i'm thinking about purchasing an '01 prelude and have already inspected it. the owner has told me that the driver's side door was previously hit and some "bodyshop" had repaired the problem. only thing is, i can tell where the damage was done due to the faded yellow coloring that makes a very visible circular pattern on the door. other than the shoddy body work, what would cause this? someone perhaps went bondo crazy? hidden rust problem? the car is the oem white color and the price is $4k. is this going to be a major headache in which i would have to replace the entire driver's side door??

 

The yellow paint could be that they painted it the wrong color and they tried to blend within the panel. White is a tough color to get right sometimes. Post some pics up and then we will know what is really wrong with the car.
Should not have to get a new door because of some miss matched paint.

 

could be a variable of things, like disease said, crappy paint match is possible, could have used real crappy material to paint the door and its already starting to fade, clear will start to look yellow once the solids start to break down.might be a reaction from different paint chemicals, could have some bleed through from underlying sealer or primer if they used a lacquer primer or sealer and sprayed over it before full cure. coud be many things.