I washed my car and was looking closely at the hood and it looks like the paint has some bubbles in it (very samll and fine) when you run your hand over them you can feel the bumps. Has anyone else experienced this? Would this be something they could fix at the dealership? Would it be best to see if they will just add a layer of clearcoat? What is the best fix?

I just noticed one last night below my rear window. I didn't inspect it to closely, but will have to take a closer look. Could it be related to the black paint? Although, yours is metallic. Isn't it?

Yes, i believe mine is metalic

Does your paint resemble orange peel? My black Pat shows that on the vertical surfaces. When cars are repainted, that can happen if the paint gun spits out droplets which are too large. On new cars, high humidity in the paint shop is apparently the cause. Anyway, orange peel can be buffed out, using polishing compounds, and a LOT of patience. If it's an obvious problem, your dealer should take care of it under warrantee.

So far I haven't noticed any paint problems on mine, I have the jeep green though

Does your paint resemble orange peel? My black Pat shows that on the vertical surfaces. When cars are repainted, that can happen if the paint gun spits out droplets which are too large. On new cars, high humidity in the paint shop is apparently the cause. Anyway, orange peel can be buffed out, using polishing compounds, and a LOT of patience. If it's an obvious problem, your dealer should take care of it under warrantee.

Nothing that bad, just afew belmishes sporadically on the hood. It very well could be where there was some humidity in the paint ship. you have to look at the right angle to notice them

You'd think that in a billion dollar factory, humidity could be kept under control.

I have some orange peel on mine too. I looked at the other Pats in the dealer lot and found that they all did to some degree or another. I'm off road a lot and my poor Pat is already scratched up from trees and whatnot so the paint does not mean a lot to me. I agree, you would think that the factory could do better.

It seems alot of vehicles today have less then perfect paint jobs.
If you ever watch a custom car show, they polish the crap out of the paint after its painted to get it flat.
You can get it done at a car detailer but you usually get swirls from the buffers they use.
To get the paint flat your taking off clearcoat. If you want it done right, the best bet would be to have a body shop give you a opinion.

I have a Stone White Limited. It has orange peel along the rearward sides. You gotta look close (like when I was polishing the surface shortly after buying my Patriot). Not ideal but I'm not losing sleep over it either. I figure any kind of cure maybe worse than the disease so I will leave well enough alone.

It seems alot of vehicles today have less then perfect paint jobs. If you ever watch a custom car show, they polish the crap out of the paint after its painted to get it flat.


I think that this statement speaks volumes as to why cars today look the way they do. I don't think it is so much of a humidity issue as is it is a time taken to paint issue.

To get a truly beautiful paint job one must take their time applying the first coat, do some fine sanding, apply another coat, some more sanding, another coat, really fine wet sanding, final coat. Just look at any can of spray paint or brush-on paint and see the recommended steps.

In the factory they are painting dozens of vehicles per hour. The computer controlled robot makes its assigned passes; nothing more nothing less. There is no real opportunity (time nor money) to spend days making sure that every imperfection has been corrected before calling it a finished product.

If it looks bad enough. Get some Meguires Fine cut cleaner and lighly polish it.

This will help with the orange peel.