Hi all, my first post!!

I have a Silver Opal '04 HCH that's only about 5 months old. Right now it's at a paint shop getting $1072 worth of paintwork done.

Here's what happened and why I'm posting this question. About a month ago, I was washing our HCH, and made a discovery. All down the passenger side, I had paint damage. Not from a scrape or vandalism or anything like that. It started right behind the front wheel well and continued down the front and rear door. Looks like we drove through some highly corrosive liquid with the front wheel and it splashed up onto the fender, then ran down the doors and also got under the doors onto the door sills. Whatever it was, it ate right through the wax, through the clearcoat, throught the paint and primer, all the way to bare metal.

So, here's my question, even if this was battery acid (the guess of the guy at the bodyshop), shouldn't my paint have held up better than this? I've had over 15 cars in my life and have driven many, many miles, and I've never had this happen before. I'm sure somewhere along the way I have driven through toxic stuff, but I've never had had to have one entire side of my car repainted before.

Anyone else had issues with their paint?

 

No issue with my paint except where someone crammed their licence plate bolts into my car.

 

I'm certainly not a paint expert or chemest, but I've never observed any body paint damage caused by the hydrochloric acid around a battery in any car I've owned.
Because of this I am thinking you must have driven through some other chemical.

I've read on some other forums that a few people had rust problems on the trunk, located on one or both ends of the license plate light strip on the '03 models but nothing like you've described.
I've seen some '03 models this strip is chromed, while the '04 model is body colored. Perhaps there was some kind of electrolysis going on in this area on the '03's.

BTW
You make great use of the smilies in your post and enjoyed it.

 

Sounds like the paint issue maybe or arguably could have been covered under warranty? Did you investigate at all?

I had a GM product several years ago that they repainted for free 'cause GM knew the paint job sucked... though I haven't heard of any problems with the paint on the Civics.

 

My old car, a '94 Dodge Spirit had the paint come off in sheets up to 3-4 inches in length, various parts of the body.

I took it to the dealer where I bought it and talked to the service manager and he took a look as well. I explained that there must have been some errors made in preperation or whatever may have happened becaus it is not normal.

We set up a meeting with the regional service manager and when we met, he offered $500 tward a repaint. So we had it repainted, showed him the reciept and got the check. We sent a letter to the dealership owner in praise of his good service department.

I thought this was fantastic as the car was already 7 years old.
Unfortunately 2 months later someone ran a light and destroyed the rear end.
Some $3,700 paid by the other insurance but it was never "right" again.

About half a year later we bought our 2nd Grand Caravan from them. The good treatment we recieved played a major part in that new vehicle decision.

 

Did check with the service mgr and the zone service contact, no love. I had it resprayed by an shop that specialized in Acuras and Hondas, and they did a great job.


As for the paint being defective, I think it's probably just the nature of modern automotive paint. My 2001 Miata (sold last year) had ridiculously easily damaged paint. My neighbor's 2002 Accord has numerous chips on the front. Meanwhile my 1990 Volvo still looks like it was painted last week.

My brother, who works at a Nissan dealer in NC, says mandated changes in the chemisry of paint over the last few years has made paint less durable. Manufacturers had to make the paint itself and the paint application process meet newer toughter environmental guidelines.

 

I drive cars all the time doing dealer transfers. You see rocks, etc falling off trucks, stuff dripping from them. It is no telling what you ran through. I dont think you can blame Honda for this, since it was obviously something you ran through. I just got my first bumper ding from a rock on interstate today. I heard it hit and saw it coming. Just one of those things. I made it about two months before first ding. Hope I dont get more!

 

You guys can call me an idiot or whatever, but the other day I was washing my car and took a standard kitchen sponge to some bird poo that wouldn't come off. I used the green tougher side that's a little coarse, but it's still soft and it's not like I was using a brillo pad. Anyway, the three spots where I took off the bird poo are now all scuffed up. It looks like crap. At certain angles you don't notice anything, at other angle you can clearly see how the paint is scuffed and not smooth and shiny like the other parts. Is there anything I can do to fix this without getting a new paint job? I'll try to take some pictures of it. A friend told me something about using a clay bar, anyone know what that is?

 

Yes, a clay bar is used to take dirt and paint impurities off the paint, leaving only the clearcoat finish as smooth as glass.

Sadly for you, a clay bar will *NOT* help you with this situation.

I'm not sure what you can do, but do a little web searching and you might find a surprising number of good options, much less costly than a paint job.....

 

I found this...

http://store.bettercarcare.com/meg-g-10307.html

After some investigating, I think I took the clear coat off. That's why the paint still looks good, but the apperance of scuff marks at certain angles. Do you think this stuff works?