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Bad spot welds at bottom of doors?

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ScottH

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Has anyone else noticed two raised bumps on the exterior door skin near the bottom corners of their doors? The bumps line up with the holes to let moisture out of the door interior on the inside of the door. It looks like a spot welder was incorrectly set and pinched too hard on the interior side when the exterior door panel was added.

Two of the bumps on my Patriot are very pronounced and the paint has detached from the door skin and is rapidly flaking off at these points. The defect in the photo was only a small pinprick of white on the surface Thursday afternoon when I picked it up; I took the attached picture Saturday morning.

I informed my dealer about it - he checked his inventory and the other two Patriots on their lot have the bumps on them as well - is this a "feature" on all Patriots rather than a "bug"?

He offered to sand them down and repaint them; I'm not sure that'll work because the big bumps stick out about 1/16"; you'd be grinding off a lot of metal to smooth them down.

What would you recommend I do to remedy this? Should I ask for four new doors? I'm certain the paint will be flaking off the bottom of all the doors when winter comes around; at the rate it's coming off now large patches will be missing by next weekend.

Helluva first post, eh?
 

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#3 ·
Contact DCX via e-mail with pics and notify them of the issue so that they can fix it in the future!
 
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#4 ·
man that sucks! You should get it fixed ASAP. That is something the warranty should cover. I'd suggest getting all new doors like you stated. To bad that passed quality control. I'm though happy people like you post such defects so when I finally get my call I'll spend a good hour looking her over with a checklist of defects people noted on this forum.
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
Thanks for the responses. I think I'm wrong in attributing this to bad spot welds: this looks like it's just bubbling paint from something happening at the weep holes on the inside face of the doors. I'm not too surprised; the last new Chrysler I bought had some paint problems as well; they just took longer to develop.

What on Thursday were small hard points sticking out from the face of the doors are getting larger and softer by the day. That explains why I never noticed anything when I first looked at the Patriot last week - the paint was still smooth then.

My Patriot is going back to the dealers for inspection on Monday; they'll probably get a Chrysler rep to look at it before they repaint it. Keep an eye on these spots on your own Patriots!

Here's a few more photos taken Saturday afternoon of the defects; the bubble in photo 730 broke open last night.
 

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#6 ·
Gosh, I had to go look at my riot after reading of this problem - can't see or feel anything.
Have to admit that my red riot does have some "orange peel" if you look very closely - I never would have noticed but for the thread on this form.
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
It looks like my problem may be improperly executed undercoating.

I took the Patriot into the dealers this morning - the service manager looked at it and asked if I had it undercoated while giving me a "it's not our problem" look; I told him "yes, it was undercoated - by you; it IS your problem". They're going to take care of it but I wonder how many other spots I'm going to find bubbling paint. I'm not very impressed.

The only good thing so far is I'm driving a 3.5L Charger until I get it back. I wish I could afford to have one of those!
 
#8 ·
Yikes! Thanks for the Info...when my pat comes in ...will be looking for all the flaws people are reporting...will help me out a great deal...
 
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Discussion starter · #10 ·
InfernoPatriot said:
Undercoating? You mean like rustproofing? Do they even sell that these days? If so, why would you need it?

Is it a case where the stuff has swelled and is breaking the paint?
Click to expand...
In my experience the undercoating works wonders if it is applied properly; I just got rid of a 1995 Grand Am whose body and chassis was in perfect condition due to it being treated. I'm in southern Ontario and our roads are white from road salt by March.

The problem with my Patriot was the wand they used to apply the coating inside the doors was too large; When they stuck it in through the weep holes at the bottom of the doors it scratched the inner surface of the door skin down to bare metal. They washed it and the paint began to lift off the exterior of the doors instantly - it was treated on Wednesday and I picked it up Thursday.

I was told the weep holes in the Patriot's doors are much shallower than other vehicles they've coated previously; they apologized over and over and promised to repaint and reseal the affected areas.

The treatment comes with a lifetime warranty for the vehicle, so I'm not too worried about getting stuck with rusted out doors. The dealer has been very good to me in the past regarding surface rust on the other new car I bought from them (refinished and paint retouched free of charge). They want the Patriot back as a trade-in on a new Jeep in 3 to 4 years, anyway

It royally pissed me off to find rust damage on a new vehicle I'd had in my possession for less than an hour! It's a given that something can (more likely WILL) go wrong with anything; as long as the dealership takes ownership of the problem and makes it right I'm satisfied. I paid them to do it rather than a third party just in case something like this did occur.
 
#11 ·
I don't get it. They scratched the inner surface of the door with the wand and the outside began to flake?

I'd surmise they pushed the wand through the holes and in the process of moving it around, pried the sheet metal outward. That would explain the bumps and it probably fractured the paint.
 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
I'm guessing it's a combination of skin deformation from the tip of the wand being forced into the weep hole and the paint lifting off once the bare metal was exposed to moisture. I'll be happy if it gets fixed and doesn't happen again.
 
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ScottH
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