[jastulewis]

Had our pearl royal blue 1.8 SE since May 06, and on cleaning at the weekend have noticed a blemish in the paintwork on the driver's side rear door. numerous flush clear 'dots' less than 0.5mm have appeared over an area the size of a football, accompanied by raised body colours bumps of same size in same area. Around the clear dots the paint colour has faded to a lighter blue - looks like a skin pigment disease!

Either I have picked up some polution along the road somewhere or there is a fault in the paint which may have surfaced in the recent cold weather (prolonged nights well into minus No's.). Could this be moisture spots under the paint or laquer that may have sprung once frozen? Sounds logical or may be plain stupid?

Has anyone else had this recently with this or another colour? I am off to Drake and Fletcher Ashford on Friday 2 Feb to get an opinion, but well deffo get 2nd opinion ASAP. This is definately not orange peel issue raised elsewhere.

 

[TTDegs]

post up a close up pic

sounds bizzare Good luck for Friday

 

[Topcat]

It is probably faulty paintwork NOT something you have done or picked up!!

Good luck for Friday

 

[johnd]

It sounds like a paint fault called micro blistering, which is due to the primer/paint not being fully cured before the clearcoat is applied. Only way to remove is respray if a large area is affected, but if it's only small you may get away with heat lamps to " dry " the area. Both are bodyshop jobs.
As well as rationing the amout of paint they put on, they are seemingly rushing the cars through the ovens as well.

 

[jastulewis]

Thanks for your responses - I have tried to add a photo but am struggling getting it on here - I will try to suss out how and get back to you.

I will certainly suggest micro blistering later if nothing good comes out of Honda (thanks johnd) - lets see what they say....

 

[jastulewis]

Just been to Drake and Fletcher Honda in Ashford to see the service manager, who had his paint thickness gauge ready.

The paint on the door in question is 160-180 thickness, while the rest of the car is 100-120.

D&F have stated that WE have had the car door repaired and resprayed! In all the time we have had the car, from brand new, we have not had any repairs done to the car. Not even a service.

I am not happy.

D&F have said that we must go back at 10:30 today to see their paint contract company rep, who will give his opinion. Certainly Johnd's premise that the car was rushed through the paint shop prior to clear finishing could run true if there is too much paint on the door in the first place. This would've needed much more time to dry prior to finishing clearcoating????

I will update in an hour or so.

 

[pcr]

Sounds to me like that door has been resprayed, you should be able to tell by looking very closely.

 

[jastulewis]

Returned from the dealer, and that is correct - the door has been resprayed and this is now more obvious from the specs of primer on the door seal rubber!

The paint contractor agreed that this is likely to be as a result of damage at the factory. He will have to take the paint right back and do a whole new respray.

D&F are going back to Honda to see if the respray has been logged at the factory - lets hope so! I am not sure what will be done if there is no record? ..... D&F will be back to us on Monday with an answer. I will keep the forum posted.

 

[pcr]

Jastulewis, this would upset me just a bit, the resale value of the car is affected. I would be looking for some serious compensation, and with that in mind it might be prudent to hold off any respray until it is resolved. What I mean is, how the door has been resprayed will point to who did it, should Honda's answer not be what you want to hear.

I've read somewhere of moves to make dealers required by law to declare this type of damage when the car is purchased. Fat chance I think.

 

[jastulewis]

And I think you are quite right about the issue of compensation, although we would just like the car that we originally paid for.

We do have some experience of other issues with the Civic, the most significant being the event on our original Feb 06 model that lasted 8 days and 260 miles before the entire car electrical system gave up the ghost in the middle of a priority junction. We rejected this car on safety drounds (Honda could not identify the problem cause) and ended up with the car being replaced with a new one on May 06. We do appear to be a bit unluky/jinxed with the Civic.

I do feel that compensation is not something that is very forthcoming when consumers are confronted with some very significant issues with their cars. Airline passengers get vouchers for food and hotel stays if they are inconveneinced - it is about time the car industry were forced to do likewise, although the whole industry may end up collapsing on evidence of some manuafacturers quality problems!

Woe,woe,woe......

 

[johnd]

That door has been resprayed, and proved by the difference in paint thickness. If they deny it i would question Honda, how the robot spraying machines managed to put an extra 40/60 microns of paint on one door?
Although it would be nice if they could get 160/180 microns over the whole car.