New car paint issue

I did a full detail on my new Cayman S (4 weeks old) this past weekend and noticed a pretty significant paint problem. On the drivers side door, directly below the rubber trim for the window, there is a line where there is no paint! I noticed it the first time I washed the car the weekend after I picked up the car but at the time I thought the white line was the adhesive plastic that car companies put on the car during transit and figured I would take the time to remove it during the full detail. When I went to remove it this weekend I pushed the rubber trim up with my finger nails and noticed that the line was not adhesive but rather missing paint! I now wonder if the car was in some sort of accident where the drivers door had to be either repaired or replaced and repainted. I find it hard to believe that this defect came from the factory this way, as they paint the whole door prior to putting on any trim pieces. This looks more like the door was poorly painted after a repair of some kind and the person that repainted it only painted to where the bottom of the rubber trim meets the door. It's almost as if they put a piece of painter tape over the trim piece and then painted the door. The problem with doing this is that trim piece moves and flexes and now there is this white line of unpainted door staring me in the face! The passenger door does not have a line of missing paint even when I pushed the rubber trim up as far as I could with my finger tips, that side had paint all the way up to where the door meets the top of the rubber trim, which is what I would expect. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Does anyone have any otther ideas of how this could have happened?

New car? Previously owned? The title of your post reads "new car" Hard to imagine you could find an unpainted surface under the trim pieces.

Yes new car! Hard to believe isn't it. It was a 2007 Cayman S with 64 miles on the odometer. The car had been sitting in the showroom at the Porsche Downtown LA dealership.

Any possibility that the car was in an accident in the few miles that it might have been driven while in their posession?

Sometimes the cars get damaged on the boat in transit, the receiving facilities at the docks actually have a body shop to fix any of this damage - I'm not saying that this is what happened, but letting you know it's a possibility... you should take it back to the dealership and have them deal with it. brad

That is possible and that is the question I have posed to the dealer that I bought it from. I think it completely impossible it came from Porsche this way. Wouldn't you agree?

I have contacted the dealer that sold me the car and told them that I expect them to resolve the problem to my satisfaction 100%! I have not heard back from him yet but if I don't hear from him by 1pm I will call him directly instead of only an email.

id ask for a new door from the factory! I dont want a repaired one!

If I was sold a new car that had been previuosly damaged I would be looking for more than a new door.

I feel the same way, but this is so common with imported cars, to have them damaged in transit. A BMW salesman told me one telltale was when a dealer had a specially ordered car that the customer "never picked up" or declined to buy... that it was often a damaged car, and the perfectionist that ordered the car wouldn't tolerate any repairs. My CS is on a boat right now, perhaps going through the Panama Canal as I type this. If it gets "held up" at the port I'll probably grill the dealer for the reason, and I just might decline the car if it was damaged.

Here are some pics. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll99/Redvoodoo5150/ImportedPhotos00097.jpg [IMG]http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll99/Redvoodoo5150/ImportedPhotos00098.jpg

Oops, this is my first time posting pics:

but if the car was damaged, how is it that there's NO paint, there should still be residues of the original paint! Unless of course the whole trim pieces where removed and the original paint was burnt out, in which case, not painting that part would seem awkward since the trim pieces are already out! ________________________ "Sir! We're surrounded!" - "Excellent! We can shoot in any direction!" A good car will get you from point A to point B. A great car... will just get you into trouble!

Maybe if the door was replaced with a new unpainted door and the body shop painted it that way.

Re painted To me, it does look allot like its been re painted. At first I thought maybe the detail guys got paste wax in the crack, but you can see that the paint is on top of the white. Aren't they supposed to disclose any body work on a "NEW" car, even if its a Porsche! I went to look at a used Boxster before I bought my Cayman, and noticed the door was resprayed. The sales guy said oh..um there was a tiny lil scratch and we like to make the cars look near perfect before we offer them for sale. I told him I could see the orange peel from across the street.....oops try again! I cant stress enough how we aren't buying paint just for rust protection... Someone needs to have a sit down with them about this one.

Wow, I just saw this thread but that is pretty serious. To me it looks like very poor aftermarket work; they didn't even remove the weatherstripping in the painting process?? I'm very interested to see how the dealer handles this. Something like this is very detrimental to the value of the car. - Suneet

i've been a fleet mgr. with toyota for 24 years, and you have a problem. the dealer should legally advise you of any damage that has been done to the car, even if it's been repaired properly. in your case, they didn't disclose the damage or fix it properly - tell them you want a brand new car or you're taking them to court. you'll win.

This looks like adhesive to me. In the bottom lower right corner you can see the red paint is under the white. How aggressive have you been trying to remove the white? My guess is the body shop can remove this in a few minutes. I owned a body shop for a number of years. If you could get a closer photo I may be able to give you more info. But, it does raise the question what is it? Could it be residue from the protective film used in transport.

Rules that out, maybe a buildup of wax. Some waxes can be pretty hard to remove after sitting awhile. I still don't think it's primer. It appears to be on top of the paint. Only a half wit would prime the door reinstall the molding then paint.

Bring the car to me and I will tell you exactly what it is. Keep us posted! And Good luck!

After a much closer inspection, it is plastic film from transport. It is a total bitch to try to get off from under the window trim.