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

[forzanerazzurri]

*********So, after seeing this issue for a second time, the manager of the dealership decided to inspect all of the Stingers on his lot. He reported back that EVERY Stinger on his lot has the same paint peeling issue around the headlight!!!!!! He's reporting the issue to Kia.**********

I found the same at my local dealer this summer. Be prepared to be called a liar by the Kia Defense Force on this forum.

 

[jondyer]

I found the same at my local dealer this summer. Be prepared to be called a liar by the Kia Defense Force on this forum.

LOL - You sir, might actually have won me over. I used to think a certain way, then I dealt with Kia.

Mind you, a little over the top sometimes..... does not make you wrong tho.

Shame, I wanted you to be, I truly did.

 

[MerlintheMad]

I have had my car repainted and I can emphatically say that you're wrong.

Kia has a process, that process leaves thin paint. I was like you until I went through this with Kia. I thought that reason would prevail. I too was wrong.

Something needs to change there.

You can say "thin" all day. What is the thickness of your factory paint? If you don't actually know what it is, then arguing is from ignorance and assertion. I was repeating, to the best of my memory (only a few months old), what one of our members did: took a paint thickness meter around and measured several cars, including of course the Stinger. And the average thickness of the Stinger was, as I repeated, 4.3something, so "not thin", average.

 

[MerlintheMad]

I found the same at my local dealer this summer. Be prepared to be called a liar by the Kia Defense Force on this forum.

That would be me. I did the same thing, checked every Stinger on Jerry Seiner's lot, at the time, 16 cars. Half of them had headlight rub flaking, only one had both headlights causing flaking; it was also the only car that showed more than a single point of paint failure/damage.

 

[jondyer]

"Thin" is a word used to ME by several professionals - as I stated previously, I am NOT a body shop guy, so I have no complete and professional idea of what they speak. If you are a body shop or paint person, I will defer to you on the measured thickness of paint as it pertains to Kia North American market cars.

I will however, not blindly argue something that I know nothing about. I will stick to references about my specific car, my specific issues and dealings with Kia and my specific case.

I was told, "the paint on you car is thin".

Bro, if you wanna come over and measure yourself, or wander over to that paint shop and tell them, then by all means have at it. I will not get into it with you or anyone that does not know the specifics of my case and my car and the processes it and I have gone through.

I love the car, have had several Kia motors cars in my life, I am however, not an apologist for anything and everything they do. I am arguing from MY specific facts around MY specific case.

I am also arguing with some additional knowledge rolling around in my head after a lengthy conversation with a Kia professional who also has had similar conversations with Kia NA. I have stated, that perhaps something might have been mis-heard, but this is my opinion. In fact, there is a certain retired couple that may or may not be represented on this forum with whom he has dealt with personally that can attest to his feelings. There are more folks, and they are on this forum, but I will leave them out of it.

If you really want to split hairs, @MerlintheMad, you are 100% correct. The paint is average then.

If that is the case, then sir, the paint sucks and there is a larger issue. I preferred to give Kia the benefit of the doubt and called it "thin". If it is not thin, then I have a case that will be pursued. Please pick one, it cannot be both average and of good quality with these types of failures. If it is the primer as stated, then (I will put my engineering and materials hat on here) using the same primer and a similar process will lead to similar results and we will all be revisiting this shortly.

In that case I will have to concede that folks that serve (in my mind) to disrupt like Mr @forzanerazzurri might actually be correct. I personally wish that was not the case (sorry forz) but I have my personal set of facts here. They very well may differ from yours, and I am happy for you. Be well in your bliss.

@MerlintheMad I am, and have been in 100% agreement with you on a great many things to this point, however, MY personal experience and conversations have lead me down a path that on this point, tell me otherwise. I don't wish to belabor the issue.

On this point, we will now have to shake hands and disagree.

 

[eflyguy]

Back down on accusations and arguing. We're all passionate about this subject.

 

[jondyer]

Back down on accusations and arguing. We're all passionate about this subject.

Agreed!

I am sorry if I came across as belligerent. Because, well I was. Not a valid excuse though, I will go back to lurking.

 

[MerlintheMad]

If you really want to split hairs, @MerlintheMad, you are 100% correct. The paint is average then.

If that is the case, then sir, the paint sucks and there is a larger issue.

No. The adhesion sucks, or quite literally, does not "suck" enough to keep the paint ON. The paint can be the best paint in a thousand years, and it won't matter one bit if the surface rejects, either in part or in total.

I think that Kia has fixed whatever was going on with the primer/paint "interface". Of course I want to think that, don't we all? Going forward we'll all be watching intently for evidence of paint issues to fade and disappear. Of course, if issues continue to be aired, our hopes for Kia getting their collective act together will be blighted.

 

[gilthanis1]

@jondyer and @MerlintheMad I have a great personal relationship with the manager over the body shop who is currently repaint mine. We have had several discussions and I have seen first hand, the difference in a good paint job performed on a Kia that was wrecked and a factory job. The body shop can use the EXACT paint that Kia tells them to on say, a Remington Red Optima, and when they paint a fender it will not match the door on a car that is 3-6 months old.

Reason being, Kia sprays the dam paint to effing thin. It is definitely not 4+ mils, on a MAJORITY of their cars. Most that have rolled through that shop, and 70% of the work they do is Kia/Nissan (owned by the dealership group), have paint that is 3-3.5 mils on a good day. Paint won't match because it is too dam thin to be the correct color when sprayed at 4-5 mils thickness.

3 coats primer, 3 coats color, and 2-3 coats clear is proper paint application to give the correct color hue and depth. Primer color can also affect final color appearance as well, but we won't get into color wheels, eye perception, depth, etc.

@jondyer is correct with the thin ass paint on these Yellow Stingers, and anyone who has any experience looking at paint can tell it in 5 seconds or less the first time they see the car. Just my .02 about this, and I fully get his full on anger and pissed off at Kia. We just want our Yellow Stinger to look like the awesome car it is, and paint is the last thing we should have to worry about.

 

[StungnTn]

My new paint job doesn't look very thick based upon the thickness that is visible from the paint chips. I honestly don't think that this paint will hold up at all. So disappointing. Anyways, I don't know about everyone else, but I am getting a lot of pressure from KIA for them to repurchase my car. It seems odd to me from a business perspective.

 

[StungnTn]

Sorry for the lack of perspective or sizing. One is 2mm, the other is 1mm. Both on the doors, no chips up front yet. 400 miles in, or 1 chip every 200 miles. Which is about the same rate of paint chipping that I had before.

 

[jondyer]

My new paint job doesn't look very thick based upon the thickness that is visible from the paint chips. I honestly don't think that this paint will hold up at all. So disappointing. Anyways, I don't know about everyone else, but I am getting a lot of pressure from KIA for them to repurchase my car. It seems odd to me from a business perspective.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd have given the car back.

Trouble is this bloody thing is a gift from the wife so I have that headache (not you honey - if you're reading this) to deal with as well.

How hard is it to ask for a car that is painted properly?

 

[forzanerazzurri]

No. The adhesion sucks, or quite literally, does not "suck" enough to keep the paint ON. The paint can be the best paint in a thousand years, and it won't matter one bit if the surface rejects, either in part or in total.

I think that Kia has fixed whatever was going on with the primer/paint "interface". Of course I want to think that, don't we all? Going forward we'll all be watching intently for evidence of paint issues to fade and disappear. Of course, if issues continue to be aired, our hopes for Kia getting their collective act together will be blighted.

Ill agree with this. I think in this case the paint thickness is irrelevant. Different models from different manufacturers come from the factory with different paint thicknesses and hardness's, almost none of them show paint defects like the Stinger has. Thin paint vs thick paint is less relevant to durability than adhesion. Contrary to popular belief, thick, hard paint is much more brittle and may be more prone to chipping than thin soft paint but it doesent really matter if the paint is flaking off due to poor adhesion. I dont think thicker paint would have been a remedy from the issues that we are seeing here.

 

[MerlintheMad]

Sorry for the lack of perspective or sizing. One is 2mm, the other is 1mm. Both on the doors, no chips up front yet. 400 miles in, or 1 chip every 200 miles. Which is about the same rate of paint chipping that I had before.

I don't understand what I am looking at. What part of the car? And why the incomplete paint?

 

[StungnTn]

I don't understand what I am looking at. What part of the car? And why the incomplete paint?

Those are my rock chips after the repaint. One is slightly above and behind the vent coming from the front tire. The other one is between the front and rear passenger doors.

What do you mean regarding incomplete paint?

 

[MerlintheMad]

Those are my rock chips after the repaint. One is slightly above and behind the vent coming from the front tire. The other one is between the front and rear passenger doors.

What do you mean regarding incomplete paint?

I see now. The reflections are getting in the way big time. I can't even see the chips, all I see is the reflected images, clouds, garage doors from across the street, etc.

 

[gilthanis1]

@forzanerazzurri I think you've hit the nail on the head with the adhesion issue, which is what Kia originally said. Problem is that whoever is trying to fix it, is thinking the same process will fix the original issue and isn't digging down to the root of the problem. What could be more impactful is that they know the real reason why but won't say anything and don't want it getting out. Could be why they refuse to go above and beyond to make us happy and as @StungnTn said, he is still having the same issues again after a repaint. However, the original person who had the yellow paint issue, Brendan in Australia, has had no issues after his repaint that we know of.

So what in the hell has Kia done differently to our US cars than those? And why is it that this color seems to be more prone than the rest? I'm saying other colors aren't affected, I am strictly speaking on yellow because I don't know anything about other colors firsthand.

 

[stacyOK]

Damn. I need to take a closer look at mine.

I can tell you that removing two badges from the front bumper showed me how awful the paint is on that type of surface. I used fishing line and took my time. Both removals resulted in pieces of paint sluffing off. Two areas each about half an inch down to a quarter inch in diameter. Definitely a prep issue with these cars. My build date is 1/2018 in panthera metal for the record.

Same happened to me. Red manufacturing date 12/17.

 

[forzanerazzurri]

@forzanerazzurri I think you've hit the nail on the head with the adhesion issue, which is what Kia originally said. Problem is that whoever is trying to fix it, is thinking the same process will fix the original issue and isn't digging down to the root of the problem. What could be more impactful is that they know the real reason why but won't say anything and don't want it getting out. Could be why they refuse to go above and beyond to make us happy and as @StungnTn said, he is still having the same issues again after a repaint. However, the original person who had the yellow paint issue, Brendan in Australia, has had no issues after his repaint that we know of.

So what in the hell has Kia done differently to our US cars than those? And why is it that this color seems to be more prone than the rest? I'm saying other colors aren't affected, I am strictly speaking on yellow because I don't know anything about other colors firsthand.

Sorry if you already stated this but did they strip the paint entirely and reprep the surface? Most shops will just scuff the surface and blast a respray over top. This would result in the effects of poor adhesion continuing with the new paint. I mean there is no other rational explanation here. If youre patient enough to try to resolve the issue then youre better than I, as I would have been fed up long ago. As I've stated, I would just push hard for a buyback. Life is too short to deal with shit like this.

 

[StungnTn]

@forzanerazzurri If you are referring to my car, they stripped it and did the entire process.