gold flake in factory paint !!!!

[III'S 87 GN]

i beleive this may have been dicussed before ,but not able to find it.
my car 's original paint (30k on it ) was just wet sanded and buffed out (thanks tom ).car looks good except there is a buch
of gold flake in the paint,mostly on roof and top of rear quarters.
i'm told this has been discussed before.

please fill me in !!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks

 

[U1ARUNIT]

Yes I have seen it many times on original paint cars. Mine '87 GN has it as well as several other low mileage cars in our area.

Seems to be more on the RH side, mostly on the door and quarter panel and some on the decklid as well. I was told that GM employees were a little careless with cleaning out the paint sprayers between doing the other G-body cars colors. Seems kinda odd that the overspray color that guys have the most of is gold. Like they painted the G-bodies in several other colors.. Huuummmm...

Maybe they were a little miffed that the plant was closing??

 

[brian]

I also have spots in my paint. OOPS, I mean had. When my parents bought the GN new it had white specs in all the top surfaces.
This was a common problem in many black cars from that era.
Brian

 

[V6POWER]

My gold flecks are just in the front clip on my 40,000 mile car.

 

[turboman38]

Mark is exactly right. Guns were not clean when they changed colors at the factory.

 

[buzzman]

also have a low mi 87 gn with the same specs, i have original paint, it has many hairline web kinda surface scratches, i have tried polishing conpound etc. to no avail...think they would buff out? especially on the hood, do you guys have the same?

 

[JToups386]

Sadly enough, GM paint in the 80's was crap in general! My 87 GN that I bought with 38k had factory blemishes on it. I still cannot believe they rolled 'em off the line like that, yet, it's a common known and accepted fact. I'm not a Ford fan overall, but,,, they certainly put better paint on their vehicles even into the early 90's. It's a shame that in order for us to have a paint job that looks like it should have from the factory, we have to go get 'em repainted to the tune of $2500+
Anyway, your gold flake question is a legitimate widespread problem, by everything I've seen over the years...

 

[TR Custom Parts]

gold flakes here too. 22,000 miles. Have about 95% original paint. Seems to mostly be on the front end. Did they paint the cars fully assembled or by the part I wonder?

 

[Larry Smith]

Front clips were painted at the final assembly plant in Pontiac. The body was painted at Fisher body in Flint. Strange that some cars have the flake on the front clip only (mine, original owner 60,000miles) and some have it on the body only and some have it on the entire car!
Buzzman - the web cracking you are refering to is lacquer cracking. The only way to get rid of it, is to completely strip the paint and re-paint. (mine has it too)
Do a search using the key words "pontiac assembly" and you will find the thread discussing gold flake titled "how important is original paint?
Larry

 

[BoostMasterK]

That's the Grand National GOLDEN FLAKE edition. It's more rare than a GNX and if you install the 3-4 bushings and get Molly to sign it, you can sell it on eBay! LOL


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[kenmosher]

Mine is all original (and I ordered it direct from the factory in '86)... gold flake in the rear quarters and decklid... none on the front clip.