New replacement GTS Side Sills painted at factory or dealer?

[onerareviper]

Viperholics,

Are new/replacement GTS side sills painted at the factory or dealer? I have a Silver/Blue '98 GTS, and I am trying to get the dealer to replace them under warantee due to yellowing.

Thanks....

 

[Jerry Scott[CO]]

The replacement sill will be sent to the dealer unpainted. The dealer will need to get them painted at a local paint shop.

 

[JonB]

Go the extra few $$$ now, and paint VHT 1500 paint INSIDE the sills before installing the insulation and before painting the exterior. Only important in the "cocoon" area for the cats

 

[luc]

They come primered in black.
so they need to be painted.
The insulation in glued inside the sills so,instead of tryinf to remove them to paint the inside with VHT,I decided to put some extra insulation between the cat and factory insulation.

I found some material good for 1800 degree at Mc Master-carr.
(www.mcmaster.com).
I am using a body shop that only deal with Mercedes,bmw,Jaguar,etc,hopefully this way I will not have "orange peel" in the paint.
Luc.

 

[Matt]

Luc,

Where are you having your sills painted? I had mine replaced through Steven's Creek Dodge and they have obvious orange peel which I need to have corrected.

Matt

 

[Ron]

<FONT face="Comic Sans MS">I've assumed that the side sill paint / heat problems were limited to Silver Vipers.

Have any '96 or '97 Blue GTS owners ever had side sill paint issues?

Thanks</FONT f>

 

[toddt]

Just a data point to add--

Six months ago I had Petaluma Dodge (viper specialists) paint the inside of my sills with hi-temp reflective paint, and repaint my yellow sills under warranty.

Result: 6000 miles later, and they are yellowing again.

No racetrack use or anything. I commute 11 miles each way per day.

Try touching your sills after a hard run home. Ouch!!! It's a wonder it's only the silver vipers. I'm surpised the yellow vipers don't turn silver! :-D

 

[luc]

Matt,

The body shop name is :Gene's Import Auto Body.831 899 0343
They are in Seaside.
I am getting the sills back on Friday,I will post the result of the paint job.

Every Vipers colors will turn yellow with enough heat.

Since Dodge is VERY aware of this problem but haven't be able so far to solve it,I mean solving the problem before it happen, not afterward with a paint job that will only last few thousands miles, I will suggest that all of us get together and ask Dodge to give us a LIFETIME waranty on sills turning yellow.
Luc.00GTS Black/silver YELLOW

 

[Kevin ACR]

Not just silver, my Steel Grey started doing it up where the sill goes over the cat and under the body, where more heat is trapped. My sills were hitting 230 F before, that must be hot enough to yellow grey, because it was starting.

 

[C.Thomson]

I just took my silver RT in and they ordered both side sills, no questions. They seem to realize that this is an ongoing problem and really do not fight it. However, I plan on painting the inside with HT paint and adding heat tape before they put them back on. This is my second set.

 

[Don Anzalone]

Heya guys,

Well, I just had both of my side sills replaced , (Chuck Tator, Tator's Dodge) and I am very happy with the way they came out ..

I would love for Dodge to put a life time warranty on them but I doubt that will happen because it is a problem, that I feel, can not be fixed , is a bad design.

I have heard some people put vents, in the front wheel wells, into the side sills so that air can get into the side sills and cool them down while driving .. I think the cause of the "yellowing" is not when the car is driving but rather after you drive the car for any amount of time and than park the car . The heat has no where to go except UP and right on to the side sills that is only inches away......

Has anyone who has put the "heat paint " or "more insulation " found that this is the fix? How long has it been since this Fix? I think thatthe answer for this problem is a vent of some kind that either goes right where the yellowing happens or maybe on the black ledge further in... someway the heat can rise from convection and escape .

You know that the funny thing is that when I was at VOI 6 on one of the off days they had a "Tech meeting of the minds " sitdown meeting with all of the people who worked on creating and or building the viper. When I asked, "What is the cause of the yellowing on the side sills on my Silver 1999 rt/10 with only 500 miles.?" Not only did they not answer the question but in a closing statement made by the host he inferred that "They were not aware of this problem and that if there was a problem it was because the car was misused and/or a track car" Well both of which are totally false but it just goes to show you the level of denial that Dodge is in about this very serious problem on their $75,000 flagship car.

I dont know about you but it seems to me that instead of Dodge paying out all this money for these replacements maybe just maybe just fix the dam thing once and for all .

Well I am glad I got that off my chest ......

Don

::::This is for any of the Dodge Accountants Out There!!!::::


:: If you have a replacement cost of $4,000.00 per sill plus paint ($500.00) and install of ($500.00) in the total of $5,000.00 per side.

And you have say ,11,0000 cars out there but only about 2000 of which are likly to have the problem.

That you have this equation: $5,000.00 (cost of one sill) X 2000 amount of car likly to have the problem X 1.5 ( most of the cars will required to have both sills fixed but to be fair I only said half.


Thats $5,000.00 X 2,000 X 1.5 = $15,000,000.00


Now the question. How much money can you save by just coming up with a fix of this problem? How much could the fix cost Dodge maybe $500.00 or even $800.00 per car . Seems to me that there would be a big hunk of change left over ...... Can you say Bonus!!!!!!!

 

[luc]

Don,

some peoples on this board think that we are just whiners for complaining about this problem.

That said,I believe that you are right when you state that the yellowing is due to the heat having no way to escape.

If the car is not moving,there is no airflow and with time the paint will turn yellow.
I will put my new sills on the Viper Today and I added some extra insulation between the cat and factory insulation.

If that doesn't work, my plan is to add some air flow when the engine is off or the car not moving by using a small fan with metal ducting on each sill.

since there is no room inside the sill for the fan,I will have to put it under the car,between the frame and duct the air from the fan to the inside of the sill by using a 2" metal hose going through the side frame opening where the exhaust pipe enter the sill.

I will connect the fans to both a timed relay and a manual on/off switch.

As you said,the yellowing sills are due to a bad design, but that doesn't mean that the problem can't be solved.

Back in the 1970,Jaguar had a similar heat related problem with the battery in the XJ12 and solved it by adding a fan to the battery box inside the engine bay.

Luc.00GTS

 

[toddt]

I tell you,

When I hear stonewalling like the above at the Viper-fest, it really boils my blood.

For anyone involved in the viper platform to claim ignorance of the yellowing paint problem, or to dismiss it as racetrack abuse is simply dishonest.

How depressing.

I do believe, however, that this issue has more to do with the silver paint than anything else. I suspect that this brand of silver paint has a propensity to yellow.

I park next to several silver cars in my parking lot.
Having worked in the digital color field for a decade, I can see a distinct yellow element in the silver of my car, compared to the cars next to it, some much older than my 99.

The whole car is now what I would describe as silver, with a slight yellow component.

(Of course, my sills I would describe in just the reverse manner

 

[Rich Carlson]

Bad design ????????? If it is such a bad design, then why are there so many white or yellow or any color you want to pick, Vipers out there that do NOT have this problem. Could it be that they have a different sill than you ?????? No.... Could it be they have a different stock cat and muffler than you ???? NO..... May be their Viper is made different location ?????? NO..... Well maybe we ought to look at the root cause !!!!! The problem is NOT the sill, it is the location of exhaust pipes. The clearence between the sill and the frame is NOT correct on the problem cars. You will find that the exhaust has been pushed away from the frame and is up against the insulation in the sill. his will cause the sill to yellow. There will be burn mark on the insulation that is mounted in the sill. If you align the exhaust and put it where it belongs, you can correct the problem. I have seen this many times. FIX THE PROBLEM don't blame the design.

 

[Don Anzalone]

Well Rich,

I have seen many White Vipers with Yelow side sills at VOI 6. As far as Yellow Vipers if their side sills turned "yellow" I am sure that Dodge would want to charge them for a custom color. But really I know of many different colors that have this problem, Black, Steelgrey, Sliver , White, Red, Blue.

If it was just a "move the pipe" type fix I am sure that CAPP or someone with a half of noodle at Dodge would make sure that it would be fixed before it left the factory rather than pay an average of $7,500.00 per fix ....

I have taken off the side sills on my car on more than one occasion and I cant see how exhaust can move more than 1/2 of and inch either way ... either way the heat has no where to go except up ....hence a BAD design.....

Don

 

[Tomer]

Matt (or anyone who knows)

When did you get teh sills replaced on your 96 RT/10? I have a 96 RT/10, and I am covered under the 7/70 extended warranty but it does not mention anything about body panels in the plan provisions....

Anyone know if I can get my sills fixed, they are starting to yellow on my white RT/10....

Oh yah, and the front facia is pretty yellowed also...What do the collective viper think about that??? Warranty issue??

thanks
tomer
96 RT/10

 

[Gavin]

Luc, had my sills replaced at 5k miles by Wester Dodge - I know they had a local shop here in Seaside paint them - I have completed 21,000 miles since replacement and no yellowing.
I have Venom 500 pkg so maybe the extra big pipes help out?
Originals were replaced due to the corroding rivit problem.
Gavin

 

[Bill 96 GTS]

WOW. Has anyone seen this before? There must be another problem that caused this much heat. Is the car stock? Please keep us informed as to the outcome.

 

[Ulysses]

I've heard of this happening, though not as drastic as that.

 

[YellowSnake]

Girls always bang their high heels against my side sills when entering and exiting my car while going to clubs! Maybe we shouldnt party so hard!

 

[luc]

Bart,

"...factory defect" or a whiner that made a mistake by idling the car for 15 minutes?
Just kidding.
That's going to be a lot of $ for fixing your car.
The car is going to need paint work,2 sills ($8K)replacement of the plastic/fiberglass sill panels (big job if you look at the service manual),+ may be new exhaust.
My guess will be between 12k to 20K.

To create so much heat in the cats, I will think that the problem is with the engine computer that made the engine run so rich than the cats overheated.

Could be the cats/exhaust but the chance of having both sides go bad at the same time are pretty remote.
Is your car still under an extended warranty?

If not,I think that you have a good chance to have it covered under the Federal Emission Warranty.

good luck.
Luc.00GTS