Hey owners and experts:
I sent my '71 Colorado Orange 2002 to California for restoration a few years ago, which included some rust and dent repair, stripping, priming, and repainting the car, keeping the original color. The body work and paint work was finished around June 2010, and the complete restoration finished July 2011.
A couple months ago, I filled up my gas tank (ceasing when the nozzle auto-stopped) on a hot day (90+ F), drove it the mile to home, and parked it in the garage and went inside, around 5pm. Later that night, my wife and I returned from a walk to dinner, and we came in through the garage. We noticed a strong gasoline odor, and we found, to our horror, that there was gasoline on the floor, and the paint beneath the gas cap was bubbled, like this:
I also attached an image of the left fender flare, which I noticed a few months ago began to exhibit some concerning paint bubbles... rust?
The restoration was done at a very reputable 2002 only shop, and the body work and paint were outsourced by them to a very reputable Californian body shop.
The body shop says that it's certainly the gasoline and that no paint will withstand exposure to gasoline like that. Possible, I guess, but I've never seen this happen to any of my other cars. However, to be fair, I've never had one leak gasoline like this I suppose, and the exposure could have been for several straight hours.
The local (Denver) reputable body shop I've taken it to says that no good paint properly applied should do that. They suggested I find out who manufactured the paint and query whether there was a "bad batch" or that there was an error in the application. Is this really something that could happen?
The California body shop has been understanding, and I'm calling them again to discuss options.
Any insight from anyone here on this forum would be greatly appreciated. I can't wait to get this resolved and return to driving my daily driver!