Getting Door Repainted. Nissan: "Take Out Battery First"

PianoAl · Nov 5, 2016

My wife crunched the door of our 2016 LEAF, and Monday, we take it in to be fixed and repainted.

I noticed that the manual says to remove the battery before painting because the heat of the drying room will affect the battery's capacity!

I'll bring it up with the body shop. Maybe they'll take the door off or maybe it isn't really an issue.

Your thoughts?

baustin · Nov 5, 2016

Discuss it with the body shop and let them know the battery cannot be cooked. Take a copy of the printout from the Nissan manual. Many will have an alternate method for drying, it just takes a lot longer. They could remove the door to paint it, but then there is the possibility of alignment issues when they put it back on.

LeftieBiker · Nov 6, 2016

They could remove the door to paint it, but then there is the possibility of alignment issues when they put it back on.

I've removed and replaced many car doors, and compared to the risk of damaging the battery pack, the risk of misalignment is both modest (if the R&R is done correctly) and easily corrected if it isn't. Unless Nissan is blazing new paths in automotive bad design, the door mounts and main catch should all be adjustable.

Staque · Nov 6, 2016

I mentioned this in another thread, so sorry for the rerun.

The shop I used, after I told them about the battery, painted my door and fender on Friday afternoon, and left it in the unheated booth over the weekend to air dry until Monday.

RockyNv · Nov 11, 2016

The shop friends owned would just leave the car out of the drying room and use portable heat lamps on the panel being repaired and did not heat the entire car. The heat is needed to properly cure some paints by activating the hardeners unless they use a lower temp paint with a chemical catalyst/hardener. The newer EPA approved paints can be a bit fussy about this. Its about long term durability.

keydiver · Nov 14, 2016

I asked about this issue when I had a small repaint done to my rear fender (scraped the stucco on my garage), and the paint shop I took it to was owned by the same guy who owns the Nissan dealership. They told me that their paint booth only heats the car up to X degrees, I forget the exact amount, but he said that the lower temperature, and short duration, did not require battery removal.

PianoAl · Nov 15, 2016

They did the work and told me that they only used air drying for the paint on the door. All seems okay.

RockyNv · Nov 15, 2016

PianoAl said:
They did the work and told me that they only used air drying for the paint on the door. All seems okay.

As long as they stand behind the warranty on resistance to wear and against fading on the paint job. Allow extra time with gently care to prevent damage to the paint before it hardens more completely as it may take a month or so without having had the heat treatment in the booth during the initial flash off period.

Getting Door Repainted. Nissan: "Take Out Battery First"

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