Original Paint How Bad Is/Was It?

[t-topflyer]

Always hear horror stories about how bad original paint is or was even when these cars were new. Was a youngster back when they were new and didn't pay attention to these types of things. Please share your experiences with original paint from both then, now, and over the years. Thanks in advance

 

[novaderrik]

have you ever seen a mid 80's GM car with no paint left on it?
that was typical of the day- it had something to do with the primer and paint not getting along, and wasn't just a GM thing. Ford and Chrysler used the same paint.
they were also known to have pretty bad orange peel right from the factory, and poorly aligned body panels.
and all this at a time when the Japanese and European car makers were paying attention to quality and not sending cars over here that looked like that for less money. it's something that has stuck in the hearts and minds of people to this day.

 

[SwingOp3]

Of the dozen or so '86 & '87 Grand Nationals sold where I live they were all repainted by the dealership due to paint issues. Most of them, including mine, developed cracks in the paint. The unfortunate thing was that the dealership didn't do a very good job of repainting them as mine is quite "Orange Peeled" and there is some overspray.
As an aside, it was a good thing I happened to stop by the dealership to see how things were going. As I walked into the shop the body guy was about to put the front quarter panel emblems in the total wrong spot .

 

["Turbo-T"]

I had a 1984 Regal...sold it about 2 years ago. It still wore the original metallic chestnut paint, but it was crazed and faded on the roof, trunk lid and hood. On the sides it was ok. It was a 1 owner Fl car when i got it Dec 2005....and I think it spent a bulk of it's time in a garage.

I also had a 1981 Delta 88 back in '97-'98 with similar paint issues as my old Regal.

I now have a 1991 S-10 that has chunks of white paint peeled away to reveal the primer.

I also have a 1993 S-10 that's suffering the same fate as the '91, though not as bad.

I've heard stories about they did away with the old lacquer paint and went to a water based enamel due to EPA requirements and they were still working the bugs out of the new paint...then I heard it was due to the paint and primer not jiving...then I heard it was due to some sort of new galvanized metal that the paint and primer didn't jive up with....who knows.

I haven't seen a factory one with orange peel.

 

[whitehot84]

The paint was fine. It was the primer that broke down. If you ever noticed one they spiderwebed from the inside out. I saw a low mileage car the other day that had been repainted but they just sanded it and painted over the old primer. You can see the color breaking up under the clear coat now.

 

[turbofish38]

Any real owners from 86-87 posting in this thread?

Okay paint delamination was mainly limited to the blue and silver cars. It was in the formula. Everyone bought paint from the same supplier, therefore every one had the same prioblem. Silver had the most metallic content of any paint so add in years of heat from the sun and that color would fade faster than any other. And look at your cowl tag! You will see that GM only used Laquer paint on your G-Body. No enamels,no base coat/clear coat and no water based crap. The word Laquer is stamped there plain as day!

As far as GN's go the big problems were.....
OrangePeel
Solvent evaporation. Spider webbing in other words.
Paint contamination. The black was supposed to be solid but metal particles from the paint equipment gave certain parts of the cars a metallic look. Not heavy but you could see the flakes if you looked.

Dealers usually did a poor job of fixing the problem because GM only paid a certain amount for time and materials. Kind of hard to get a body shop motivated in doing even a half azzed job when they were getting paid half of what it really takes to do a good job.

I never did figure out why some GN owners tried to have their crappy paint matched when something happened to their car.

Owned quite a few Black GM cars. Every one had sub standard paint.
78 ElCamino
85 MCSS
86 GN
These are only the black cars that I either bought brand spanking new or were a fairly new trade in. So I know somebody else didn't screw them up. I've always said if you didn't buy it new than how the heck do you know what happened to your car?

 

[salvageV6]

The factory lacquer was far better than the basecoat clearcoat new fangled paint jobs of the same time period.

My paint may be crazed some but at least it ain't peeling off in sheets.

 

[whitehot84]

The lacquer was fine. Once again, the primer broke down. I've had two of these cars since '87. I took them to metal and you could see the primer was raising and cracking from the metal.
Cheap primer and good paint aren't a good mixture.

 

[V6POWER]

I still have the original lacquer paint on my '87 GN and it looks great. The car only has 55,xxx miles and is always garage kept.