When it rains, the door paint bubbles up (where door meets window)

[OnTheFence]

Anyone else having moisture issues with their door paint.
When it rains, the paint bubbles up. Only on driver's side.
It looks like the paint has melted after it rains.
The paint is totally saturated with water from underneath.
I can even press the paint and squeeze water away.
Then it dries out,and goes back to normal.
Finally, the paint finally cracked after 2 years of this.


This has gotten worse over the last few years.
Something is up with the driver's side door, as I am seeing surface rust on the seams and inner door.


Anyone know what is causing this?
It seems moisture is coming from inside the door.





Before you say vapor barrier, let's ask why?
The rain water sheets down the outside of the window.
It goes into the door, and presumably goes down into the door drain.
If the vapor barrier is bad, the water goes into the car.
So, I don't think this has anything to do with vapor barrier.

[Stück]

That isn't OE paint.

[MarcoZandrini]

That isn't OE paint.

Yeah, I've seen how BMW paints cars and the quality of the paint. The picture's paint isn't from the factory.

[OnTheFence]

No, It's OEM paint.
When it rains, the paint is like a water bubble.
I can squeeze it like a zit and water leaks out.
Obviously, after several years of this, the paint has become ruined.
Yes, you're seeing damaged paint, but you're focusing on the effect, not the cause.

Anyone have any idea where the water is coming from???

[Stück]

I bet you your car that isn't factory original paint. Period.

Remove the molding just above the peeling area, I suspect you're find a piss poor paint joint under there that let water under it.

[timsev]

At this point, it doesn't really matter if it's OEM paint or not. Just by the age of your car, I can bet that the vapor barrier is compromised just because someone, at some point, has taken it off and most people don't re-install it correctly with the gooey strips. However, the water has already done it's damage if your door seam is rusting since it's rusting from the inside out. The paint on the outside of the door is clearly not adhering to the primer so the paint is compromised. What makes you think the paint is or isn't OEM?

I would say it's time to find a junkyard door and get it painted and be done with it. Otherwise, you're going to be chasing this one down forever and there is no quick fix for peeling paint and rust.

[BimmerBreaker]

Yes, you're seeing damaged paint, but you're focusing on the effect, not the cause.

If the paint adhered properly to the door this would not be a problem. So the cause is actually because the paint is bad, the effect is that water is getting between the paint and the metal door. Its hard to argue that this is original paint when no other cars from this era have this problem and the picture itself shows pretty bad orange peel.

As I stated in your other thread it is not anything to do with vapor barriers or this or that. Water will run inside the door and on the outside of the glass into the door. When the vapor barrier is bad, it goes into the cabin. There is no way that has anything to do with a vapor barrier. The water will run under that weatherstripping, the problem with your car is that the paint at the top of the door under the weatherstripping never adhered properly (poor quality repaint most likely as OEM paint will never do that) and the water collected between the paint and the metal. If it is original paint, then you have the one E39 with malfunctioning paint. More likely though, it was repainted and was not done properly. The door is also going to be starting to rust. I would get a new door and repaint it.

[Stück]

I love arguing with n00bs from an experts position.

Its pretty much my favorite thing ever.

Right up there with punching myself in the balls, and just about as productive.

You feelin' me BB?

[BimmerBreaker]

Yeah, I can hold all those feels

My favorite part is when someone asks what happened, they get an answer, then just deny it. I dont understand people sometimes.

[OnTheFence]

The car was in mint showroom condition when I bought it...the respray insistence is silly, particularly from one bad photo of severely water damaged paint. ..this door area was immaculate when I bought it 3 years ago..

I'm going to remove the plastic trim and sand it down and repaint..

[OnTheFence]

Why or how does this door start rusting from the inside?

The vapor barrier is fine bc the car doesn' leak inside, and the door drains are clear...

[323i E30]

Anyone else having moisture issues with their door paint.
When it rains, the paint bubbles up. Only on driver's side.
It looks like the paint has melted after it rains.
The paint is totally saturated with water from underneath.
I can even press the paint and squeeze water away.
Then it dries out,and goes back to normal.
Finally, the paint finally cracked after 2 years of this.


This has gotten worse over the last few years.
Something is up with the driver's side door, as I am seeing surface rust on the seams and inner door.


Anyone know what is causing this?
It seems moisture is coming from inside the door.

The car was in mint showroom condition when I bought it...the respray insistence is silly, particularly from one bad photo of severely water damaged paint. ..this door area was immaculate when I bought it 3 years ago..

I'm going to remove the plastic trim and sand it down and repaint..

[gpricco]

The car was in mint showroom condition when I bought it...the respray insistence is silly, particularly from one bad photo of severely water damaged paint. ..this door area was immaculate when I bought it 3 years ago..

I'm going to remove the plastic trim and sand it down and repaint..

I'm no expert.. but even a maaco job will look good the day afterwards, no?

[BimmerBreaker]

Why or how does this door start rusting from the inside?

The vapor barrier is fine bc the car doesn' leak inside, and the door drains are clear...

Again... this problem has nothing to do with the vapor barrier. It has nothing to do with door drains. Your car's paint is bad.

Your E39 has original paint but its the ONE E39 in the world that the original paint is low-quality, allowing water to get in between the paint and the door. Is that better? Does that make you happy...? Is that a way to re-word the correct answer so you believe us?

Not sure why you are repainting plastic trim when you should be repainting the door but at this point I'm butting out of this thread. Good luck.

[Luftwaffe1O1]

Did you buy your car from a private party? Used car lot? Brand new? BMW dealer?

If it was a used car lot, they probably had it resprayed. Private party also.

You would be surprised what a little tlc and a quick respray will do for a car.

Buddy of mine got rid of his e39 540 because it was starting to just fall apart on him (years of not keeping up with maintenance). Anyways hood paint was peeling badly, roof paint was peeling, trunk, interior was scuffed up.

We found it on Craigslist recently, had a respray, a nice detail and it looked immaculate. But it wasnt....

[modular93fox]

We found it on Craigslist recently, had a respray, a nice detail and it looked immaculate. But it wasnt....

+1