Thanks Coronet and NFT5 for clearing it up. Now it makes more sense.

Hope you get it figured out Herder.

Can anyone help me with gauge readings and tell me if they mean anything?

Went to the dealers body shop, I have dealt with the manager there before. His first thought was the back side was touched and not the front. That was his initial thought. He and another guy inspected it. Looked at the paint, inside the doors and all that. No one thinks it was painted afterwards.

Anyway he took the gauge to it to reassure me it wasn't painted. The front panel read 5.5. A few parts of the front door where at 5.5. The back door where it meets with the front door is 5.5. Then it started going down. The middle of the back door area was either 5 or 4.5. The back panel was 4.5 and got as low as 4 where the gas cap is. Weird as I would of though for sure where the 2 doors meet you would have a different reading. Both doors at the point where 5.5.

Does this mean anything or tell me anything? He said not enough paint hit the back for some reason but the reading point to it not being painted afterwards. Is that correct?

He like others I've checked with recommended leaving it. He did say if I really want they probably would go through with a repair. Said he would have to paint the back door and blend it in with the front door and back panel.

Most everyone has told me to leave it but it does bugs me. I am also worried on them screwing it up and making it worse.

I wish you blokes would finally join the rest of the world with your measurement units.

Assume that you are talking thousandths of an inch. So 5.5 = 139.7 µm.

140µm is getting close to the thickest that you'll see factory paint. For example Holdens are quite often up around 130µm and my Mitsubishi Pajero (Japanese built) ranges around the 125µm mark. BMW and Mercedes are often at around the same kind of thickness. Hondas and some Toyotas, on the other hand, I've seen as low as 70µm.

To get some sense out of all this you need to take readings all over the car because factory paint can vary in thickness quite a lot. If, for example, the doors on the other side were around 70µm and these come in at 140µm then there's a good chance of that area having been resprayed. Alternately if the other side shows similar thicknesses then they probably haven't.

If these guys that looked at it say they can't see any signs of it having been resprayed then the likelihood is that it hasn't been. You need to bear in mind that, in the factory, a car is not painted just with one head - there are quite a number of them, all painting different areas at once. One needle or aircap or fluid nozzle just slightly different to another, or with a small variation in air pressure, can produce a slight variation, especially when the colour is white pearl and the pearl layer is quite critical to the final colour.

I'd say live with it and next time don't buy another 3 layer pearl colour.

yeah i too would be a bit cranky, especially it being a brand new car and the colors are different.
it could have been damaged and the 2 doors painted on a upright stand where the painted could paint both outside and inside at the same time, there would be no masking lines, that would explain the color difference as they wouldnt have used the original brand paint, the tinters can be off in different paint systems, its obviously a quick job otherwise they would have either colormatched it properly (which from wat i have read is hard on a white pearl for a end to end match) and then blended it into the front and rear panels!!
id be taking it back to get fixed, it will devalue your car when you goto sell it as it looks like its been repaired!
krem

Thanks for your help guys. I still don't know what to do but at least I have time now. They know about it.

I'm really getting 2 recommendations from people. The most common is that it doesn't look that bad and I should just leave it. However, I do think it looks bad, especially in those pics. However, those pics are the worst of it. It only gets better during certain conditions, time of day and light.

2nd opinion is to paint. With the suggestions from the shop to paint the back door and blend it into the front and rear panel. How good or bad can they make it look? I guess my really worry is them making it worse.

As for resale value. Some people tell me painting will lower it. They say leaving it will not be a problem as it probably won't be noticed. Plus they say show them the papers from Nissan stating if it was damaged it was at the factory.

I don't know what to do.

imo, damaged or not, if your car was sitting next to another for sale, both same model, same options and colors, same mileage, and you noticed that the doors were slightly different color on 1 of them and the other was normal, which would you choose??
its a no brainer to me, if you have noticed it now, it will keep bugging you more and more, and then it will be too late for the dealer to fix the problem, you either have to live with it or pay to get it done.
you have paid many hard earned $$ for this car, and its different colors, lol, bugger that, send it back!!
krem

krem wrote:imo, damaged or not, if your car was sitting next to another for sale, both same model, same options and colors, same mileage, and you noticed that the doors were slightly different color on 1 of them and the other was normal, which would you choose??
its a no brainer to me, if you have noticed it now, it will keep bugging you more and more, and then it will be too late for the dealer to fix the problem, you either have to live with it or pay to get it done.
you have paid many hard earned $$ for this car, and its different colors, lol, bugger that, send it back!!
krem

My biggest concern now is can it be fixed? I would set up an appointment for a respray immediately if I could be assured it would look a lot better then it does now. However, getting a lot of opinions online and body shops and the response is 50/50. Some say leave it as they'll screw it up more and then you'll have a worse looking car that doesn't have factory paint. This is what I'm worried about.

If they can match it and make it look nice then I think I would go right ahead at this point. It does bug the hell out of me.

I still can't figure out what door is off? I think the front. Dealership body shop says the back?

Herder wrote:

NFT5 wrote:

Herder wrote: If I learned the dealer painted it I will raise hell. If its done at the factory level its still worth a complaint with Nissan.

Why? If it's been repaired then the job is pretty high quality, likely better than the original. Factory paint isn't that good, which is why they only warrant it for a limited period but you can get lifetime warranties on refinish work.

There won't be VINs stamped on the doors.

I'm upset the my brand new car doesn't match. Also doesn't the resale value diminish if it was resprayed?

I wouldn't of taken the car is I had seen it. Unfortunately in different lighting it looks different. When you don't have good light on it you don't see it.

All pearls look different in different light And distances and angles its normal.

On the lighter side
Take car to Walmart do some shopping go get lunch or maybe dinner & the theater get a few door dings in it get all bent out of shape about it and forget about it.
Better yet do yourself a favor take your significant others car or your wife / girlfriends car park it too close to your car open the door good and hard next to yours and give it its first good door ding your self and get over it!
Then you'll be able to tell all your friends you put the first door ding in it!
Why let some one else do it for you?
No one pays there deductible for door dings and your clearly loosing sleep over that first one.

Take it to another dealer and act like you're looking to trade it in and see if they notice the paint is mismatched. I can't see the difference from the pictures.