Hi,
I'm new to the forum and looking to purchase an X150 5.0 either supercharged or NA. I have been to look at a very tidy 2009 cay but it has an area towards the bottom edge of the passenger door where the pain is blistering. I would say that it's about 2 inches by 1 inch.
Given that these cars are aluminium, is this down to just an untreated stonechip or does it signify that the door has ben poorly repaired in the past? There doesn't appear to be any signs of bubbling elsewhere on the car.
It's being sold at a price around £2000 less than comparable cars but should I walk away even though it's cheap?

 

A thirteen year old car has less than two square inches of possible paint problems on the door lower edge???
Seems like a complete non-issue to me.
Of course it would need to be treated, but that's what, ten minutes and £5?

 

That's along the lines I was thinking initially but wondered how much work is involved given that it's aluminium rather than steel and that the whole door will probably need painting and matched to the rest of the car.

I'm comfortable with mechanical and electric things but bodywork is not something I'm happy to tackle.

 

Common on aluminum cars. I've seen it on plenty of Astons and nothing to do with a stone chip

 

Interesting, so what causes it? Is it generally down to a previous repair or something else?

 

Here in the US occasionally when a vehicle is "repaired" in a body shop the shop reports this as "accident damage" and that information ends up showing on a Car Fax report which will detract from overall value and raises questions as to exactly what occurred. That said, if you do go the repair route take pictures before and after and have the repair facility provide a detailed paperwork trail documenting precisely what they did. Trust me the headaches caused by misrepresenting bodywork are migraine territory!!

 

Here's a patch of 'failed paint' above the wing vent on my XK. It appeared suddenly in 2018 with no impact, stone chip or scratching as a possible cause and was repaired under warranty.



Four years later and it hasn't been any further trouble.



My local Stratstone Jaguar did the work and I went to their bodyshop to see it in progress. The shop manager told me he'd had a few through with similar patches in various places on the bodies and put it down to poor surface preparation and priming at the factory.

Graham

 

In the US it would cost around $600 per panel for a competent body shop to repair. Have it repaired and enjoy the savings. Oh, while its in have them check the other door and spray cavity wax in both doors.

But before you do anything, put it on a lift and check for other signs of corrosion. It seems like UK cars suffer more from corrosion than the average car.....must be something about living on an island surrounded by water

 

I live on a much smaller island surrounded by water and my car looks the same as it left the factory underneath. The difference is they only use grit on the roads here in winter, not salt.

 

Lear something new every day. Gives me hope as I live on the water.....warm water.

 

Companies like ChipsAway will repair & respray the area of corrosion for a lot less than having the whole door resprayed.

 

Interesting and useful feedback gentlemen, thanks.

Cavity wax is great. My Series 2 E-Type was done back in the early 90s and there is little or no signs of rust anywhere despite the fact that she does see rain quite often (a benefit of living in the UK) but never road salt.

@MoXKR - A panel repair here in the UK will not show up on an HPI check unless the car has been written off by an insurance company. This generally only happens when a claim is made and the cost of the repairs to the damage either are greater than approx 50% of the cars value or the cost of the repair plus resultant value of the car makes it uneconomic.

@GGG - Thanks for the pictures. Looks like the repair to this kind of damage can be pretty much invisible. It's beginning to look like the car could be a contender and maybe I can get a discount based on the cost of the repair which sounds like it would be around £500-£600 for the whole door to be resprayed to match.

I do have one other car that I looked at this morning which was an XKR but the engine sounded a bit 'noisier'. Not sure if that's down to the supercharger or not but I have an audio clip and will ask the question elsewhere in the forum to avoid taking this topic off track.

 

The paint not bonding to the aluminum or something like that. That is why at least on Aston, the bubbles do not follow under their corrosion warranty. There is a a '15 V12 S Vantage for sale locally that is drop dead georgous, but has an inch size blister on the door near the window. Dealer says it's like 4-5K to fix.