New Leaf Owners - Paint quality good or ehhhh?

[OrientExpress]

I'm on day 4 of my Leaf ownership, and today am waxing the car. As I started the process I was really surprised by how rough the paint was. It was full of contaminants, and makes the paint feel like fine sandpaper. It is not a terminal condition, because to rectify it all you have to do is "clay" the car. Now that I have done the claying the paint is nice and smooth. But during the claying process I was amazed at how much stuff the clay pulled out of the paint. Usually this much gunk is something you would see in a car that had set outside for a year or so, not a brand new car that is less than 2 months old.

What are your experiences with the paint on your car?

 

[palmermd]

pollen?

 

[Gonewild]

My car drivers door had what looked like red over spray. Skywagan used a buffer to remove it for ME :mrgreen:

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Is it not recommended to not wax car for first 30 days of ownership?

 

[mwalsh]

It's an "ehhhh" from me. Not horrible, but not great either. My car had something foreign splashed onto the hatch prior to paint and the paint in those small spots (about 5 in all) came off the first time I washed the car. In addition, I had a scratch on the underside of the solar spoiler and some scratches around the bottom edges of both tail lamps (probably all caused by the same careless installer). And since then, I've found a couple of small bits of foreign matter (most probably lint) under the paint in the passenger side front door.

 

[Rake]

It's an "ehhhh" from me. Not horrible, but not great either. My car had something foreign splashed onto the hatch prior to paint and the paint in those small spots (about 5 in all) came off the first time I washed the car. In addition, I had a scratch on the underside of the solar spoiler and some scratches around the bottom edges of both tail lamps (probably all caused by the same careless installer). And since then, I've found a couple of small bits of foreign matter (most probably lint) under the paint in the passenger side front door.

I wonder if your PD will fix those blemishes for you?
Were you able to spot them when you picked up the car?
I'll be looking mine over really well, when they get around to delivering it

 

[IBELEAF]

It's probably also depends on color. I have silver and no imperfection that I could detect.

 

[mwalsh]

I wonder if your PD will fix those blemishes for you?
Were you able to spot them when you picked up the car?

No. Didn't spot any of that stuff prior to delivery.

Not worried about getting the issues fixed....too small to fret over, especially since you never get the same hard wearing finish on respray work as you do from the factory.

 

[lemketron]

Perhaps all the crap settled into the finish while these cars were sitting outside at the port of Long Beach for over a month... :evil:
So what's the conventional wisdom regarding first clay/wax -- do we need to wait, or are these cars already "old" (cured) enough
My car's production month was February, and "manufacture date" was 3/7/2011, so I'm guessing it's ok to clay/wax it now?

 

[mgoleta]

Is the Paint Guard Film clear on the LEAF? It is supposed to be removed before delivery.

 

[Randy]

At our recent San Diego meet, a couple of us ran our fingers over the paint of several different Leafs in the same spot, a couple of "untreated" Leafs, a Zaino-treated Leaf and then my Teflon / Orbital buffed Leaf. It was like night and day.

The untreated finish is very rough to the touch, while the treated cars have a silky smooth finish.

Regardless of what method you choose to use, I would highly recommend a teflon / Zaino / wax treatment of some sort to really get the finish in top notch condition....

Randy

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

i have a Zaino kit and will do the whole 9 yards come summer. in fact, i hope to do it sometime within the next few weeks.

i "try" to do this once a year on my Prius as well. (it will be two years old on Tues but have only done it once so far. i justify this since the car is a 2010 and its only 2011)

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

I put a coat of Zaino Z2 on my blue leaf, and it's much better now. The clearcoat wasn't very slick.

The paint is alright -- not exactly Infiniti depth, but I didn't find any blemish or irregularities.

It does need a sealant/top-coat of something, though. I like Zaino, but I'm not going "11 coats of pain" like I did on the G35.

 

[garygid]

What Teflon product is good/best, please?
I have the "white" LEAF.
Thanks.

 

[Randy]

Hi Gary,
Please refer to my January 16 PM answer to your question regarding Jim Sadler and his mobile detailing service....He is the man when it comes to paint knowledge and treatment...

Thanks, Randy

 

[DaveNagy]

I went out and bought another clay bar as soon as I brought my car home. Now, I'm just waiting for some decent weather to come back to California so I can wash it.

BTW, one way to get a good feel for the microscopic roughness of a finish is to spritz some sudsy water on a patch of paint to lubricate it, and then stick your hand into a plastic sandwich bag. With a layer of bag between your fingers and the paint, "feel" around on the finish. Any irregularities will feel huge.

 

[jlambeth]

I'm on day 4 of my Leaf ownership, and today am waxing the car. As I started the process I was really surprised by how rough the paint was. It was full of contaminants, and makes the paint feel like fine sandpaper. It is not a terminal condition, because to rectify it all you have to do is "clay" the car. Now that I have done the claying the paint is nice and smooth. But during the claying process I was amazed at how much stuff the clay pulled out of the paint. Usually this much gunk is something you would see in a car that had set outside for a year or so, not a brand new car that is less than 2 months old.

What are your experiences with the paint on your car?

I don't know if you already seen other posts ... but us folks in Seattle have had large batches of cars on "hold" in Long Beach. The official line from Nissan (worthy of a direct phone call no less) was "pollen". They were pollen damaged in Long Beach, and were no being held so Nissan could clean them up prior to delivery. Mine hits the train on Monday.

So - if they're recognizing it as a problem, it might be worth a complaint to Nissan. They might pay to have someone else clay the car ...

 

[jlambeth]

I'm on day 4 of my Leaf ownership, and today am waxing the car. As I started the process I was really surprised by how rough the paint was. It was full of contaminants, and makes the paint feel like fine sandpaper. It is not a terminal condition, because to rectify it all you have to do is "clay" the car. Now that I have done the claying the paint is nice and smooth. But during the claying process I was amazed at how much stuff the clay pulled out of the paint. Usually this much gunk is something you would see in a car that had set outside for a year or so, not a brand new car that is less than 2 months old.

What are your experiences with the paint on your car?

I don't know if you already seen other posts ... but us folks in Seattle have had large batches of cars on "hold" in Long Beach. The official line from Nissan (worthy of a direct phone call no less) was "pollen". They were pollen damaged in Long Beach, and were no being held so Nissan could clean them up prior to delivery. Mine hits the train on Monday.

So - if they're recognizing it as a problem, it might be worth a complaint to Nissan. They might pay to have someone else clay the car ...

From the Seattle Leaf Facebook group:

Did you understand the explanation regarding why these were held in Long Beach? I didn't really get it. Sounded a lot like "it needed to be washed". Oh well, this seems real finally.
Friday at 9:23pm

There has been some story floating around about pollen having somehow become entrained in the car's finish, requiring the special washing procedure. Now, they never told me this specifically (mine was perpetually awaiting accessories), but they did tell this to several people on the MNL forum. Must be some tough pollen!
Yesterday at 9:57am

Actually - they did tell me "pollen". I just didn't think I'd heard it correctly.

 

[Jimmydreams]

At our recent San Diego meet, a couple of us ran our fingers over the paint of several different Leafs in the same spot, a couple of "untreated" Leafs, a Zaino-treated Leaf and then my Teflon / Orbital buffed Leaf. It was like night and day.

The untreated finish is very rough to the touch, while the treated cars have a silky smooth finish.

Regardless of what method you choose to use, I would highly recommend a teflon / Zaino / wax treatment of some sort to really get the finish in top notch condition....

Randy

Randy...

I just clay-bar'd my Leaf yesterday and then waxed it with Muther's Carnauba Cleaner Wax. The car looks FANTASTIC (and feels nice and slippery-smooth). The wax also took out a swirly scratch that I cause with the clay bar. It was pretty big, and I was pretty bummed, but after waxing, you can't see the scratch at ALL.

I second your recommendation for aftermarket treatment of some sort.

As for the "pollen" issue in the port at Long Beach. I WILL say that when I was washing my car yesterday, I had a LOT of yellow, 'polleny' looking spots all over the car.....even in places where the yellow gunk would have to have dropped straight down on the car from above!! While the stuff wasn't impossible to get off, it was more stubborn than most bug stains. I don't know if it was pollen or what, but I live about 60 miles south of Long Beach. You decide.

 

[LEAFfan]

I don't know if you already seen other posts ... but us folks in Seattle have had large batches of cars on "hold" in Long Beach. The official line from Nissan (worthy of a direct phone call no less) was "pollen". They were pollen damaged in Long Beach, and were no being held so Nissan could clean them up prior to delivery. Mine hits the train on Monday.

I was told the pollen was from Japan while the cars were waiting to be loaded on the ships.