The paint thickness or lack thereof on these trucks

[bora]

I had two rock chips on the hood which allowed me to assess the paint thickness on there.

The thickness of the paint of these trucks and the lack of resistance to scratching is terrible.

You would think in a $40+K truck, we can expect to get paint better than an import econo-car.

I see a repaint coming up in three years or so.

Bora

[Silver Bullet]

My hood has very thin paint, but I only notice it when I wash or wax it. I have decided to let it go so I don't have to worry about someone repainting it that doesn't give a sh!t and leave me with flaking paint or overspray everywhere.

[Big O]

The really sad part is the thickness of the paint is shamefully, even for a $20K vehicle!

[Billy14]

Well, I probably shouldn't even get goin on this because it has been mentioned before by others but:

I don't think the body metal is much thicker than the paint. Opened the driver side door on my D/Max which I parked in the driveway next to my Tahoe. The door was stationary about 6 inches from the plastic side mirror housing on the Tahoe. Little gust of wind picked up and pushed the D/Max door into the mirror. :eek: Contact area was 3/4 in from the edge of the door which should have been a pretty tough area. WRONG! Beautiful nice annoying dent about 1/16 inch deep & on a Black truck it looks like I beat it with a hammer. :mad: :mad:

How much weight & expense could it possibly add to these HD trucks by increasing the body panel thickness by .010 inch? :confused:

Billy

[Mustfish]

I can only hope that the paint job is a 40k paint job. With todays new paints thickness might not be as important as paint hardness and out right quality. Only time will tell how it works out. I will add a hail storm report to this post though. When my Dmax was just 2 weeks new we had a hail storm at my work. I watched from a window as my pride and joy was beaten slam to death. The hail was a size between marble and golfball. My so called friends were giving me hell about my poor little ride getting pounded. I think deep down inside they were jealous of the duramax and wanted it to look like the outside cover on a golfball. As it turned out my truck did'nt have a single dent. My team leaders truck which is a 2001 Tacoma had almost 1k of hail damage. In fact most vehicles that were in the lot at the time made a claim for damage. Residents of Texas and other Midwest states might not get off so lucky though. The storms I saw while in Galvaston, Texas looked like they were possessed by the Devil.

[Billy14]

Mustfish,

Take your thumb & gently push anywhere on the hood. It takes very little pressure to depress the metal. The irony of all this with hail & the thin sheet metal is it kinda acts like a pillow absorbing some of the impact inertia.

On the other hand, a door panel or fender which doesn't have the larger surface area like the hood will be more rigid, thus you might get a dent by the rude person that squeezes in next to you & slams their door open. Doors also have more double panels & bracing to support window tracks, motors, and protection for occupants.

Billy

[DMAXDiva]

If you want to see hailstorms from h*ll, take a trip up to Lubbock...I was there visiting relatives in May when a hailstorm dumped stones the size of softballs! Luckily for me, my truck was safely tucked away in the garage, but the roof on my folk's house was a total loss. Driving around town the next morning I saw many vehicles with bashed windshields and demolition-derby dents...yikes! :eek: :eek:

[Jimamatic]

Hey Billy14,
Don't feel too bad. My beautiful perfect truck
isn't so perfect anymore either. Over the 4th
weekend my 3 year old boy personalized the left
crew door near the bottom with his battery
powered jeep. It left a dent about 4" long and
around 1/8" deep. OUCH!!! It's hard to see unless
you know where to look, but what suprized me was
how easy it dented. I may try to have it pounded
out if it can be done. I don't think it has as
much to do with weight as it does expense.

For Mutfish. Your so called friends would'nt be
laughing so hard if it was their 40 grand getting
pounded on. People just don't care unless it's
their money on the line. Some of my relatives
were flipping me cr*p about my new dent. One of
them said, "Oh, it's a truck. At least it's not
a BMW." URRRRRGGGGG!!!! What can you do?

Jimamatic.

[DucksnDiesel]

I have been wondering about the quality of the paint also. My last truck (same color) I drove over 140,000 miles. In 5 years, I had only a few nicks in the paint. In six months, I have at least a dozen on this truck on the hood and the rear quarter panels are pitiful. I am much more careful with this truck so the paint should be in better shape. For $40K, I expect alot more. I see a recall issue developing.

[DMAXDiva]

I remember reading something about the EPA mandating that automotive paints reduce VOC's (volatile organic compounds) which could explain the problems we are seeing. It may be totally out of GM's control after all (not that I'm letting them completely off the hook; they'll likely use that as a loophole in recall issues)...

[bora]

DMAXDiva

My wife's 2001 Mercury Sable has MUCH better
paint than the 2002 Duramax. And my 89 BMW
has 10 times better paint than the Duramax
even though it spends 98% of its life
on the track enduring extreme heat and rocks
thrown off from off-course excursions.

The paint on the truck is just plain bad.

I think I will get it repainted using Glasurit paint.

[Redhawk]

I've had clear coat scratches, but no dents yet, but even scratches seem too easy to come by. Really aggravating.

There is a dent removal process I saw mentioned on a different thread that was said to work like magic. The people who had used them said you couldn't tell the truck had been dented. The catch is I can't remember the name of the process. I think they are in the yellow pages. It won't help if the paint is chipped. Maybe someone on the forum can come up with the name.

The bottom line is that these trucks seem too easy to dent or chip/scratch. My dark blue Ford was even worse, but that's no excuse for GM.

[ 07-15-2002: Message edited by: Redhawk ]</p>

[andy911]

Redhawk:
Up here those dent removal guys go under a few names like "Dent Wizard" and "Dent Doctor".
I can personally attest that they are very good at what they do. Had a few dints in my Beemer and they took them out so well you'd never know they had been there.

Bora:
"Off Road Excursions..." Shouldn't you be doing those in the DMax not the BMW?? :D :D

Andy.

[bora]

The off-road excursions are mostly not mine. Last weekend at Thunderhill, another M3 went off course right in front of me once and a Z06 spun and went off course. Both times, there was rocks thrown up and debris on the track.

I went off-course towards the end of the day, when around 100 degree heat, I forgot to brake for turn 3 :)

I hear that Camaro Mustang challenge races are even more exciting in terms of lawn-mowing incidents :)

[DURAMAN]

How's this - I bought a new Chevy Metro in 99' to commute to work, paid about 8,800 for it. In 02' I bought a new Dmax for about 34,500. Can anyone tell me why the steel and paint are twice as thick on an 8,800 car vs. a 34,500 truck?? :confused:

[FightinTXag]

The worst is when you climb up in the bed to wash the roof. The weight of the wet sponge is enough to cause the roof to flex. I'm terrified I'm going to put a big crease in it up there so I never wash very thoroughly. God forbid you ever try to polish up there by hand or worse put any weight anywhere on the roof while reaching to get a spot clean. If you ever use a buffer you better not let the thing sit on the roof either. I'm just glad the truck is pretty tall so it's hard to see my dirty roof.

[Silver Bullet]

DURAMAN - It is a death trap and they had to do something to give passengers/driver a little more protection...it was cheaper than a roll cage!!! :D

FightinTXag - Whoop! Class of '92 here. The secret is to put all weight towards the outside and wipe lightly with a feather duster!!! :D

[SoCalDMAX]

I suppose if you subtract the price of the turbodiesel, transmission and all of the electronics, they had to cut corners somewhere to keep the price under $50K. I really haven't pushed too hard on the metal to notice. I've got a 1984 Toyota Corolla diesel that is so light, you can push it easily with one hand. But you better push on the tail light lens, cuz the metal is so thin, a soda can is thicker.

I'm kinda particular about my cars (try keeping stone chips and dings off of a black BMW!) but I told all of my friends I wasn't gonna sweat the truck, it was gonna haul dirt, rocks and if it got scratched, oh, well.

I guess it's kinda ironic. I installed Invinca-shield on the hood to protect from rock chips and DeeZee running boards to keep mud from splashing up on the sides and help us get into the truck.

Well, with the steps and 33" tires and turned torsions, the Deezee boards are the perfect height for keeping anything but another truck from bumping the doors. The hood doesn't have a single chip in 12,000mi. The only blemish is a very light scratch I did on the fender, installing junk under the hood.

For those interested, the paintless door ding removal places do a great job, my sister had 5 or 6 dings removed from a black car in amazing places, looked like new when done. There's also a franchise called Chipsaway which does a fantastic job on touching up your paint chips and large scratches, great job, very good price.

Regards, Steve

[01_Duramax_Dually]

I have 30K miles now and tow a lot and have been subjected to serious "Road Alligator" debris on the highways. I have not acquired any chips or dings to date. I also installed the Invisible 3M covering on the hood and fenders(I have a Dually) and it has performed flawlessly. As for the roof being thin..Well I have the CC and I routinely lay across it to wash it and have not noticed it buckling or flexing alot more than would be expected for a sheet of steel. I am not a big guy though...148lbs. I know I would not jump on anything new made by any manufacturer. The metal gets thinner as the crumple zones are improved...Imagine if they made these things like the early '60 Cadillacs..... :D

Carry On... :D

[FightinTXag]

Do the crew cabs have the ripples in the roof like the old C/K's? Those ripples reinforce and increase the stiffness of the roof. The extended cabs don't get the ripples and so it's just a big thin sheet that buckles easily. If they axed the ripples on the crew cabs, then maybe they put reinforcing steel between the headliner and sheetmetal on crew cabs?

Hey SilverBullet, I'm Class of 2001. Whoop! Last night I just put my Association sticker on my new Duramax.

[andy911]

The Crew Cabs still have the reinforcing ripples in the roof. I think the problem everybody is talking about here is the way the big panels like the Regular and X-Cab roofs (as you mentioned 'FightinTXag') and hoods flex so easily due to the thin metal used. Most automakers are now using thinner higher strength steels to save weight, so while the structure may not be any weaker, it certainly doesn't give a good impression of quality. tongue.gif
No excuse for the thin paint though.
Andy.