Washed my car today and found this on my door. It’s about 30mm wide and 12mm long.
Anyone any ideas as to what’s happened here, it wasn’t like that about a week and a half ago. Looks like somethings popped under the paint, previous repair?? To say I’m gutted is an understatement.
Ignore the washed out look, I was shining my torch on it.
Are the green bits foreign bodies, or simply door corrosion?
Could it be a high-speed bird bomb?
If you know a good chemist you might ask them to analyse the green bits.
Not sure mate. I can’t even tell they are green to be honest! Inboard of all the chips looked dark as if something was below the clear coat before I washed it if that makes sense.
anyone did any welding around the car?
Nope car rarely gets left anywhere and is always garaged. It does look like weld spatter though 
Looking more closely, bubbles are visible coming through from underneath.
That might be a paint repair not properly prepared, or worse some filler.
Do a magnet test to check what the door skin is. I’ve seen conflicting reports on it being steel or aluminium. If aluminium the preparation is doubly important when repainting.
It’s definitely steel.
My neighbours Moto Guzzi has similar water bubbles on the plastic petrol tank from being under a cover for the last few years. They only appear on the shaded side but it’s factory paint and lord knows how they form other than condensation under the paint. None have burst like that so I don’t know if they would leave pits in the undercoat.
Had the car to the bodyshop. It is a repair that probably hasn’t been prepared properly, not a massive smash seems a local repair, however…
To do the job properly it will need to be virtually full side painted due to the paint, apparently it’s a nightmare to get right. So not cheap, decisions decisions 
Still not sure why it’s decided to show itself now when I’ve had the car 3 years and I haven’t had any paint done 
Yes, best wishes with this. Something all of us would dread. I thought Racing Orange was a flat, non metallic colour, and I ‘thought’ flat colours were easier to do? What do I know.
Regarding it appearing after 3 years, I guess it ‘has’ been happening, but it’s visually shown itself after this time. Kind of like a roof leak seldomly don’t just happen, but as a result of unknown, hidden perishing which eventually goes bust. Good luck, hope it all works out fine.
Apparently it’s a pearl and second only to these white/silver colours you see on Golfs and new Mini’s 
Mentioned something about the way it needs to be layered up or something, didn’t really hear as the tears were filling up my ears 
I can understand how you feel. I’d feel the same.
I’ve read racing orange is a flat, solid paint lots of times. Maybe have a read around on it.
I am not sure that what you are being told is the truth. I would go to another paint shop and get a second opinion before committing to any work.
Yeah just been having a quick look. I may have misheard about the pearl but he definitely said it was nightmare to match. Thanks
Try to find one who is an official Mazda repair place. They will have done Mazda’s of all shapes and sizes (granted, maybe not a racing orange), and they probably won’t talk about nightmares to match etc
I’ve had a difficult Mazda paint colour matched, so has another member, Soul red metallic and Crystal Pearl Metallic (white) both excellent jobs. They were at an independent paint shop in Derby.
Agreed they are mostly difficult colours to match, I was told True red and Brilliant black were but they were matched perfectly on earlier cars I owned.
Years ago someone made a pigs ear out of matching the metallic blue paint on my Nissan, they were Nissan/Renault dealers that my insurers sent me to.
Yeah this is thing. One of my unscrupulous mates suggested I may accidently scrape the door on the garage and go through my insurance, not that I would do it, but I’ve seen some poor jobs come through insurance approved bodyshops.
Well that’s that problem sorted WBAC wins the day.
Thanks for all the advice, someone is going to get a canny little car
Surely not selling?
What’s this about it being a “flat” colour? To me “flat” is the same as matt. I thought the 30AE was Orange gloss. Is it painted matt orange then given a clearcoat to make it glossy? I didn’t think that standard “solid” colours i.e. non metallic/pearlescent/metalflake etc. required a clearcoat to make them “glossy”.
