Discussion of Stinger paint quality (Was - Paint Chip Issue)

[Fl stingergt]

Watch for clear coat delamination that is the problem kia had with special yellow run of cars. They don’t want to admit there is problems with all models. I guess some cars got the proper coats of clear and others didn’t.

 

[Fl stingergt]

My clear coat was soft and moist on inside of all 4 doors a year into owning car. And I live in Florida where it’s nice and hot. Finger nail would sink right into paint without hardly any pressure.

 

[Revvdmedia]

A PPF patch across the top of the rear bumper is a good idea too! I got lucky, lucky, lucky that my bumper wasn't scarred up when my son dragged his heavy suitcase out of my hatch and hit the bumper.

The one area of the car that I think could benefit from PPF based on my experience is the side skirt/rocker, especially at the driver's side door. Something about the height of the car, the skirt and the seat being further back with the automatic seat retract, I often find myself bumping my shoe against the rocker/skirt. I already buffed out a couple scratches and I imagine it's going to keep happening. I'm just torn because I had a few spots with custom PPF applied on my last car and one of the more reputable places here kept screwing it up. I've seen a kit online for PPF in this area on our car so might look at that one; I just won't be able to apply it til spring when I get to detailing the car properly.

 

[OriginalRobby]

I do believe that some of the areas where issues will show could very well be from some form of handling of the panels involved at production time and perhaps the clear coat not being hardened 'yet'... hopefully the issues will all surface under the 10k mark ... if it goes beyond that then clearly there is an issue with the affected vehicle. For all that are not experiencing any of the rear hatch rub or headlight rub or any other peels then you are lucky, your car was handled properly at production, but there have been some of us affected.

As for the paint 'flaking' that's a whole different story in my opinion, that's an adhesion issue and not a lack of clear coat issue or production handling issue.

EDIT: and did I say the word issue enough? lol

 

[OriginalRobby]

RevvedMedia, you nailed it with your earlier post. My car is exactly the same as yours, slight headlight rub, side skirt minor peel and the hatch rub. All in all, they are OK to touch up and you wouldn't notice.
I believe you are right about the clear coat not cured and mishandling at production / assembly, probably both.

But for the other folks with 'flaking paint' that look like chips, those are more serious issues with adhesion and that's the REAL paint problem.
I think we can all reach this conclusion there are two paint quality issues with the stingers:

1.Paint Flaking caused by actual paint adhesion to the primer (WORST)
2.Paint peeling caused by production mishandling, lack of quality control, not enough or uncured clear coat(SECOND WORST)

if you disagree then please let us know why, else I think we have finally figured this out, I HOPE.

QUOTING REVEDMEDIA
"I had a theory, but your statement should negate it. I was curious if many people with paint issues did not have fully cured and hardened paint. Normally, I believe paint undergoes a "bake" process to quick flash harden the clear, so that could also negate that theory. I had wondered, though, those with paint issues, if the time span between manufacturing and delivery meant the clear was not fully hardened to its maximum strength and exhibited these problems. I wondered about uncured paint on my own car since I had two defects on the non-steel parts - the headlight rub and a chip off the top edge of the side skirt and neither looks to have gotten worse. I'm thinking my issues were damage due to installation and the paint wasn't cured enough to handle the impact that happened during installation, resulting in the paint chips."

 

[Kato_the_kia_stinger]

Has anyone had a paint issue with their Sunset Yellow after the repaint? Either after you took it in for the recall or if you bought the car after the recall work was done?

 

[Doel]

Has anyone had a paint issue with their Sunset Yellow after the repaint? Either after you took it in for the recall or if you bought the car after the recall work was done?

any paint issues after the repaint is really going to be body shop dependent.

 

[Kato_the_kia_stinger]

any paint issues after the repaint is really going to be body shop dependent.

It's interesting, actually, because while the shop has provided a warranty for the work, out Sunset Yellows are still covered by the original paint warranty provided by Kia.

 

[NS_Stinger]

My clear coat was soft and moist on inside of all 4 doors a year into owning car. And I live in Florida where it’s nice and hot. Finger nail would sink right into paint without hardly any pressure.

I think I have this issue as well, I have little lumps of paint/clear on the bottom of the inside of the doors that are really soft and you can squish them down with a little bit of thumb pressure. I really hope they don't pop over time and cause rust issues...I did get my car sprayed with a rust inhibitor, hopefully that helps to a degree.

 

[MerlintheMad]

I think I have this issue as well, I have little lumps of paint/clear on the bottom of the inside of the doors that are really soft and you can squish them down with a little bit of thumb pressure. I really hope they don't pop over time and cause rust issues...I did get my car sprayed with a rust inhibitor, hopefully that helps to a degree.

I already satisfied myself that those "bubbles" are actually sprayed over sealant between the sections that make up the door (assembling the inner door frame to the outer door panel results in squeezing out of the sealant at the edges). There isn't any clear coat on the inside of the doors anyway.

 

[PieceOfChum]

Have 3500 miles on my 2018 Black Stinger GT2 with no problems at all with the paint other than it is too thin. Had it washed at a touchless car wash the other day and now there is a large chip on the passenger door. I noticed it about fifteen minutes after the car wash when I got home. It is a chip and there are no dent marks or scratches etc. to indicate any damage from another vehicle hitting the door. I am not sure if this is a sign of bad things to come but hoping it was just an anomaly.

 

[MerlintheMad]

Have 3500 miles on my 2018 Black Stinger GT2 with no problems at all with the paint other than it is too thin. Had it washed at a touchless car wash the other day and now there is a large chip on the passenger door. I noticed it about fifteen minutes after the car wash when I got home. It is a chip and there are no dent marks or scratches etc. to indicate any damage from another vehicle hitting the door. I am not sure if this is a sign of bad things to come but hoping it was just an anomaly.

Fill in with touch up paint, watch and pray. Many on here have said that after employing touch up paint it didn't get any worse.

 

[PieceOfChum]

Fill in with touch up paint, watch and pray. Many on here have said that after employing touch up paint it didn't get any worse.

Thanks for the advice that is my plan. It is a really large chip though.

 

[GRStinger]

I apologize in-advance for the long post. It's been a bit of a saga and I wanted to vent.... CRAP! - I have a paint issue too. And worse, KIA won't do anything about it! It's that inside edge of the hood. Two spots. First noticed it before the holidays. I kick myself for not noticing earlier, but in my defense it's not in an obvious spot. The more noticeable one is probably 1/32 long, and the steering wheel blocks the line of sight in my normal driving position. The second one, you practically have to put your ear on the windshield and squint to see it with the naked eye.

After I noticed it, I had the dealer service manager look at it. He was a bit dismissive, and said it was probably 'someone' pulling up improperly on the wipers. Sort of insinuating that I did it. I told him I had never touched the wipers; the damage was not close to a spot where someone would pull up on the wipers in the down position or in the service-position; and there was absolutely no scratch/damage to the wiper arm. He took pictures and said he'd send it to Kia. Got a call from the dealer a few days later saying kia wouldn't cover it. They gave me the Kia care #. (When I called, was on hold forever because there was a snow storm out east and they were backed up with roadside/service calls, so I entered a case online). Got a call back saying tough cookies - there was too many miles on my car - about 21k at that point. WTF. OK, but I only had the car 6 months! I argued - no, calmly made my case - but no dice.

I didn't give up. I brought the car in to a local body shop. Had a very experienced tech check it out. He was sure it was caused during painting/handling and totally not normal. He also found a couple of small defects/chips on the passenger rear fender. He put a repair estimate in writing, along with his opinion of the damage cause. $500 to repaint the hood, and $800 for the rear fender (a lot to take apart; door removal, trim removal, etc). Shortly thereafter, I had the car in for the wire recall/check. I sat down with the service manager, and made my case again. He seemed a bit more sympathetic and encouraged my to re-open it with Kia. I did so online. I did some research on this thread, and found here 3 other posts - with pictures - of the exact same problem in the exact same spots - 2 other red's and a yellow. Set all this info including pics to Kia care. Got a call back (from "Ed"?) and... too bad! I started out calmly again pleading my case, but I got so pissed off during the conversation - something about the "random pictures" that I posted with the online case! - that I hung up before I said something I'd regret!

Anyway, I'm pretty pissed. And I'm kind of stunned that Kia won't do ANYTHING to make it right. I have posted many times here how much I love the car. It is beyond disappointing that Kia did such a great job with the engineering, styling, and overall performance with the car, then screw up on such basic 'blocking and tackling' as paint! Not to mention the thought of buying a car with a $52,000 MSRP and then having to spend $1400 on paint repairs 6 months later. It has put a bad taste in my mouth. I will probably open the case again, just because "it's not right". If someone asks me about a recommendation for the Stinger, I will tell them all the good things about it, and to consider it, but also do their research - and pay extra special attention to the paint on the car they choose.

 

[MerlintheMad]

It's been a bit of a saga and I wanted to vent.... CRAP!

Good rant! No pics of the fender? That is the more serious sounding flaw. The rear of the hood is almost a "meh", because, as you said it is so hard to see. And that has been pretty well shown to be the damage you mention; during handling of the car as it was built. That means that it isn't paint failure in any sense. The fender, however, could be adhesion issues. Hard to tell if it's also where road damage or other kinds of damage could occur. And "six months" aside, you have quite a few miles logged; and it is usually miles that deface a car quickest.

I'd just apply a touch up brush along the rear edge of your hood. You won't see a thing after that. The fender is more problematic.

 

[GRStinger]

Good rant! No pics of the fender? That is the more serious sounding flaw. The rear of the hood is almost a "meh", because, as you said it is so hard to see. And that has been pretty well shown to be the damage you mention; during handling of the car as it was built. That means that it isn't paint failure in any sense. The fender, however, could be adhesion issues. Hard to tell if it's also where road damage or other kinds of damage could occur. And "six months" aside, you have quite a few miles logged; and it is usually miles that deface a car quickest.

I'd just apply a touch up brush along the rear edge of your hood. You won't see a thing after that. The fender is more problematic.

I didn't have pics of the fender handy. They are really small and probably would be easiest to repair with touch-up. The cost there is all the disassembly that has to be done. The more serious hood defect would be, I think, more susceptible to corrosion given that it's larger and well into the primer (along with all the salt they put on our roads). Plus, those spots on the inside edge of the hood are clearly not spots caused by road debris/chips - the car came like that. That's the most aggravating part. I'll have my gear-head brother check it out. He's pretty handy with those kind of repairs. Else, I may have the hood repainted.

 

[MerlintheMad]

It sounds like dipping a toothpick into the touchup paint and daubing it into the tiny holes on the fender would work; then you just carefully remove the excess with the edge of your fingernail after it is mostly dried. Really small holes or chips can be fixed that way and from five feet away they are invisible.

The hood edge, I think you're borrowing trouble; because Kia isn't going to relent and admit that the damage wasn't somehow caused by the wipers being raised. Just live with it. And a really good bead of touch up along the edge (after using a scraper like is on the end of the touchup kits you can get at Auto Zone) should be good enough. Look for any first trace of rusty color in any exposed primer: if there is any, then scrape it down and apply some primer by brush, then the touchup Red. I think you'll be okay. If not, and it starts to rust, then do the hood repaint. But I bet you won't have any rust; your repair will last as long as the rest of your paint.

 

[GRStinger]

Kia isn't going to relent

Maybe not... but I plan on being a squeaky wheel.

 

[StungnTn]

It's interesting, actually, because while the shop has provided a warranty for the work, out Sunset Yellows are still covered by the original paint warranty provided by Kia.

The paint chips I've had are only right after I picked up my car, I haven't had any paint issues since. I have a lifetime warranty on my paint provided by the shop.

 

[gilthanis1]

Got a call back (from "Ed"?)

Good luck getting anything done with that sorry ass excuse of a wasted human being........ I had to complete dis-pleasure of dealing with him about 3/4 of the way through my re-paint and luckily got transferred to another rep, who was WAY more helpful and nice. I can't for the life of me remember her name, but you won't get anywhere with Ed. He acts like he is paying for repairs out of his own pocket and not trying to help a customer.

I feel for you trying to get this sorted, I really do, but I wish you the best of luck with it!