The Clearcoat Failure Photo Archive

[slowray]

I have an Oldsmobile Aurora 1999 which had cracking in the clear coat. Wet sanded as much as I could and then buffed using McGuires products, followed by fine polishing and wax. Its been 4 years now and the car shows no signs of re-cracking and the finish is great.

[kentwp]

Hello,

Can someone here please help me identify if my picture shows a clearcoat failure (the whitish stain) on Deep Black paint work with pearl effect?

A few days ago, I discovered a stone chip on my bonnet. Read about using touch up paint and wet sanding ending with polishing and decided to try out the procedure.

After the touch up blob drying for 5-6 hours on a warm day, I used a 2000 grit paper based sandpaper soaked in soapy water for 20 mins and made multiple passes at about an inch around the blob.

After the blob seemed to be even with the rest of the surface, I polished the area using ScratchX, and the ended with Polish. Once I completed it, I realized that at angles with artificial lighting, there seems to be a crater of sorts but looked glossy.

If you look at the picture, and ignore the 3 stripes (I added more touch up paint as I realized the paint was not enough), I noticed the whitish stain that could not be removed with further polishing. Just to add, there seems to be still a clear coat as at angles I could still see that the white stain is still as glossy as as the surrounding paint.

Anyone thinks that it should be headed towards a re-spray?

Sorry, I can't seem to insert a picture from the iPhone app. Will get to a PC and upload.

[Michael Stoops]

We'll wait for the pictures, of course, but it sure sounds as though you may have sanded through the clear coat or very close to doing so. If you just used your fingertips with that sandpaper, even 2000 grit, and worked such a small area then it's actually very easy to do this. Did you sand with just your bare fingers or did you have some sort of backer for the paper, even if just a small block of wood, plastic, etc?

[kentwp]

We'll wait for the pictures, of course, but it sure sounds as though you may have sanded through the clear coat or very close to doing so. If you just used your fingertips with that sandpaper, even 2000 grit, and worked such a small area then it's actually very easy to do this. Did you sand with just your bare fingers or did you have some sort of backer for the paper, even if just a small block of wood, plastic, etc?

Hi Michael,

You were right about me using my fingertips. I checked again this morning and confirmed that the whitish spot is indeed still glossy.

Here is a picture of it.

[TheDetailBoss]

Great post Mike! Living in Arizona where the sun is relentless, I see this all day long. We receive calls and go out to give estimates and simply tell our clients there is nothing we can do for them once its to that stage of deterioration. Luckily one of our clients brought to us his Mercedes Benz that was showing signs of oxidation and we really weren't sure what we could do with it. So we gave it a go. The clearcoat wasn't flaking and was in-tact to the touch, which was definitely a good sign. We did a two step correction and while the oxidation didn't come out 100% (we think it almost would have had he wanted a more aggressive package) it looks night and day. here's a video of it below. Great post! very interesting and informative on the different stages of paint/clearcoat failure. I just thought I'd share this as an example that it CAN be corrected before its too late!

Half/Half Comparison on the hood:

[zhucehao]

Add me to the group that never knew about high engine temps adding to hood clear coat failure. Very interesting.

[PKR]

While I'm not entirely new to detailing, I don't own a machine and I've never worked on a car more than 5-10 years old. Now I'm faced with some sort of problem on the paint of a 1990 BMW 325i. Color is Sterling Silver, which I assume has a clear coat. The attached photo shows a small area of what look like very fine scratches; most of the car loos about the same. The scratches pass the fingernail test but any efforts I've made to hand polish them yields no joy whatsoever. I've asked others with '80s-era BMWs and their best guess is that the clear float is beginning to go. What say you .... ?

[Murr1525]

Hmm.. doesnt usually fail in long straight lines.

But it does look abused and maybe 'dry'... which certainly will increase the chance of failing.

[PKR]

"Abused"? Definitely, though the color itself is surprisingly good.
Just for fun, if we were to assume that it was actually NOT clear coat failure, then what corrections would be worth trying?

[Murr1525]

What efforts did you make so far? May be worth its own thread if you want to get into more detail on the car.