What is it with 90's GM paint jobs?

clutchdust

Millionaire Playboy
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I have a 94 Suburban and have had half a dozen other Chevy/GMC trucks over the years, all from the 90s. Even on many other trucks I've seen it just seems like GM couldn't keep paint on them. My 'burban, the paint is flaking off in many places. It began flaking off the hood on my '99 and is now flaking off the hood on my '93 1 ton.
Seems like white is the worst but not the only color with this problem. My unscientific observation is that about a quarter of the trucks produced in this era have paint problems. That's a pretty terrible quality standard.
I'm not bitching about how the paint on my almost 20 year old Suburban that I paid $300 for is peeling. I'm just amazed that it's that common an occurrence, age be damned.
 
I think it depends on the color. I had a red GMC (1994) and have a dark red 97. Never had problems with the paint on either. A buddy has a 90 that was light blue metalic and the paint is oxidized pretty badly.
 
Color is part of it. I think the rest of it is that GM had to learn about a new and improved way to put on paint because of their (our) friends at the EPA. It was around then they had to get the VOC's out and were going to water-based.
 
for the grey trucks, light blue trucks and white trucks, wrong primer so the paint didn't adhere.

Must be what it is. My 'burban is white, and I can tell you the primer is grey because I can see it. All my previous trucks have been former work trucks so they've all been white. And they've all flaked off paint.
I'm not real concerned about it the paint on this truck so I'm considering just having it wrapped in that vinyl in a camo pattern. Figure why not?
 
Neighbors across the street have a Saturn Vue, SUV....Black in color, someone did a parking lot on them, so while at the body shop they had the clear buffed out on the roof, back deck and hood/fenders....where the sunlight was eating it up,.....it's park outside all the time, single car garage is a work shop......

You know, on wife's old '99 Escort, a light green/blue metallic, the paint never failed, never peeled, was in GREAT shape, parked outside all the time and one summer day it was about 100f outside, so I metered with two different devices, the temp on the back deck in open direct sunlight.....165f said they both.....set a cup of coffee on it and can't even drink it at THAT temp......:devil::flash:
 
95 Seville. Only 123,000 miles. The clear coat is rapidly disintegrating and is missing in large patches. The car looks awful. I've seen some cars from the 60's and 70's that appear to never have been repainted and the paint looks presentable.
 
My 90 polo green vette shed it's clear coat, however my 97 arctic white camaro the paint still is in awesome shape.
 
95 Seville. Only 123,000 miles. The clear coat is rapidly disintegrating and is missing in large patches. The car looks awful. I've seen some cars from the 60's and 70's that appear to never have been repainted and the paint looks presentable.

EPA is at fault, .....CASE CLOSED@!!!!! and there is NO reason for it, either....NONE what so EVER......


:smash::suicide:
 
Had a 1992 25th aniversary Camaro, teal in color. Original paint lasted 3 months. It came off in sheets with water from a well pump. After the warranty BS the 1st time it was repainted 2 more times under warranty before my wife would let go. If it aint white or black I aint buying. Now watch me eat those words.
 
I also see many 2000 and newer models with flaking clearcoat, Dodge being one of the worst ... GM cars seem to be OK after the late 90's..... my '93 Mustang had really bad clearcoat as well.
Doesn't seem to be as common on Jap vehicles..... although our Florida sun kills all paint pretty much evenly......
 
I also see many 2000 and newer models with flaking clearcoat, Dodge being one of the worst ... GM cars seem to be OK after the late 90's..... my '93 Mustang had really bad clearcoat as well.
Doesn't seem to be as common on Jap vehicles..... although our Florida sun kills all paint pretty much evenly......




Got THAT right, my old Burgundy job was about ten y/o when I bought the car in '95 but just setting in the garage, the back deck started to fade and spider web, I managed to drag it out for some 4 years or so, but between that and the front damage from a damn deer, and then the final blow was that Verizon truck hitch into the left front bumper, right there in a parking lot as I was getting some power coating work done.....I was SO pleased....NOT.....it was the end of the paint, but at that point it was 25 years old or so.....

:amazed:

and the thing about it was even though the sunlight eventually got it, the paint NEVER peeled or totally gave up the ghost like newer cars did....

it was a Ditzler Radiance paint....

I think Ditzler is out of business now, could not find them.....


;)
 
I think Ditzler is out of business now, could not find them.....


;)

Ditzler was a subsidiary of PPG, I guess they just market everything under the PPG name now.

That damn car looked high dollar from when I bought it in '95 with a ten y/o paint job on it.....but time took it's toll, that and accidents, and then the paint was NLA far as I knew, so it was up to me to paint it, not having 5 grand or more for someone else to fuck it up, THAT I have proved I can do myself.....

:surrender::twitch:
 
Saw it happen to my gmas 91 white corsica. Paint came off in sheets. Ive heard roomers about the waterborne paint too... and I hear thats what we have to use now in CA since a few years ago. Painted my vette with the good stuff just in time.
 
From what I have been told... the cause of so many of the peelers from GM, FORD, Chrysler... was because they had used Paraffin based undercoatings. Paraffin is a wax substance.... need I go any further in explanation. :bonkers:


A partial quote I found online....


"...the chemical engineers at the automotive paint companies added a product to the basecoat colors that has lots of names: stabilizer, basecoat fixe, reactive reducer, etc. Everybody's product is a trade secret and they're all the same.

By using a "bulky" hydrocarbon, sometimes called alkane or paraffin or wax, in the paint coating, when the trigger is pulled, a temporary electrical charge makes static lines run across the paint surface.

While the paint is wet, the tiny electrical charge forces the metallics or pearl micas to arrange themselves in rows and columns just like a checker board....."
 
Not to discredit that, because you do seem to be a paint guru, but why would they use it in solid base coats? (With no flakes or pearls to align)
 
Like I stated .. "From what I have been told" (from a few paint reps) .. and from what little info I've been able to find elsewhere. :confused:
 
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