Emira Issues - from final production cars

[kitkat]

Copied from my "Scoates' Magma Red Emira" thread:

I have also noticed a more concerning issue. There is paint beginning to bubble up on the passenger door. Just noticed today and can't think of anything to have caused it. I've not put any coatings on it, there has been nothing left on the paint to etch in, and only washed with a plain shampoo from Autoglym. Will definitely be getting in touch with customer care ASAP about this one!

Visible in the last image if you zoom in around where the shadow from the wing mirror is. Also some orange peel visible too...

*groan* This is making me feel a little sick.

 

[Magma]

*groan* This is making me feel a little sick.

View attachment 26187

Herpes paint bubbling...I don't care who y'are, that there's funny!

 

[DerTheDer]

Should have released this as a 55k car, then this would be "acceptable". My Elise suffered from this as well. Looks like some things never change. I am looking for a silver lining here, but there is none. This takes the car away from the owner for possible weeks, if not longer.

 

[Magma]

Should have released this as a 55k car, then this would be "acceptable". My Elise suffered from this as well. Looks like some things never change. I am looking for a silver lining here, but there is none. This takes the car away from the owner for possible weeks, if not longer.

Not to mention the issues with a repainted door or panel. It's NEVER as good as factory. Never!

 

[DerTheDer]

Not to mention the issues with a repainted door or panel. It's NEVER as good as factory. Never!

Your right, at an angle you will ALWAYS be able to tell a mis match. Shame.

 

[robrmon]

I’m a self diagnosed lotus fanboy, but this is testing my resolve…

 

[TomE]

Herpes paint bubbling...I don't care who y'are, that there's funny!

That’s @Markc

 

[R1272]

Not to mention the issues with a repainted door or panel. It's NEVER as good as factory. Never!

There's some irony in this statement.

 

[ChrisJ]

*groan* This is making me feel a little sick.

View attachment 26187

I think that may be enough for me to cancel after 22 months wait if this is a common issue :-( . Being a bit ocd about paintwork I would be so upset if that happened, it's not worth the stress.

 

[Nick in Sydney]

Not to mention the issues with a repainted door or panel. It's NEVER as good as factory. Never!

Not true at all. In fact, it's often better than factory (ask any Ferrari owner). The problem is that it never matches the factory paint.

 

[digilotus]

If this happened to my car I'd be asking for a door replacement in the original painted colour sent directly from Hethel.

 

[NicolasB]

If this happened to my car I'd be asking for a door replacement in the original painted colour sent directly from Hethel.

You would be driving doorless for a long time

 

[donskibeat]

You would be driving doorless for a long time

Well everyone did want keyless entry........

 

[kitkat]

I think that may be enough for me to cancel after 22 months wait if this is a common issue :-( . Being a bit ocd about paintwork I would be so upset if that happened, it's not worth the stress.

Yeah I don’t think I’ve ever been close to canceling, I’ve retained hope that it’ll be okay and to just have patience. If I see a bunch more of these that’ll be the end of my journey here.

 

[BeHappy]

Yeah I don’t think I’ve ever been close to canceling, I’ve retained hope that it’ll be okay and to just have patience. If I see a bunch more of these that’ll be the end of my journey here.

Looks like both were early car’s circa November so I suppose time will tell if over next few weeks more cases start to appear - Emira plague

 

[kitkat]

Some information about the issue: https://www.makewoodgood.co.uk/causes-of-osmosis-blistering-grp/

Fixing involves either replacing the panel or a lot of labor to sand down, reseal, and repaint. Simply repainting doesn’t seem to be possible so anyone just being sent back to the body shop won’t get the issue fixed.

 

[scoates]

Some information about the issue: https://www.makewoodgood.co.uk/causes-of-osmosis-blistering-grp/

Fixing involves either replacing the panel or a lot of labor to sand down, reseal, and repaint. Simply repainting doesn’t seem to be possible so anyone just being sent back to the body shop won’t get the issue fixed.

I've saved that link just in case. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Magma]

Not true at all. In fact, it's often better than factory (ask any Ferrari owner). The problem is that it never matches the factory paint.

Any time I've seen a repaint...beyond the mismatched color, I see a much higher frequency of dust nibs, fish eyes, runs, black specks in lighter paint colors due to them not mixing it correctly, issues with orange peel not matching factory, metallic flake not matching factory.
Many people may not notice and I'm not saying factory paint is flawless. It's not. Same issues can happen, but even the method the paint is laid is different at the factory than a shop.
Now... I will agree that some shops ARE better than factory. But you are also paying ten times the amount for the job and many times you'll have to ship your car to get that caliber of paint job because those shops are few and far between.

 

[dgrace]

Some information about the issue: https://www.makewoodgood.co.uk/causes-of-osmosis-blistering-grp/

Fixing involves either replacing the panel or a lot of labor to sand down, reseal, and repaint. Simply repainting doesn’t seem to be possible so anyone just being sent back to the body shop won’t get the issue fixed.

Great info. So the workaround is just to never expose the car to any water.

 

[kitkat]

Great info. So the workaround is just to never expose the car to any water.

You joke but maybe…

Seems that this GRP blistering only happens below the waterline on boats.

Haven’t done much research on this for older Lotuses — if that’s the case I’m guessing there’s a higher prevalence of this in the UK and less so in dry environments like California.