are these holograms?

okay guys, the sun was out today. i took some photos. i'm not really happy with my findings. the passenger door was shade-changing free no matter what angle i looked from. can you guys take a look at the pictures and tell me what you think? it looks a little different from the picture of the other car i posted just like mine, but the same effects are there. what is going on??? does it look like a repaint?? sorry the car is dirty.



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FOR REFERENCE, NOT MY CAR!!!

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PASSENGER SIDE, MY CAR

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Accumulator said:
Sure, if you have a chance to. Just don't be too surprised if it doesn't indicate anything funny.
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Accumulator said:
Sure, if you have a chance to. Just don't be too surprised if it doesn't indicate anything funny.
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okay, thanks. i'm curious your thoughts...does this look like a repaint to you? your comment seems to imply i might be making a bigger deal out of it than i should :D i know you're one of the experts around here, so i'd be curious to hear your thoughts.
 
tom p. said:
Tuff, R U commenting on this region (between the red arrows) that looks lighter??



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yes, but if you go back and look at the first pic i posted, you can see between the arrows it is first dark, then it gets light, then it gets dark again, etc. each section is about 4-6". in your arrow diagram, immediately where your left arrow ends there is a dark section beginning for about 6"...
 
tuffluck said:
okay, thanks. i'm curious your thoughts...does this look like a repaint to you? your comment seems to imply i might be making a bigger deal out of it than i should :D i know you're one of the experts around here, so i'd be curious to hear your thoughts.
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On that particular color, I just can't say. My Yukon XLD was the '04 GMC version of the color on that Camaro, and I could see "flaws" in it under certain lighting conditions that sound a lot like what you're describing (hard for me to tell in pix, it was hard for me to get my head around in in person!). Yeah...weird "sections" (in your case more like "bands", right?) that look a bit lighter/more metallic maybe?



On my Yukon the ETG readings were 100% OK. Zero indication of any post-production paintwork. It was just a combination of how the paint went on, how the light reflected off the panel lines, and how things looked from certain viewing angles in certain light. Huge PIA but it was just how that paint was on that vehicle.



In some cases, polishing those areas a lot can make the diff worse as it thins the clear, so be forwarned! IF you take readings, see if that area is *thin*, don't just look for signs of repaint/extra thickness. IF it is thin, don't make things worse.
 
OK, that certainly helps. You're saying there is a "blotchy" appreanace. Maybe it's the metal flake and a lack of uniformity when it was applied. It's probably just something from the paint process. I don't know if I'd automatically assume there was damage after it left point of final assy. Some of these newer process are quite elaborate and take on very different appearances based upon light source, angle you are looking at, etc. Cars can practically change color given the right lighting circumstances.



Does this become much more noticeable at night, under certain lighting conditions?
 
accumulator--thanks for the helpful response. i am glad the oddities look miniscule to you (of all people!). if you could see similar blotches under certain lighting with your yukon of the same/similar color, then it probably means that is just how the metal reflects the light. especially if i notice it on another car. i may get the readings just for peace of mind, then again maybe not getting the reading is the peace of mind here...



tom p., actually i do not see anything at night. it's only when sunlight hits it just right.



ultimately you guys seem to put the concern at rest a bit...it might just be part of the paint process and nothing significant. once i noticed it i know what to look for, so it looks fairly obvious in the pictures. nice to know it isn't fairly obvious to everyone.
 
tuffluck said:
accumulator--thanks for the helpful response. i am glad the oddities look miniscule to you (of all people!)..
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Well, there's "miniscule when looking at pix of somebody else's vehicle" and then there's "miniscule when I look at *my* vehicle in real life" ;) But I do suspect it might be just something specific to how that paint looks on that car; it *is* weird paint in that regard IME.



Sometimes that Yukon's paint just looked "oh, man...what a drag"-bad to me, but overall I bet nobody else ever saw it. Not like anybody said anything when I sold it, they were all like "wow, this thing looks new!"
 
Even from the low-res pics, it looks to me like the metallic flake particles weren't applied with a uniform density, or the paint flowed ever so slightly while being applied. Could definitely be a factory defect. It tends to be more noticeable when this happens on a straight/flat panel since you expect the the flakes to reflect light uniformly but they don't. It's also harder to get right on a vertical panel since you're working against gravity.



Buy a can of metallic flake spray paint sometime and try to get a uniform finish on a vertical scrap panel... it's pretty much impossible with a spray can because you can't apply the paint uniformly. If the paint flows AT ALL the flakes will reorient themselves in the direction the paint is flowing and they'll reflect light differently than the rest of the panel. You don't even have to make noticeable runs for this to happen; just putting on slightly too thick of a coat causes it.
 
series8217 said:
Even from the low-res pics, it looks to me like the metallic flake particles weren't applied with a uniform density, or the paint flowed ever so slightly while being applied. Could definitely be a factory defect. It tends to be more noticeable when this happens on a straight/flat panel since you expect the the flakes to reflect light uniformly but they don't. It's also harder to get right on a vertical panel since you're working against gravity.



Buy a can of metallic flake spray paint sometime and try to get a uniform finish on a vertical scrap panel... it's pretty much impossible with a spray can because you can't apply the paint uniformly. If the paint flows AT ALL the flakes will reorient themselves in the direction the paint is flowing and they'll reflect light differently than the rest of the panel. You don't even have to make noticeable runs for this to happen; just putting on slightly too thick of a coat causes it.
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thanks for your response. very detailed and informative.



sorry to resurrect the thread, but i noticed this deformity in the paint the other day and it looks much more prevalent than it did when i originally posted this thread a few months back. i am not sure if the light was just right (or wrong) or if it is actually getting worse...



nevertheless i have an appointment to see my dealer this friday and they are going to slap their paint thickness gauge on it to see what's up. now i don't know how they are going to react, but best case scenario i see them admitting a problem and offering to repaint the panel themselves. should i let the dealer repaint this? i really can't see them willing to pay a reputable body shop to fix it when they have their own body shop on the GM premises, but obviously my preference is to not have the dealership do any body work on my car.



what if they say they will not fix it, can i do anything? i just wanted to check in with my fellow autopians for some advice before i take the car in and have to have these conversations. thanks in advance.



btw, i know the pictures make this problem look petty online, but even my girlfriend--who can't even tell the difference between my car one day after a wash vs. one week after a wash--was the first person to say something to me about it yesterday when the light hit it. so, it's definitely more obvious in person and i think it's worth throwing a small tantrum over.
 
tuffluck- Sorry to hear that time is making your situation worse (as opposed to, say....your getting used to it and thinkng it's not so bad).



Maybe things will go OK, but if the dealer isn't helpful, you can ask to meet with the "district rep".



I won't jinx things by saying how my experiences with GM have gone... :o



Yeah, spraying metallics is tricky. Even my usually-good guy only did a so-so job on the hood of my wife's A8 (she said "good enough, let's live with it").
 
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