MX5Ireland

Hi guys and gals... need some advice about my newly sprayed, new hardtop, which may be about to leave me a little red-faced!

I've noticed about an inch of bubbling on the paint job where it curls in towards the doorwell, on both the passenger and driver sides.

The guy who did the paint job's been very obliging, says it shouldn't have happened and he'll put it right in the New Year. Fair enough.

Question is, should alarms bells be ringing. If he suggests 'touching it up' will that be enough, or should I be expecting a full respray?

Does this kind of peeling/bubbling happen often? and could it have been caused by the sub-zero temps on a newly cured paint job? The car lives outside.

Hmm,, I'd say don't panic . The fact that he's prepared to rectify it straight away is good, but do ask him what was the likely cause of the paint not taking.

John

teena post a pic.

Did he use a new rear window seal?
The paint will flake around the window if the sprayer just lifted the seal.

How much did you pay?

Mine was 240 inc seal (60 for the seal).
The final result was great, way better than the factory spay job on the rest of the car, and still good after 4 yrs.

Thanks guys. This was exactly the sort of feedback I was looking for.

The flake isn't near the window seal, it's closer to the door. The roof job was only €150, but I got other work done too and totalled over a grand.

The bubble's aready started to flake, revealing a white coloured surface beneath. Will post pics tomorrow.

Like the idea of checking out another body shop. Will certainly do that, have one in mind. Knowledge is power as they say.

Here's those photos I meant to paste earlier.....

DaStig, when you say that it seems blindingly clear.

Yep, I didn't know what I was looking for, but that now makes perfect sense.

Hah... armed and politely ready for action!

Cheers....

have a quick look at the other work just in case

Thanks John, had a look today. It seems fine, but I'm narked off to be honest.

Ger, turns out you were on the right track about the seals, it wasn't until I looked at those blown up photos, and DaStig pointed out the obvious, that I saw how clearly what a lousy job it was.

Plonker.

Update....

Interesting phone call today, which I admit I hadn't actually been looking forward too. I rang my 'paint' man to set up a date for my bubbling and flaking hard-top to be re-done. I calmly brought up the issue of removing the seals and re-prepping the job - and he blew a gasket.

He shouted down the phone at me for at least 10 minutes, which I won't attempt to summarise, apart from a few select highlights.

He'd never heard of such a ridiculous suggestion
Removing the seals would be completely ludicrous
Removing the seals would break them, and I'd be paying for replacements (fine)
I'm ignorant and aggressive
I got the job done cheap in the first place
The 'body shop' that advised me was just making mischief.
The MX5 fans that had also given me advice were naval gazing morons
However, he is going to do it.

I like navels, it's true. Especially when adorned with a piercing.

Anyway, removing seals is a standard part of painting anything - in fact, it's usual to remove windows, glass, badges, stripes, lights, mirrors, etc when doing a paint job.

The hardtop seals are available as replacement items (mx5parts, I think) so are definitely removeable.

TeenaG wrote:Update....
:
However, he is going to do it.

At an additional cost?

Just wondering............

John

[quote="TeenaG"]Update....


I'm ignorant and aggressive
/quote]

Are you?

Care to name the paint shop?