Paint Defect, Rust, What Is Going On!?

[bigsky]

The folks at the Rivian-certified collision and repair center "near me" at 40 miles away; beats closest RVN SC at 300 miles, confirmed corrosion as soon as they saw it. They did mention that it usually shows up on the edges of panels unlike mine (of course) deep into the door.
The repair center will reach out to Rivian to get the paperwork started. And that they will get to the bottom of what is going on.

Left to answer is how the PPF replacement on about 1/3 of my Rivian will be handled, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

All things considered, I have learned about pretty serious functional issues other fellow Rivians have had or are having with sudden death, batter pack replacements, etc. My R1S has been flawless in that regard. Something had to give, reason why I got hit in the cosmetic department. For now (knock on my head/wood).

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[TTedP]

Just had a couple of similar spots show up on mine. Left rear door by the handle. 7 months in, were not there at delivery and didn't notice anything all summer.

 

[bigsky]

Oh, man. That sucks!
The good news and I mean this, do not worry. Yes, it took a while, but Rivian and the Rivian Service Center I found and went to did a stellar, beautiful job. Cannot tell it was repainted. Will update.
Please let us know how it goes.
The Rivian-certified Repair shop had a sign in the lobby that said Relax, we'll take it from here. They mean that!!
Good luck. Stay on top of Rivian.

 

[TTedP]

Follow up; Just got around to dropping off my R1T. The body shop and SC were pretty backed up over Xmas so I waited for a quieter time. The bubbles in my above photo did continue to expand (about 2x) Since the Fall.

SC said they’ll put a factory new door on and paint match it. Will share later how it goes.

 

[bigsky]

Follow up; Just got around to dropping off my R1T. The body shop and SC were pretty backed up over Xmas so I waited for a quieter time. The bubbles in my above photo did continue to expand (about 2x) Since the Fall.

SC said they’ll put a factory new door on and paint match it. Will share later how it goes.

Exactly what they did for me. It looks perfect. Looking forward to you sharing results.

 

[PrinceP]

Hello,

Took delivery of my R1S in January 2024. Sat in my garage for three weeks waiting for full XPEL and Opti-Coat Pro+ ceramic coating.
This week, I noticed a small paint bump, ~ 0.25 in. on the rear passenger-side door below the door handle.
I would appreciate if you could let me know what you think this might be, or perhaps some of you have noticed this in your Rivians also.

The background:
The PPF and ceramic coating were done by what I consider a master installer. Should see his shop, nothing but high-end cars waiting for him to do his PPF magic, as close to perfect a PPF install as it gets.
My R1S was fine for a while. About a week ago, I discovered the bump. It had not seen it before, and I check my R1S constantly.
In my mind, this was just a bubble developed in the PPF and was actually thinking of ignoring it or having my PPF installer take a look at it whenever, no rush, no care.
Was in his neighborhood today and decided to stop by and have him look at it for a really quick fix. One of his master assistants came out to take a look at it first. "Buddy, this is no bubble. It is a good thing you brought it in!," his first words upon checking it out. Feel it, he said; it is hard, it almost looks as rust like what you see in older cars, and told his boss that he had to come "see this." Uh-oh, alarm bells went off in my head.
Both of them are scratching their heads. Could not believe that it would be rust, but that something definitely is going on, and IT IS NOT the PPF or because of it (taking that with a grain of salt). At any rate, he suggested that I take it in for them to remove film off the door and determine what is going on before I contact Rivian.
The PPF installer comments:
" We will not need it overnight or anything like that. Our plan is to just remove the film off of that door and see what we can find. After you left I was thinking back about a situation that was similar to that. But it was a custom car and whoever built it put a screw through the door panel on the inside, and the point of the screw was resting against the inside of the door skin. Eventually started working its way through with Rust. It was the screw that was rusty. I am quite curious about what is going on with your Rivian. I have never seen it on a modern vehicle."

Again, I would appreciate your insights, and will update this as needed. Thank you.

Update 8/12:
After 80 days of many calls, repeated e-mails, messaging through Rivian app, and Rivian apparent foot-dragging, Rivian Support finally stepped up to the plate and made things right.

Rivian will pay to repair the so-called "blemish" (corrosion) on my R1S door, provide rental car, Uber credits (very reasonable) and pay for the reinstallation of XPEL 10-mil PPF with ceramic coating as well by my PPF installer. And after insisting repeatedly that I take my R1S to the nearest SC 300 miles away to fix a driver side fitment issue, Rivian Support finally also agreed to have its Rivian-certified collision center also perform that repair while the R1S is getting repainted. Repair shop is 40 miles away.

Thank you very much, Rivian, for doing right by your customers.

Hey man I just noticed a spot on my 23 R1S it sounds a lot like your e act issue I never saw it and I was my car all the time I just noticed it like 2 weeks ago and it seems to have grown already it’s on the passenger side rear door below the handle my vehicle is the same color as yours the adventure package what to do

 

[bigsky]

Hey man I just noticed a spot on my 23 R1S it sounds a lot like your e act issue I never saw it and I was my car all the time I just noticed it like 2 weeks ago and it seems to have grown already it’s on the passenger side rear door below the handle my vehicle is the same color as yours the adventure package what to do

Boy, you are the third one with the same problem at same place. Pinhole in door skin; water draining down into door from window; moisture gets in under paint, voila! corrosion.

No worrries, it turns out. Rivian will replace the entire door for you under warranty and give you transportation. If mine is any indication, once finished your Rivian will look as if it just came out of Normal factory. Beautiful.

For me, Rivian also replaced the paint protection film. The door, the front door and rear quarter panel will be repainted to blend in the replaced door.

What I did;
Found nearest Rivian-certified collision center.
Paid them a visit and had them look it over. Corrosion confirmed.
Filed a ticket with Rivian
Collision center handle all the paperwork; filed ticket for me with Rivian also.
Then I sat back and waited, and waited, and waited. BE PATIENT!
It took 6 weeks for my R1S to get it all finished mostly because of shop waiting on all the replacement parts from Rivian.
Stay on Rivian like stink on shit.
Rivian will make you whole, happy.
Let me know how it goes.

 

[TTedP]

Hey man I just noticed a spot on my 23 R1S it sounds a lot like your e act issue I never saw it and I was my car all the time I just noticed it like 2 weeks ago and it seems to have grown already it’s on the passenger side rear door below the handle my vehicle is the same color as yours the adventure package what to do

same general spot. I didn't post new pictures but it grew about 2x from that photo in 6 months.

Boy, you are the third one with the same problem at same place. Pinhole in door skin; water draining down into door from window; moisture gets in under paint, voila! corrosion.

No worrries, it turns out. Rivian will replace the entire door for you under warranty and give you transportation. If mine is any indication, once finished your Rivian will look as if it just came out of Normal factory. Beautiful.

For me, Rivian also replaced the paint protection film. The door, the front door and rear quarter panel will be repainted to blend in the replaced door.

What I did;
Found nearest Rivian-certified collision center.
Paid them a visit and had them look it over. Corrosion confirmed.
Filed a ticket with Rivian
Collision center handle all the paperwork; filed ticket for me with Rivian also.
Then I sat back and waited, and waited, and waited. BE PATIENT!
It took 6 weeks for my R1S to get it all finished mostly because of shop waiting on all the replacement parts from Rivian.
Stay on Rivian like stink on shit.
Rivian will make you whole, happy.
Let me know how it goes.

SO far, experience has also been positive. I didn't have to go to the body shop first, I went to the SC. I added photos to the service request and they were ready for me. They had a new door ready to go, got it mounted and now being painted (doors come raw metal and get sent to BS just for paint matching). So far, they are saying it might be done this week ~10 day turnaround.

 

[TTedP]

Update - truck came back from body shop and looks great!

I thought it was going to be *just a door but the parts on the repair order were pretty extensive. Trim parts included for front door, gear tunnel, bed trim, etc. PPF on gear tunnel door replaced (albeit a few bubbles). Body shop did a great job on blending the paint. Looks better than the factory job on the other side. Door action and alignment is also better than when new . Approx 2.5 weeks in total.

Hats off to Malvern service center! Got me in 2 weeks earlier than original appointment. New facility, great people, nice loaner and all around A+ experience. Thanks!

 

[bigsky]

Update - truck came back from body shop and looks great!

I thought it was just going to be *just a door but the parts on the repair order were pretty extensive. Trim parts included for front door, gear tunnel, bed trim, etc. PPF on gear tunnel door replaced (albeit a few bubbles). Body shop did a great job on blending the paint. Looks better than the factory job on the other side. Door action and alignment is also better than when new . Approx 2.5 weeks in total.

Hats off to Malvern service center! Got me in 2 weeks earlier than original appointment. New facility, great people, nice loaner and all around A+ experience. Thanks!

Great to hear you are satisfied.
Yes, the collision center that fixed my R1S mentioned that Rivian parts cannot be removed and reused because they break when attempting to remove them.
A ton of parts besides door replaced on mine, too.

Malvern, Malvern PA!??
My old stomping ground.

 

[TTedP]

Great to hear you are satisfied.
Yes, the collision center that fixed my R1S mentioned that Rivian parts cannot be removed and reused because they break when attempting to remove them.
A ton of parts besides door replaced on mine, too.

Malvern, Malvern PA!??
My old stomping ground.

Yep, Malvern PA. Much relieved they are now open vs Gaithersburg / Brooklynn

 

[bigsky]

Well. well. Good to see this blowback toward RAN and its now more absurd pricing.
I have been denouncing this price-gouging scheme at DC fast chargers for years, calling what in my view it really is: the biggest, state-sanctioned SCAM ever perpetrated on the human race.

Mentioning this previously in other threads on here resulted in quite a bit of scorn replies (lol) from others. How dare I insult these EV charging companies, how dare I call them that, etc. These companies are justified, blab-blah.

Here's a couple of sobering thoughts for those of you still defending and finding justifiable the outrageous prices set by these outfits:
1. Ever heard of the NEVI project?
Many companies took YOUR tax dollars to cover a big chunk of the cost of DCFC installations. Now they charge you obscene prices on top of that.
2. At $0.65 per kWh, in my neck of the woods, an ICE driver will pay on average $0.13 for 1 kWh of energy at gas stations. Translation, EV owners pay 455% higher prices for energy at DCFCs than ICE drivers pay at gas stations, any of them.

And to whoever makes the silly argument that EVs are more efficient; therefore, ok, well, so are motorcycles and hybrids much less inefficient than other ICE vehicles, yet ICE drivers all pay the same price for energy.

It is not a utility-sets-prices thing, either as Branden Fleisch clearly showed with Tesla chargers across the parking lot from RAN chargers, same utility, much cheaper.

As much as I like my R1S, my glorious Tesla Model S is my go-to vehicle for long trips for many reasons including tech, handling, response, FSD as imperfect as it is, etc. But more importantly, because Tesla gave my Model S free/zero/gratis electricity at Tesla superchargers. For life.

It is so refreshing to pull up to a Tesla supercharger and see the meter frozen at $0.00. Indeed, I just completed a 1,400 mile trip with my Model S. Total energy cost: $0.00.

 

[TTedP]

A bit off topic but free Supercharging is a pretty awesome perk, no doubt.

 

[woodcan]

Boy, you are the third one with the same problem at same place. Pinhole in door skin; water draining down into door from window; moisture gets in under paint, voila! corrosion.

No worrries, it turns out. Rivian will replace the entire door for you under warranty and give you transportation. If mine is any indication, once finished your Rivian will look as if it just came out of Normal factory. Beautiful.

For me, Rivian also replaced the paint protection film. The door, the front door and rear quarter panel will be repainted to blend in the replaced door.

What I did;
Found nearest Rivian-certified collision center.
Paid them a visit and had them look it over. Corrosion confirmed.
Filed a ticket with Rivian
Collision center handle all the paperwork; filed ticket for me with Rivian also.
Then I sat back and waited, and waited, and waited. BE PATIENT!
It took 6 weeks for my R1S to get it all finished mostly because of shop waiting on all the replacement parts from Rivian.
Stay on Rivian like stink on shit.
Rivian will make you whole, happy.
Let me know how it goes.

Did Rivian supply you with a loaner during that whole 6 weeks the process took for the door/paint repair?

 

[bigsky]

Yes, it offered a loaner through Enterprise, but I declined it because I have other cars. What I did get Rivian to give me was Uber credits to cover getting home when I dropped ot off and to go pick it up. Good luck.

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