so i'm the idiot who backed into the wall today....
i got out the car to look at the damage. there are some paint chip on my the bumper, and when I looked at the bodykit (which was hit too) there was not a single paint chip on it.

bumper = old paint = stiffer-less flexible
kit = new(er) paint = less stiff-more flexible

do those little nissan paint things work?

Bumper hit the wall, kit didn't.

If the flex additive wasn't in the paint from the factory, it would have started to peal off your bumper shortly after delivery. Within one year, change of seasons, summer heat expands, winter contracts, your paint would have started to peal off.

I got hit pretty good in the rear, my bumper didn't show any signs of damage. The nose of the kid's car who ran into me sure did.

The paint on my 4th gen is excellent. After 60,000 miles only my front bumper is starting to show signs of normal ware. No big deal, I'll refinish it this summer some time.

You shouldn't be hitting **** in the first place , thats not what paints made for, i never heard of any car that has super paint and that doesnt chip when you hit walls. You probubly didnt hit the kit only the bumper touched.

Ive found my nissan paint was aweful. The front bumper is the worst area. It was thin as *****. A friend with a 98 has his clear coat flakin off from the front and and parts off the side.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ericdwong
Ive found my nissan paint was aweful. The front bumper is the worst area. It was thin as *****. A friend with a 98 has his clear coat flakin off from the front and and parts off the side. [/QUOTE

my dads '01 accord is also starting to flake off.. if u want nice paint to stay that way, you gotta take good care of it..

kit hit the wall also, b/c there were stuff from the wall that was on the kit too

My front and rear bumper is yellowish compared to the rest of my artic pearl car. So my body kit is artic pearl white, bumpers are yellowish and the rest of the car is artic pearl white.

3rd gen paint doesnt suck

My bumper is also chipping, I was told the bumpers suck the most because they don't primer them first. I need to pain both bumpers an hood eventually. I will probably just have the whole thing painted if I can work a barter job somehow.

Tom your car must be a factory freak. Normally I agree with you but on this subject my opinions differs. Nissan paint is notoriously HORRIBLE. It is not only very thinly layered, but they use few layers and consequently it chips and flakes easily. I take excellent care of my paint, waxing frequently yet I still see abnormal signs of wear. At 50k miles my entire front end was severely chipped - bumper, fenders, and hood. I had the bumper repainted because it was the worse - there must have been 3 chips ever square inch. My friends have Hondas which are 10 years old and although parts may be fading, there is no sign of this obsessive chipping. Now I do agree with the statement that paint is only as good as it is maintained, but I take extreme care of mine only to be dissapointed. I am considering repainting the whole car Ruby Pearl all over, but I don't know if I can justify the cost.
-Cyrus

hey y'all
i'm not saying that paint is suppose to withstand the impact of hitting something, BUT when the bodykit was hit just as hard and it didn't not chip a single bit....doesn't that say something about nissan's paint

do you guys think touchup paint can fix this?

nissan paint really sucks compared to other companies...
everyone hates on honda's, but their paint is much better quality and durable.

My paint on my front and rear bumpers is SO terrible. Around the height of the license plate and below, the paint is cracked. There are like spider web cracks, and snow flakes, and all other pretty designs . I would get them repainted, but may wait for a body kit. Neh, as long as someone doesn't bend down, or look to close it isn't THAT bad, but still. It makes me every time i see it.

-payne-

I always thought toyota had great paint. My 85 supra stills looks good today. My friends'd 92 camry still looks showroom new. Nissan paint is ok but not as durable as some others.

I have no complaints about my paint...not a single flake, unlike my kit

touchup paint won't fix that to your satisfaction.

and, people seem to be forgetting something. Paint formulation has changed away from oil based so now paints in general suck. I keep seeing "my 10 year old honda's paint looks excellent compared to my 2k2 Maxima"... guess what? MOST 10 YEAR OLD cars have better paint than MOST 2k2 cars.

So, before you start hating on nissan start comparing same-year cars. Ask a 2k2 BMW owner and he'll tell you the same thing we're seeing... NEW PAINT SUCKS, not "nissan paint sucks."

noticed the same thing, had a 1990 saab 9000 turbo that when washed and waxed looked absolutely brand new. why in the sh** did they move away from oil based paint? environmental reasons? does any body know anything about why this is?

Well, i'm not trying to compare different cars
I'm comparing it to my bodykit paint, with looks like its alot thicker than Nissan paint.
that's all i'm trying to say

well i dont wanna get into a debate over Nissan paint vs others


Any paint job is gonna be damaged if you hit something, doesnt matter if its Nissan, Honda, Mercedes, Peugot. Cant really speculate on what happened in your lil fender bender but maybe the kit took less of the impact. maybe the kit is polyurethane so it flexed while the factory bumper didnt so the paint flexed and broke or chipped. could be many different reasons why what happened happened.

nissan has to start taking painting lessons from toyota or bmw

BMW people are complaining about the same paint issues. My friend has an M5 and is on a board every day, and every day they have the same "our paint sucks" threads going we have. I'm not making a login over there to search on it but if anyone has a BMW board login, search on paint and see what you get.

It's not the manufacturer, it's the "new paint."

Yep, that's true. I've browsed an M5 board a while just for fun, and saw plenty of threads regarding paint chips and the such.

New paint is weaker because of new EPA requirements. Old paint used to have lead in it, which is what made it so strong and resilient, whereas the new paint does not contained lead, and is more water based.

While this may be true, it cant be the complete answer. My wife has an 02 Focus (read: new, new paint formula), it now has MORE miles (total 25K+)than my Max (01). She travels 95% of the same roads as I do to work and back. It has 0, nada, NOTHING chipped on the hood OR bumper. I am completely amazed at it. I have to rub my eyes everytime I wax it.

I always inspect trying to find one, but its so retarded. Her car looks great and she is not careful about following vehicles to close or anything. Mine, I have to put it in an environmental wrapper to keep it looking new. I guess her car is just a freak or something. But Nissan paint sucks. Period.

So when my "domestic" (which is supposed to be inferior in everyway, its also does not rattle like my Nissan does) is out "lasting" my import, I WILL hate on Nissan paint.