[FJ-Gorilla]

When I bought my 2008 FJ used in Oct 2010 I had the same issue on the passenger side door. I had the dealer promise in writing to fix the issue before I agreed to the deal. The dealer tried to back out of the repair after I took posession of the FJ but after threatening to walk-out with my money they called in Toyota and got them to pay to repaint the door.

I didn't take any photos of the bubbles but they looked exactly like the ones in your photo on my 2008 with 50k miles.

 

[FJ-Gorilla]

where they the end result of rust inside the door eating through?

I'm not sure but it looked just like the photos posted above. The dealer made the repair and I never thought about asking if it was rust.....to me it looked like a surface defect (at least until I read this thread). Now I'll be keeping a close eye on both doors to make sure it doesn't happen again.

 

[FJ-Gorilla]

4-6 weeks seems like a long time to wait. The regional rep inspected my car within a couple of days, maybe I got lucky.

The funny part of the story is the dealership was going to have to repaint the door no matter what the rep determined, and here's why. After inspecting my FJ the dealership parked my car on the lot in the "customer" parking area and someone door-dinged it and left a nice 1" white scratch that required a repaint. Luckily I noticed the ding before I got in my FJ and drove off so I pointed it out to the sales rep. He just shook his head in disbelief because apparantely they are NOT supposed to park vehicles in that area so it was their fault (probably the tech that did the initial inspection).

Needless to say I am not impressed with the dealer (most are inept in my humble opinion) so they won't be getting any repeat business from me. Hopefully I'll be moving soon back to the DFW area and have a wider range of dealerships to do future business with.

 

[FJ-Gorilla]

Update: 03/20/2011

I removed my interior door panels today to take off my mirrors for painting and look what I found:

Based on this evidence I'd say the bubbling I was experiencing with my paint was related to moisture inside the door causing rust. I'm glad I caught it when I was inspecting the vehicle and had the dealer pay to make the repair.