[Rsmith]

Visited the National Corvette Museum and the assembly plant last week with my dad. Nice to see the museum and learn a few things I didn’t know already. Somewhat sad to see the cars destroyed by the sinkhole. After touring the museum we took the assembly plant tour. Amazing to see how complex an assembly plant is. The engineering of the plant is as impressive if not more so than the engineering in the car itself.

Didn’t see any Z06s going down the line but did see several in and around the plant. Including two DSOM Z06s, one being a convertible. Also saw a couple DSOM Stingrays. In less than ideal light the color seems a bit dull, looks better under brighter lights. Looking forward to see it out in the sun.

Man, pictures of the arctic white car with black wheels don’t do it justice! That combo looks amazing in person. Assuming I’m able to order up a Z06 next year as I plan I may have to consider the combo now.
The softness of the Zs tired is crazy. While looking at a couple parked outside the plant I noticed all the rocks stuck to the tires, many of them were actually deeply embedded into the rubber.
Orange peel, yup, if you’re wondering it’s still bad on new cars. My dad actually thought there was no way the panels being readied for the line could be final until seeing cars on the line with bad orange peel. If he ordered the car and it arrived at the dealership he wouldn’t accept it. I guess he won’t be buying a new stingray anytime soon. I will say having not seen more than a couple cars up close here, I was shocked at how bad much of the paint is, no wonder it’s such a big topic here.

Despite the paint issue, both the Stingray and Z are amazing looking cars, and damn do they sound nice on startup and the little gas pedal press they get in the plant.
After our visit to Bowling Green we headed into Tennessee and visited Jack Daniels on Friday and did a little single barrel tasting.

Not a bad way to spend a couple days with my dad. Visited two American Icons/Meccas in two days.

 

[rdslon01]

I thought we were told the orange peel is supposed to be getting better...

Rsmith, how bad was what you saw that your dad said he would not accept that? Does he have requirements of show quality finishes, or was what you saw worse than what could be expected on average from any production car from any manufacturer these days?

 

[Rsmith]

rdslon01, the OP was most evident as I recall it on the white and black paint, which is also two of the colors we saw the most of. Seemed less evident on the metallic paints - we saw Crystal Red, NRB and Shark gray on the line.

My dad would be comparing the paint to his 87 C4 (which yes is almost 30 years old and even dad admits he got lucky and the paint on his car is one of the best if not the best C4 he had seen when buying it), his 2013 Honda Goldwing and his 10 year old camry. I would be comparing the paint to my 2009 G37. The paint on my G37 is orders of magnitude better than many of the C7s we saw, it has some, but you have to be looking for it really. And the paint on the C4 is really good, better than my G. Of course, different cars, ages, materials etc.

Biggest statement, when looking at bumpers as we entered the plant, dad’s comment was that the paint wasn't finished and must be headed for a final polishing, but these were pieces that I believe were just about to be put on the line to start getting assembled. They were shiny and not in the paint shop. Also, on some of the cars going down the line you could easily see the OP from 10-15 feet away, and while I know it's there, I wasn't looking for it. Perhaps the florescent lights make it more evident?

I did spend some time looking a laguna blue Z06 outside the plant and the paint on it was pretty darn nice. I would have had no issues with it on a car I bought. Don’t know if perhaps the laguna handles it better, maybe the car was originally destined for shows and had some extra prep put into it. Based on stuff inside I would say it was now someone’s daily driver of a test car.

As for cars waiting for delivery at the museum I didn’t notice OP, but wasn’t looking at the paint closely. Take a few things into consideration for my observations – I haven’t looked closely at new cars in 5 years. Based on ages of the items mentioned above you can see my family tends to keep cars for at least 10 years so I haven’t been to a dealer lot in a while. Be interesting to see how paint is on new trucks as we look for a truck to replace my wife’s 10 year old Highlander this coming spring. I have to wonder if perhaps the lighting in the plant brings out the worst in the OP, if it doesn’t then the quality is disappointing at times for sure.

Hopefully improvements are made and the current quality isn't just part of the price of admission.

 

[rdslon01]

My 1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue has a nicer paint job than my wife's 2014 Cadillac ATS.

 

[Rsmith]

progress isn't always leading to better quality!

 

[Buzz]

Back in '81 when they moved to BG, one of the reasons was the terrible paint that was coming out of Detroit. My '81 was so bad that they finally repainted it after many conversations with dealer and finally area Rep..was triple black and I requested 2 additional layers of clear coat for which I paid $200 extra but WOW was it worth it! Whoever has it today has a great paint (lacquer) job. I could actually read the fine print in a newspaper in the reflection!!

 

[CruznCorvette]

While the paint process has changed, less time to paint a vehicle. The quality hasn't improved much if any.