and its less noticeable.

getflushed

Any accidents on it.... Like in the past month or so lol, did you buy it from a reputable dealership or a person you know? Ripples in the body? Are there any scratches around those ripples or chipped paint? In the center of the ripples? My guess would be the car has been repainted. Those ripples you see are not ripples from "acorns" but waves in body filler. The reason why you have accumulated so much chips is because either A. The prepper/painter used a bad batch/brand primer and there is minimal to no adhesion or they scuffed the primer with a grit above 800 and it was too fine and has no adhesion or the vehicle was painted so recently that its still soft and probably wasn't baked in a booth but allowed to sit in the booth and dry on its own or C the painter was a moron and didn't mix the clear with the right activator or hardener or just a incorrect mixture. I could be wrong though, its hard to say without phisically seeing it. I work in a reputable body shop in an area with lots of side shops and I see issues like this all the time with the side shops cheaping out and using sh*tty brands of base and clear, there called hacks and they love to cut corners. Another thing ill add is never use carfax to research a vehicles history, they can sometimes take up to 1 year to post a claim on a vehicle being that it has to go through the insurance company, then be processed by the insurance company, then sent to carfax, the processed by carfax. Sometimes things get lost or busy and there not very accurate, so a person can smash there car, fix it and sell it within a month and some poor soul comes along, checks the car out on carfax, sees nothing then buys it not knowing there was a 5000.00 accident on it! I've seen it happen. Anyways good luck! Again I could be wrong, but those are the main causes of what's happening, if they did happen within the two weeks you have owed it. I recommend buying some touch up paint and a seperate touch up clear. Dab the chips with the base color, allow to dry, then take your clear coat and put a big blob of clear ( like a drop that's elevated from the surface so it looks like a solid bubble, give it a week to dry, buy some 1500 grit and 2000 grit wet sand paper And a small block. Soak the sandpapper in water and spray water on the bubble of clear and genlty keeping the block flat on. The hardened bubble sand it down til you starting to scuff the surrounding clear then switch to. The 2000 grit and give it a good scuff until there is no shine around where the bubble met the rest of the clear and buy some fine grit polish and polish it with a polisher, it will pretty much completley remove the chips ( be careful when polishing it if you sit in one spot for to long or hit sharp corners on the body of the car you can risk burning through the paint!) I have done this to previous cars and its amazing for scrathces that are to deep to polish. Its just very tedious. The whole process ( if you were to do your whole vehicle) can take a week spread out. Anyways I hope this makes sense I'm using my phone and the screen is very small hahaha. But you can pm. me if you want an exact detailed way of fixing them. Or have any questions.

95VQ30

10 year old car- it will have some wear & tear. Hell my front bumper has a nice gash in it behind the license plate holder from the previous owner, adds character

But dude, traveling at 80+ on the highway and a small sharp pebble can leave a nice mark.

Clean it up nice and you can get a clear film to cover the front or a LOL bra.

getflushed

I forgot to add when you are applying the clear the clear you want it to fill out over the chip not just in the chip ( over lap the clear blob ofthe rest of the clear coat on the car) it may take 3 or 4 applications to get the clear to be elevated the the rest of the surface. And you must you a ploished. Your hand polishing it will not work, it needs to. Be polished fasdt so it can melt the clear to get rid of the sandpaper marks. And use a fine grit polish NOT wax,
again polish NOT wax

RLW001

iTrader: (11)

After I got my bumber and hood repainted I started using a bra. Sure its got that 80's look, but when I go "bra-less" no marks.

bigorangexj

Thanks for the lengthy and informative posted "flushed". Did not realize the carfax could be that bad as well. The last record on their was at 76k miles passing emissions, and has 78k on it now. I bought it at a place called Coastal Nissan south of Boston, MA and it was an alleged trade in for a new car. A lot of records on the carfax from that specific dealership as well (repairs, etc.). The are 4-5 of the "ripples" throughout the body, and aren't very noticeable but appear as placed where the reflection isn't quite what it should be. Some very odd areas on the car too. There is one scuff on the rear bumper that I think was my mistake first day getting the car, I think I just touched a snow (ice) bank backing out my driveway. Overall the cars, still in great shape for an '02, but if I am going to put a lip on it, I want the whole front end to look great. I can't imagine a bra, but maybe I'll consider one of those clear films that goes over the front end/bumper.

Eirik

iTrader: (2)

OP: I couldn't penetrate flushed's wall of text, but here's what happened to your car: Dealers have their Scratch-'n-Dent guys repaint things like the road rash on bumpers. They use the cheapest possible paint and it typically wears off after a month or so. Logic would indicate your high-speed driving could accelerate its aging.

The same thing happened to my car on one of the doors and the rear bumper. I was furious when the best body shop around clued me in to why all this crap appeared on my car ~6 months after I bought it. It looks fantastic on the lot, but shortly after you take it home... =/

Rods03Max619

iTrader: (5)

Got the same thing but same paint since the car came out of the factory but bouts to get the whole car painted cause it is alot of dinks here and there and like 2 or 3 dents...

beefster

iTrader: (1)

my bumper has lots of character

*edit for image resize

Scottwax

iTrader: (8)

Nissan paint from the early 2000s is very prone to chipping. Other than putting a clear bra on the car or driving slow all the time, live with it.

bigorangexj

OK. I know it's not a show car but I was meticulous about the appearance of my last 3 cars, aside from my '96 maxima gxe DD with 207k. Two of the 3 were weekend show cars. I guess I do need to realize that at the end of the day it is a DD, but I hate the idea of adding a freshly painted stillen or maxxtuning lip, if the bumper is going to look like crap. Maybe I'll conside having the bumper and lip painted at the same time, and put the clear bra material on there. Can anyone confirm if the maxxtuning lip still exists? I think I read some searched threads that indicated it is no longer in production, and I can't decide which I like more.

zzmmrx0xmzz

My dad owned my car for 5 years before passing it down to me. It had complete stock suspension and had tons of rock chips too. Like everyone else said, wash and wax will reduce it a bit. I remember the day i removed the front license plate to see a rectangle imprint of perfect paint surrounded by rock chips

Rochester

iTrader: (3)

There it is.

If you get your bumber/hood professionally repainted (for somewhere loosely around $800 give or take 50%), your concerns would probably go away for a long, long time. However, you do have a dark paint, so all the little chips will show. I imagine it's pretty frustrating, but I have a bright silver car, so I just look the other way. (My front bumper feels like sandpaper.)

Somewhat related to this, but mid-west roads use a lot of crushed granite in their pavement. Regardless of where you live, always keep a good distance between you and the cars in front of you, particularly if you don't see mudflaps on the vehicle. And if people cut you off because of the space, so be it. No skin off your nose... er, or bumper, as it were.

Shift_Max

iTrader: (18)

I agree with this statement as well

phatboislim

iTrader: (27)

agreed

Prophecy99

iTrader: (1)

yeah... nothing much to complain about here, just accept it, find a reasonable solution from the suggestions , and move on to greater things to worry about.
i'd have to admit though it is very frustraighting seeing that crap.

getflushed

Putting a coat of wax on it is the stupidest thing I've heard ( for your situation at least
Wax will bring a gloss shine to your car only making the small scratches and chips that much more noticable.... Your have bare primer showing not little marks in your clear coat! Polish is a grainy substance that when used properly with a polisher will slowly cut through your clear coat smoothing out the finish and removing any scratches that are not deeper than your clear coat. I find that when I just put a coat of wax on my car it looks worse in the sun because I can see all of the scrathes and the chips are filled in with the white paste making them that much more noticeable. You need to fill them in with clear, wet sand it (along with any other scrathes that aren't deeper than the clear) and plish the whole thing and then wax it, if your really keen on removing therm without paying a decent shop 600.00. You could go through what I said and spend a week and about 50 bucks and make your car look like new. I have done this to almost every car I have bought. As soon as spring hits ill be doing it to this vehicle.
I agree nissan factory paint is not very durable.
I agree with the scratch and dent doctors repainting bumpers and panels. And using sh*tty paint.. They will soon be out of business. Once the laws where your from are changed from solvent based to water bourne being that you need to bake waterbourne and you don't have to bake solvent based paints anyways good luck!

timelessr1

You could also try going to a few body shops and see how much they would charge jsut to paint the bumper if YOU took it off and brought it to them. Sometimes 50% of what they charge you is for the removal and reinstallation of the bumpers. Ask the body shops a few questions to make sure they are not another hack place.

ctsmith39

iTrader: (2)

As for the Scratch and Dent people, my dad did it for a while and hated the paint that they recommended so he would go and get better quality as it was his reputation he was putting out there. But yes their paint is crap.

MrVelvet

There are a few explanations as to why your car looked spotless when you bought it. It COULD do with your driving if your riding up on big rigs real close for the majority of the time then you will definitely thrash that bumper.

But my best guess is when a dealer gets a car they put it through their hack detailer who use compounds and polishes that have a high content of paint filling glaze to cover most of the imperfections in the paint like those chips. And after a couple washes and some environmental contamination all that glaze will disappear and those imperfections reappear.

Your best solution is repaint and clear bra or black bra.

zero2sixtyZ

iTrader: (30)

Bought my car from the same dealership. Eh on that place.

The bumper doesn't look bad for an 02. Mine looked worse after the first few years of ownership. Get the bumper repainted if it gets really bad.

al_maxima

I have the same thing with mine too...

MONTE 01&97 SE

iTrader: (1)

That should include up till current..........My Z has a few nicks on the front as well as I have seen others (lots of guys on the 370 forum complain of this and cheap paint) with them as well. Also have seen several sand blasted 6th gen front ends and some 7th gens with quite a few knicks on the front. I wish we had the same EPA standards as far as paint goes that we had in the 80's and 90's, my old 93 Max did not have hardly any knicks on the front end when I sold it in 2000 to a co worker whom still has it to this day.

bds1304

iTrader: (1)

yeah im goin to miss my solvent based paints when that law kicks in, but so far i heard that waterbourne paint aint that bad

bds1304

iTrader: (1)

or just pay me, im cheaper....

Eirik

iTrader: (2)

I've been getting a plan together to make my car not look like crap (ie, make it look like Scott's new one) and found this picture while researching detailing stuff.



From http://www.rightlook.com/paint-touch-up-and-repair.html


So, just like the G35's headlights were made of the worst plastic ever, causing the poor car to grace the back of many a "restore your headlights!!!!!!!" product, and even the front of PlastX!, so, too, is the 5.5 gen destined to end up on the front of "restore your front bumper!!!!!" pages?