# Car Paint Work Problems



## matt19849 (Apr 30, 2012)

Hi All,

My partner bought a new car back in August last year and we have had nothing but paintwork issues. I'm hoping someone might be able to help me out with some of the problems if possible - i'll try and make the next bit a short as possible:

There was a crack in the boot lid from new which Renault sorted with no problems, since it has been back the body work bubbled up and cracked on parts that had been resprayed from when the fixed the crack. They are claiming this is due to bird droppings - we know 100% that this area had not droppings on.
More recently there has been bird droppings on the same part that's been resprayed, they were removed within 24hrs of noticing them and they have faded the paint work. The droppings were removed with the suparguard lime neutraliser. 

The car was supaguarded, which we now know might have been a waste of time.

Should the faded paint have happened if the car was supaguarded (my car isn't supaguarded and gets droppings on all the time and there hasn't been any paint problems) and where the paint work bubbled up could this have been from something they done when it was resprayed or re-supaguarded?

Thank you for baring with me

Matt


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## lisaclio (Sep 6, 2008)

try and contact renault head office, the dealership your using doesn't sound to great, your paint shouldn't be bubbling at all for a car thats under 12 months old. it sounds like they didn't prep the car properly thats why its bubbling.


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## steveo3002 (Jan 30, 2006)

nice clear photos would help alot


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## matt19849 (Apr 30, 2012)

steveo3002 said:


> nice clear photos would help alot


I'll def try and get some photos for you - it might be a bit dark and wet tonight but i'll try tomorrow if not



lisaclio said:


> try and contact renault head office, the dealership your using doesn't sound to great, your paint shouldn't be bubbling at all for a car thats under 12 months old. it sounds like they didn't prep the car properly thats why its bubbling.


We were gone to try trading standards but we kind of wanted to make sure its not something we've done somehow before we took it too far

One thing I did forget to mention was an independent body shop noticed some tiny (2mm) bubbles appearing elsewhere on the car and he mentioned that could be a bad sign where the paint wasn't put on properly


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## lisaclio (Sep 6, 2008)

renault has an anti corrosion warranty and if the car was poorly prepped and contaminated thats why the paint is bubbling. try a different dealership and see if they are more understanding. i would contact trading standards because the car is new and shouldn't be showing signs of poor paintwork. dig out your warranty and have a good read just to make sure. paint bubbling is common on vw/audi and because they treat the car before painting in the factory and grit can get left behind then when its painted. after a while the paint will start to bubble where the piece of grit was.


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## moosh (May 8, 2011)

What model and year is it?


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## squiggs (Oct 19, 2009)

Is this a new car, or a new to you car?
Cracked paint ... repaired .... it can't be new! ??
Assuming it's second hand it sounds like the previous owner may have had it cheaply resprayed vand the dealer hasn't noticed.


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## matt19849 (Apr 30, 2012)

squiggs said:


> Is this a new car, or a new to you car?
> Cracked paint ... repaired .... it can't be new! ??
> Assuming it's second hand it sounds like the previous owner may have had it cheaply resprayed vand the dealer hasn't noticed.


The car is brand new, its an 11 plate new from Renault with no previous owners

We were gone to give trading standard a call today, the last time we went to Renault customer services they told us that they go by what their paint shop says and they are saying its bird droppings so they are refusing to take responsibility and doing anything under warranty


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## lisaclio (Sep 6, 2008)

i did a quick search on google and apparently renault paint is not very good at withstanding any type of bird droppings. that doesn't explain the bubbling on the paint work. i hope trading standards sort it out for you.


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## matt19849 (Apr 30, 2012)

I've finally managed to get out and get a good photo of the damaged paint work (below) - what do you all think?
The splitting on the paint work has only happened since its bubbled and not before, its got worse over time too.
I have been to see another body shop today and they are saying it looks as though the rear and front bumper have been painted since its left the factory which is news to us.

Is there a way to trace back whats been done with the paint work without speaking to Renault, we've tried them and they claim its come straight to us in factory condition although now looking at the bumper it does look like a different finish on it which we didn't notice before


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## Warwickshire Detailer (Oct 11, 2009)

Looks like poor repair/prep below the basecoat looking at those photos. Could be a contaminant which is causing delamination.


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## lisaclio (Sep 6, 2008)

have you got a paint thickness gauge or know someone with one? if you do get some info on the readings of what they should normally be when it comes from the factory. if it is from the factory then you can argue that the prep work wasn't done correctly. if it has had a respray in that area at some point then this would show up using the paint thickness gauge as it would read very thick. make notes of the readings and where they are on the car.


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## Eppursimuove (Sep 28, 2010)

Is it meant to be matte paint? If so, probably contamination or trapped moisture caused the bubbling. Not your fault, down to poor prep so throw it back at them.

If it's meant to have normal paint and glossy clear coat (laquer) then dear me. That is truly the worst spray job I have seen (judging by the pic).


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## kiruji (Sep 17, 2007)

If you're not getting any joy from the dealer, I would email Renault UK's Managing Director, Thierry Sybord and state exactly what's happened and that you're not happy with the way the dealer is handling it and you can't see how bird lime could have caused such extensive damage etc... I would not be at all surprised if you find that your case is suddenly dealt with in an extremely efficient manner and the outcome is favourable to you.

I had a similar problem with a Toyota Hilux I had - little rust bubbles started appearing behind the B and C pillar window rubbers. The dealer tried to tell me it was stone chipping! After a bit of to-and-froing, I emailed the MD, within 24 hours there was a guy from head office on his way out to see the car. When he did, he looked at the rust, said "that's rust" - two weeks later, my car had four new doors and a full respray and my old doors were being shipped to Toyota HQ for analysis.

Anyway, Thierry Sybord's email address is [email protected]. Good luck


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