Having only had the car for a couple of months I took the opportunity to give it a good clean, polish and wax. When doing the passenger door I noticed a bit of bubbling on the paint at the very edge. It is very minor, as can be seen in the pictures but enough to annoy me. I took the car to the dealer I brought it from and he sent it to their body shop. The body shop guy had a look and said he though the door may have been painted, and it isn't actually bubbling, just wasn’t masked up right and there is no rust etc as he can still see paint at the ‘roughness’. Then he looked inside the door but couldn’t find anything to suggest the door had been painted. So sent off a claim to Renault to see if it can be repaired under warranty. (Apparently they would need to repaint the entire side of the car to blend it in properly). I have attached a few photos and would welcome any opinions on what it is, what may have caused it, if it has been repainted… I did do a history check and it came up clear and I was told the car was not damaged, it is a 2019 and it only had 7500 when I got it - 10000 ish now.
Hope you get it fixed ok. I dinged my rear wheel arch on my galvanised gate fitting that was sticking out. I removed my side graphics, side skirts, door trim etc. ready to paint the rear side, door etc, but the paint shop sprayed test cards to see what number of coats of each base coat, top coat etc were required and only sprayed the rear arch. Colour match was perfect and you can’t tell at all that it has been sprayed. If I had known he was going to spray such a small area I would have specifically requested he sprayed the gravel rash after the door as well. A good bodyshop should be able to do it without having to blend the whole side. For anyone in Kent, https://alteredimagecoachworks.co.uk/ did my liquid yellow paint. Thoroughly recommended.
Just showed these pics to my brother-in-law who works in the factory paint shop for a top end British car manufacturer. I asked him if the defects could be from the factory and be a quality control failure. "Yes definitely. I see that sort of thing on [redacted] and they go to the customer. If he or she notices the defect, then it goes to a warranty claim. 95% don't notice or aren't bothered if they do." So I'd say you should be getting it sorted F.O.C. by Renault.
Having had previous experience when i had paint issues on a new car (Seat Leon Cupra R 2002), i wished i`d never bothered with it as it turned in to a nightmare after they f**ked up the repair (Dealer). I can still hear my misses telling me` I told you to just put up with it`. Just a word of warning.
Just as a way of update Renault contacted me today and have agreed to paint the door. The body shop guy said that was not a good offer as the car would show that it had obviously been painted and he had put forward that the entire side of the car needed to be painted to get the job done right and the paint to blend properly. He intended to go back to Renault and push for a full side respray. However it is now a bit of a moot point for me as I no longer have the car.
Nothing bad, I just got offered a load more money than I paid for it, so it just got sold on, and I picked up a GTD Golf, not quite as fast, but still nippy and about 60% easier on fuel.
