Found a weird paint defect on a 2023 Civic yesterday

I was working on this Civic that came in from a minor fender bender, and when I stripped the bumper I noticed the clear coat was peeling in this perfect circle pattern, like someone dropped a coin on it before painting. The owner said the car was bought new from a dealership in Plano, Texas about 8 months ago. I haven't seen factory paint do that since the early 2000s Honda clear coat issues. Has anyone else run into spot delamination on these newer models? It made me wonder if the humidity at the plant was off that day or something.

2 comments

2 Comments

hannah_price791mo ago

Dig into the service history yet? That coin sized peel sounds like contamination under the clear, maybe some wax or silicone from the factory prep. Could be a batch issue if the dealer is seeing it on other 2023s from that same build date.

mark_nguyen951mo ago

Honestly I'd bet on the body shop messing up the prep before I'd blame Honda's factory paint. Didn't you say the bumper was from a fender bender, so it's probably been resprayed already or had some kind of repair work done that the owner doesn't know about?