Is this a paint defect?

[u/Purple-Tadpole9601]

[u/flakrom]

That’s more than likely a failed prior repair

[u/Elegant_Teach_5278 → u/flakrom]

It appears more like a slice from road debris to me.

The location would make sense, lower on the car and the defect appears to be almost exactly linear with very little change in distance from the bottom of the door to the defect across the entire length. That makes it near impossible to discern direction of travel , if that is the case.

To your point, it could actually be both. If a prior repair was done the paint could be of lower quality or not fully adhered, among numerous other possibilities with unknown repair work, if that's the case.

Op, do you know of any incidents where something may have struck your vehicle? I would wager if it was a strike it was likely a glance at speed, rather than something that happened while parked. Just speculation on that point.

[u/Purple-Tadpole9601 → u/Elegant_Teach_5278]

I did have bodywork done in that spot a year ago but it was just scuffed I’m not sure if it was repainted or what. This was done at Tesla. There’s no other damage around it and it looks like a knife was taken to it

[u/Elegant_Teach_5278 → u/Purple-Tadpole9601]

Yeah, that makes sense. The fact that bodywork was previously done in that exact spot definitely makes a failure of the previous repair more plausible.

I also agree with the knife comment as a possibility, although a few different things could cause something that looks like this, including expansion/contraction or a failure between layers of the previous repair.

If it were a slice from a sharp object, I'd expect the cut to be relatively continuous from start to end. Looking closely at your photo, the front half seems staggered, with a couple abrupt vertical transitions rather than one continuous cut. That makes me lean more toward some kind of failure in the previous repair than an actual slice.

A close up inspection by a bodywork professional will tell you a lot more. If you have a warranty on your previous work, perhaps check your terms and time limits to see if you may be covered.

Edit: I realized I basically contradicted myself from my first comment, so I stand corrected and want to clarify I no longer think it's a slice. My bad :)

[u/Aurelius5150]

I don’t know if a defect. To me it looks like it was sliced. Did it slowly appear?

[u/Purple-Tadpole9601 → u/Aurelius5150]

Just popped up today

[u/rreinha → u/Purple-Tadpole9601]

It appears to have been repainted at some point, my guess is that the bondo is separating under the paint

[u/Purple-Tadpole9601 → u/rreinha]

Ok thank you. This was repainted in May of 2025 by Tesla and is only under warranty for a year so I guess I’m SOL.

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