Vantage V8 paint quality

[Healeyguy]

I’ve now had my Vantage 2008MY for 6 weeks, it’s only done 29,000 since new but since I’ve had it I’ve noticed it has picked up quite a few very small paint chips. It’s Meteorite silver and the primer/undercoat is white so it’s fairly noticeable. Some of these are tiny, but on close inspection the top paint coat seems very, very thin. I have none of these on my Healey despite it being used in competition as well as on the road. It’s like you only have to look at it for it to mark.

Is this a common problem or has my car had a respray at some point, which seems unlikely given its condition and history.

[billydo]

Mine's exactly the same, on a 2007 model. The Meteorite colour coat seems so thin that I'm going to need to get a few areas repainted at some point.

On a positive point, it's a colour that hides the general road-grime fairly well meaning you don't have to wash it quite as often :-)

[bogie]

Its the modern water based paints on composite panels. My Lotus was just the same. My current 2012 Roadster in titanium is not looking too bad at all, last time it was detailed in 2015.

Ive got a 12 year old Range Rover sport, 130k miles, black, paint is full of swirls after 8 years of the Polish hand car wash. The other half has a 2007 Volvo C70 she has had for 8 years, with over 100k miles on it. Its black, yet with a wash and wax it looks immaculate, no swirls in the paint after 13 years. Funny how the cheapest mainstream car has the most durable paint finish.

Maybe Aston could get a few people in from the Volvo paint shop to show them how make a durable paint ?

[milu]

I would suggest that if it's marked that quickly then it must have been resprayed otherwise there would be hundreds of them.
I think the bluff front bumper catches stones easily

[Healeyguy]

Thanks Bogie, that is interesting, I wasn’t thinking of the composite. I suppose it may have has a light overspray in certain areas prior to sale, as a kind of ‘detailing’. If so it’s not apparent anywhere.

[LTP]

Just for info, I believe ever since the VH cars AML use a paint system that's formulated to bake at a lower temperature than many other OEMs due to the aluminium underframe being glued rather than welded or riveted - the rivets AML use in the structure are mainly to hold the panels in place until the main frame goes into the oven for the first time.to cure. I also believe this is one of the reasons the paint is softer than many others.

[bogie]

The chassis bonding technique was first done by Lotus over 25 years ago, i think Lotus were consultants when AM did the DB9, the first of the new cars. Lotus had similar paint issues, bubbling that looked like corrosion, easy to chip and mark. All common to Elise/Exige owners 20 years ago. Somewhere along the way Lotus figured it out so im surprised AM still seem to be having issues. To be fair Ive not seen reports on the new Vantage, usually its older cars affected.