Swirl marks caused by GM

[Michael White]

In our area, the sun is bright and intense. When picking up a new car in our storage area, I happen to have noticed, without exaggeration, every dark colored GM vehicle had various degrees of swirl marks in the paint. I showed our DSM and he wrote down 10 to 15 vehicles produced in the last 2 months. To fix this problem would probably cost about $2500 to $3000 but I do not want it on my warranty expense. Fortunately we have very few customers complaining about it. The real concern I have is when we sell a car and do a sold detail, which is a hand wash and hand wax, and the customer comes back to us and said the car is full of swirls, will GM say we caused it and if we knew it was there should have taken care if at at PDI time. But if we do, the cost and man power is significant. What are the experiences of other dealerships with swirls??

Mike

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[sallen1]

There is a warranty op-code (0.2 - 0.4 hrs per panel) to take care of swirl marks and it does not involve painting the vehicle. You will need an 'special' buffing tool that looks like a 6-prong orbital buffer and you'll need 'Finessit' (sp?) polish from 3M. Your detail dept. can then buff out the marks. Lots of elbow grease...

I think the swirls are ugly and need to be fixed, so we fix 'em.

Like you said, just about every dark colored car has these marks and they are in the clear coat and can be buffed out. Because we have a frequency on these ops that dwarf everyone else (the expense is small, however), we show the new dropoffs to the DSM when he comes by just so he knows what we're doing. Photos in these cases don't show the damage.

A couple of years ago, we had the 'body and trim' engineer do a full documentation study for the plant. We still get swirls. I think the problem comes from final QC being done at night or inside. The swirls will not show up under flourescent light, either.

Mike, you will find that doing the work BEFORE delivery will protect against claims that a customer caused the swirls. Also, a good wash and wax will hide the swrils, but as the wax comes off over time, the swirls will come back. Do the proper repair and they go away permanently.

scott

[This message has been edited by sallen1 (edited 06-17-99).]

[jrcal]

This is very similar to rail rust removal. We get a lot of light colors here and every one of them shows the telltale rust spots starting after a few weeks in our inventory. We feel we should remove the railrust as per the procedure BEFORE the customer sees the vehicle. Our rep would prefer we catch the railrust as a transportation claim. Trouble is the telltale rust spots are not there when we inspect the dropped units. As a result, we are using the labor op A5580 more than other dealers in our warranty costs reports. I guess somebody has to be high in these areas.<grin>


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JC

[Michael White]

We are very familiar with the repairs to eliminate the swirls. However, I really do not want the exposure doing a million swirl labor ops because to be honest, most dealerships do not submit for the repairs, and if a handful of dealers do, it may get you in trouble. When I was on the Cadillac National Service Manager Counsel, we determined A0110, used for swirl and dirt in paint repairs, was the #1 labor op used among the 50 dealers represented.However only a small percentage of dealers used the op code. There were several reasons: the primary reason was the exposure to warranty problems was significant. Many dealers just pay for it themselves, because Cadillac did a great job in "getting in their faces" about it. It is also interesting to find out that STG did not intend A0110 to be used for swirl repairs. Someone else decided to use it. At least in Cadillac, the reason for the swirls was a "zero tolerance" for dirt in paint (or at least the attempt). Very specific procedures for dirt in paint removal have been established, but the factory does not live by them completely due to the timeit takes to do it right. . To speed the process up, they use DA's and cutting wheels to bring back luster because there is so much dirt in paint at Hamtramick due to inadequate filter maintenance. Orbital buffers, at least several years ago, gather dust.
Mike

[sallen1]

Michael,

There is still dirt in the paint from Hamtrammak as well as other plants, such as Arlington. We ALWAYS fix the dirt in paint as well as the swirl marks, but we do it BEFORE delivery. With the advent of CXD a couple of years ago, we got to <30 day inventory on the ground (sales about 45 per month) and every time a car was dropped off, it went to the bodyshop first. Obviously, we were very, very high in paint, glass and trim codes, but even after a full audit, we were not charged back because the fix was done prior to sale. The after-sale fixes got lots of scrutiny. Also, timing is important. If GM sees that you complain and fix the problem right after you get the car, its harder for them to say the paint defects were due to dealer lot damage.

Hey, if it's wrong, fix it and document.