Is this normal?

So my 98 was filthy around the truck weather seal area.... from the run off of the window down the grove and such. So I decided to clean it as the rest of the car is clean so that might as well be. My ? is that why would the paint be gone from there where it was dirty.... Maybe from the dirt sitting there to long or what...not sure. Just wondering if anyone else has ran into this.

Now I have to pull the deck and repaint around where the hinges mount to the body.

Not supposed to use sand paper and acid to wash that area

My guess (and this is purely a guess) is that the water, combined with whatever debris was trapped (dirt, etc) acted like an abrasive surface on the paint and wore it away.

I know my rain gutters were always filthy too.

That's my hypothesis. I figure, if water can carve the Grand Canyon, it can wear some paint away too.

This is why I'm not a geologist.

My car was like that too....I cleaned it really well, sprayed some duplicolor paint in there...looks brand new...just watch for overspray onto the clearcoat of the body..

Road grime has acid and corrosive chemicals, if allowed to sit on the paint
for long periods it starts to eat away and discolor the paint.
Like if you let bird s---t stay on the paint for a week or so it will
make a permanant mark.

Yep my paint is gone from that area as well. Looks like crap and I need to fix it before that unprotected metal developes cancer.

Its pretty common. The crap that gets caught there wears the paint away.

It looks like there is Diarrhea in that raingutter between the trunk and body. It smells too.

Real nasty. And yes, it looks as if someone has used sandpaper there. I was just suprised. I know its very common to be nasty there but I guess one of the prev 5000 owners isn't as anal as I am about keeping chit clean.

Guess its time to pull the deck lid and clean it all up real nice.