Apologies if this has been addressed sufficiently elsewhere - please steer me in that direction!
I was giving the car a look over, taking pics in order to put up for sale when I noticed a fatherly large area of paint blisters on the rear offside panel, before and after the fuel filler area.
Any ideas what had caused this? Am assuming a proper paint job would now be necessary as well?

Paint blisters


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I have seen spilled concentrated gasoline additives cause paint to lift pretty quickly. Had you or a previous owner ever poured in a bottle of octane booster, fuel injector cleaner or fuel stabilizer? If certain additives get splashed onto the panel and are not cleaned off soon enough.... Brake fluid will do it too, but not expected in the area around the fuel door UNLESS, and its happened to me, that I've had "accidents" with hoses while bleeding brakes. Was the car in a shop for brake service, or maybe next to a car where they were servicing the brakes or cleaning a carburetor? All it takes is a tiny drop of some kind of chemical on the end of a bleeder hose or funnel to get flicked carelessly sending drops of brake fluid or other chemicals across the shop. Unfortunately, it won't just buff out. Definitely got to take the paint off down to bare metal and start over on that panel.

 

Was the car in an accident or repainted?

 

I've had car three years and definitely not sprayed anything like that on it. Couldn't say about previous owner, though I'd assume it would have shown up before now? Garage hasn't had to do any work on that area of the car, though couldn't rule out splashback from a nearby vehicle. I'm just going to put it up for sale and be honest about all its faults - sell for spares or repair. Would be worth far more broken and sold for parts than as full runner.

 

Not that I know of. Though starting to get some suspicions

 

A couple decades ago I bought wrecked Toyota Supras and parted them out. Cars are most definitely worth more as parts than as a whole, but you must have patience and do a lot of work to realize it. It takes a long time, typically years to sell everything. And you've got to have a place to do it that your neighbors and the local code enforcement won't complain.

Unfortunately when a car goes to an ordinary salvage yard tho, most of the parts wind up wasted. Whatever "extra" parts are removed in the process of getting access to the one part they are currently selling are generally just tossed inside, ruining whatever interior trim they land on. Or they sell a door or sunroof and the car is then left open, exposed to the weather (and "critters"), ruining everything inside. Its great when an enthusiast will very carefully part a car out themselves to benefit the community, but few people have the space and the patience.

 

Would love to have time and space to break it for parts myself, but no can do. Unfortunately it's got to go