Well boys and girls i now know why there are so many chipping paint problems with Lancers.
I put a Big dragon decal on my hood and i am a bodyman with unlimited shop access so last night i took off my hood and started to sand. The intention was to scuff the clear and the decal surface and then re-apply clearcoat over it to protect it. To my dismay when i started to sand it was sanding yellow not white. that means there is no clearcoat. We have cars painted in single stage paint. For those of you who dont know what im talking about the 2 types of automotive paint are single stage and Base/Clear, Base/Clear being far superior and ALMOST exclusivly used on new cars. I said almost becasue the lancer is the first car i have come across with single stage paint from factory. Even Chevy uses BC/CC !!
I am going to check my paperwork and if it says i paid for Bc/Cc im startin to scream!
Base/Clear is more resistant to chipping and fading, as well as having better repairability.
But it costs more.
I dont know about you but my *** is starting to hurt. I love this car but this is bull!

 

if you look and an old thread i posted about my car getting hit, you can see the yellow, cause i was hit my grey jeep, i was wondering where that yellow came from

 

interesting.. keep us posted. how much would it cost to get teh car covered in clear? would we be able to just clear teh car? would it be cheaper than the 450 dollar job that guy got for the 3M "invisible bra"?

 

Maybe on yours either the clearcoat was neither applied or put on in shoddy fashion, but on my thundergray OZ it's got the fine clearcoat type swirl / scratch marks from the dealer's heavyhanded PDI work when the plastic was taken off. It looks the same as when I took delivery of my '01 Toyota 4Runner, so I think the CC is there, it's just very fragile.

On an unrelated note I think it would be useful if the owners who perceive abnormal paint / quality issues post the 10th and 12th ~ 17th digits of the VIN. Hmm, could this be yet another useful new thread This would confirm the model year, and also the actual production # of the vehicle out of the plant. Just perhaps, a pattern may start to emerge if VIN's close together of the same color, etc are the cars with the aforementioned problem(s). As an example, my OZ's digits are "2", then "083159", so it should be the 83,159 / 2002 Lancer produced at the plant. The shop manual states digits 12~17 are the serial # running from 000001 ~ 999999, so I'm assuming (posssibly wrong) that Mitsu started at 000001 and worked up sequentially from there.

The "we been had" is catchy I admit, but lets put just a wee bit more fact gathering behind this. Maybe if Mitsu actually peruses this site and sees a factual investigation versus a flamefest, they just might admit a problem. Just a thought...

 

i have rust on my car all in different places, the door james everyone is forming rust spots, the trunk is rusting on the edges, the hood has rust on the front edge, and behind my passenger headlight rust is forming... plus my side skirts and peeling off... my 12th thru 17th vin number is: "072286" the 10th digit is "2" .


we need to try to find sumtin because mitsubishi is giving me crap and the deal says cause i added, rims, exhuast, etc.. i voided my warranty which is bs. so i have to have someone from mitsubishi headquaters come to look at my car to see if they can replaced the side skirts,the dealer said the rust isnt covered under the warranty which also is bs!!!

john

 

hey all, im kinda glad i came across this post...about 2 weeks ago i went to this bikini car wash, nice huh?no. girls(sorry ladies, most girls i mean, at least ones younger than 20) are not to bright when it comes to cars and they used dishwashing sponges on the cars and this stupid girl used the green scrubby side on my trunk. dumb broad. well i noticed it when i got home and my gf's dad does body decals and paint and he said all that happened was the clear-coat got scratched cuz theyre is still color, just really white and scratchy. I have a thunder-gray 2003 oz and i'm getting the clear-coat re-done tomorow. ill try and remember to talk to the guy that does it and see what eh says

 

I think I'll start a new thread...after looking at the book, the color code (paint code) from the chassis might also be useful. Otherwise this thread is going to be clogged.

 

I have an 02 yellow OZ,not sure on my vin, but I don't believe I have a clearcoat. Just a white primer underneath.

 

mines the same i buffed my car the other day and it turnd my compound and glaze pads yellow

 

um...i dunno what kind of paint u guys got...but i definatly have a clear coat on my car.

 

i found out i got no clear coat of my door!!!!! mitsubishi are such lazy people!

 

Haha no kidding? Since when did Mitsu have a reputation for manufacturing quality automobiles? I wanna know.

 

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that means you have NO clearcoat or there would be no color!

swirl marks will look the same on clear or single stage and you can polish single stage if you are carefull solid colors only you cant polish single stage metallics.

Trust me i do this for a living i know what im talking about.
It does sound like the people with gray have clear but i know i dont have clearcoat on my car

Well i have it on my hood now but definatly was not from factory.

 

ok, so if you don't have a clear coat is it safe to wax your car?

how exactly would I figure out if I have a clear coat or not?

 

I've got rust in all the same spots you do John, but I don't have my VIN handy.

I've touched up all the spots I found, but man, in five years this car could look worse that my Accord!

If it gets really bad, I'm gonna have a shop match Blue by You and respray the whole car, with a GOOD cleatcoat.

EDIT: Got my VIN. The 10th digit is 2 and the last 6 are 056848.