Well, I should have known. I forgot to attach the brake fluid reservoir while the car was out for paint, and brake fluid spilled inside the gas tank compartment . Let this be a cautionary tale: given enough time, brake fluid will dissolve just about anything. After *making sure* that I attached the reservoir this time, I scraped off all the loose paint (it was bubbled up just like it would have been with aircraft stripper...) and took this photo for your viewing pleasure. And, yes, the dent there is intentional - part of slightly expanding the compartment for batteries - http://volt914.blogspot.com

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Mmm, Mahles!

The pic on your blog looks like it's gray, this inside shot is more blue. What color did you have it sprayed, Ross? It looks like it matches the wheels too! Are the wheels painted? (A lot of Mahles were.)

Dang, I hate new paint. Sorry to hear this. I don't like the stresses of having a perfect looking car.

Fortunately, I did not have them spray the gas tank compartment - it was POR-15 overcoated with rattle-can silver. The exterior is silver single-stage acrylic enamel:

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I think the blue-ish tint of the picture is an artifact of the automatic color balance of the camera fighting with the lighting conditions (dusk, with the automatic flash). I did not bother color-correcting it, just wanted to show the damage