raildust

[jimmonte]

anyone else seeing a lot of raildust on your GM cars GM has told me not to fix it unless the customer complains i thought the purpose was to satisfy the customer not piss him off
help!! FYI there is a bullentin that addresses this exact concern

[MBailey]

Sounds just like a typical GM solution.
Man, am I glad we sold our Olds franchise!

There is a product available from most paint & body/detail suppliers called "Zebra Clay". It looks like a big hunk of black & white silly putty. All you do is roll it around on the paint surface and it takes rail dust right off. You could have one of your porters do it in less than 1/2 hour, so you would'nt have alot of expense in it if you just wanted to do it as a courtesy to the customer, without having to bother with a warranty claim.

(No wonder they have Ford and Chrysler nipping at their heels).

Hope that helps.

[sallen1]

I posted in the dealer forum on this issue.

The clay works really well, but if you wash and buff the car the day you get it, there is less of a problem. Reason here is that if there's dust on the paint that has not started to rust, you'll catch it before the car sits on you lot.

scott

[Ron Ketcham]

We work with all the manufacturers regarding various paint and trim issues, we supply some products to GM, Ford and D/C under private label. If you wish some tech info on this concern, go to www.autoint.com and look at the OEM/TSB section and also the Tech Tips.
The Ford bulletin has on the last page pictagrams showing what happens when this and acid rain are incorrectly treated. There is also a 5000x magnification of a modern hi-solid base/clearcoat paint film on a steel panel that may be useful in explaining some issues to the customers.

[lovemotors]

We are seeing rail dust on about 75% of the vehicles coming in. We have been told to leave them alone unless there is a customer complaint. Our warranty paint expense was "deemed" too high. By the time the customer complain's the dust is dug in deep to that factory paint. We have had poor luck with the clay. Especailly on black cars. We had a customer purchase a black Camaro SS with this problem and it was not fair to him.....

[Michael White]

Rail dust is a real problem all over. After
reading some of the responses, I think there is some confusion as to what it is. First of all, rail dust usually appears on white cars
only. It is identify by brownish-red dots. You really do not see rail dust on a black car like th Camaro mentioned above. However, you can feel the roughness, which is a problem, especially on a black car. There are 2 forms of removal: clay and acid. Both work very well. By GM's definition, rail dust is only on the white cars. Since GM only pays for a "wash" for PDI, if there is fallout or rough paint surfaces, who pays for it in your dealership.
Mike