As we all know the paint jobs from the Van Nuys assembly plant are completely utterly horrible. I have noticed this is especially true for the beautiful blue cars from there more than any other.

Now infortunately I have a beautiful blue camaro from Van Nuys and my clear coat is separating from the paint faster than people get divorced these days, is it possible to stop and repair everywhere this is happening?

If there is help, please let me know asap, it seems every time my car gets wet every patch where the clear coat is bad spreads by about an inch in radius... before i know it I won't have any paint left

 

I dont know any really easy way to fix that, besides starting all over. You get what you pay for. I know I'm doing all of my body work when we repaint my car this winter/spring. I'll be wetsanding and blocking to make everything as straight as I can. I know the prices people pay to have a good qualiy paint job is getting higher all the time.
Where in Michigan are you. If your close yo Bay City, bring it by, and we can take a look at it.
Its hard because you want to get all that old clear off, so it doesnt keep peeling off.

 

Nothing you can do but repaint. The Dark Green-Gray Metallic paint on our '92 RS was literally flaking off of the primer, which is different than clear coat failure, but in the end the only solution was the same. Repaint.

 

Don't say such horrible things... I do not have the $$$ to give my '91 the tender lovin she needs :'-(

 

My '83 Z is a Van Nuys car that is still wearing her original code 59 beige paint.The clearcoat is in very good shape on the sheetmeatl and the composite hood.Except for a few nick spots I need to repair,the paint is in better shape than my '95 Jimmy(which i know was on the tail end of GM's paint problems).

 

My 84 s/e was a Van Nuys paint job. For what she was with the clear all gone the briar brown paint was as solid as whats on my 01 Silverado...

 

Pretty sure the major issues with Van Nuys came about in later years with changes to emmsions laws in California. My 92's clear coat started goin in 99' and it in horrid shape. There is no fix, strip and repaint.

 

Sorry bro, but sometimes reality is harsh......like when the beer wears off and you see the girl you picked up at the bar the night before. This is just paint.

 

My 92 has the Polo Green paint on it and the clearcoat was starting to go around the edges of the spoiler as well as the hood and top of the roof....the ground effects were also getting thin... other than that, the paint is still halfway decent for the rest of the body... although now the hood, roof, top of the rear hatch and rear spoiler, as well as the front lower spoiler and the rear bumper cover, is painted flat black...
The only way to really fix this problem would be to repaint... Mine will get repainted probably next year...

 

Join the club. Both of my 3rd gens required re-paints.

 

lol at mike haha

yeah ive enver seen a water base painted vehicle with any good paint condition being so old now,

how long did you expect water base paint to last ?
youre lucky theres any paint left on it at all by now being this old hehe
you can thank caommifornia and its crazy laws and regulations for the crappy paint

good luck

 

FYI, up until 1985 all of the Camros used a single stage(ie no clear coat)

 

............Still the original 85 Van Nuys paint

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OH YEAH??? Van Nuys here too:





86k miles too!!

 

My paints a luck survivor too. I guess Randy82WS7 has now seen 3 "with any good paint condition".


Maybe they needed to be red!

 

Ive got the original van nuys paint as well on my 86.

 

Very nice!!!

But all kidding aside, it was a sad destiny that was preordained for many 3rd gen's built in the later 80's when the Van Nuys plant, forced by new California environmental regulations, required them to change from a petroleum based paint application to a water based method. While in later years this method was improved upon, some of us ended up with what amounted to as guinea pig Camaros.

 

Up until 1988 the Van Nuys plant was recognized as producing some of the best OEM paint jobs in the automotive business! I have a 1989 Van Nuys car and 3 months after I bought it (new in 1989) a 2'x1' sheet of paint came off the center front edge of the hood as I was travelling down the interstate. Over the next 4 years the dealer painted it 6 times until I finally said enought and had it stripped completely and redone by a local painter. That one lasted another 10 years until the Florida sun killed it.

 

yes and make sure you STRIP IT COMPLETELY OFF, all the way to bare metal b/c if you just sand it down to primer it is still going to show places through the paint of where the bad spots were before.

 

My '86 Van Nuys paint looked like a very bad sunburn. I repainted. My '92 was a lot better but I still repainted this winter because I wanted my cars finish to look fresh.

My advice-repaint, even if you have to save for it. Well worth the effort.

 

She's beautiful for her age, but I dont think this paint job has too many more years left in it. It's starting to lose its luster... But it had a good run!



On the bright side, the only actual clearcoat failure on the whole car is on the passenger side spoiler piece and some spots under the unibrow. Im not sure if that was caused by the bra, or whether the bra was there to cover it.

 

were only camaros painted there?

 

all F-bodies were assembled and painted there at that time

 

No, Firebirds were painted there as well since they were built on the same assembly line. I forget which VIN position denotes the assmbly line (Norwood, OH or Van Nuys, CA), check the VIN decoder on the main page for yours.