Clear coat turns white when wet, clear after drying

[invstor17]

Hi guys,

I recently picked up a 95 range rover with only 15K miles. It looks new but apparently somewhere along the line it was resprayed or recleared according to the previous owner, details were spotty. Anyway, when I washed the car last week a bunch of milky white spots appeared, they look like old water spots but when the car dried they disappeared. I went over the whole car with Ultimate Compound using a Porter Cable and then applied Synthetic Sealant. Today I washed the car again and the spots were back and then disappeared just like before. When the spots first appeared I rubbed at one pretty good and when it dried there were scratches making me think the clear is pretty soft. I'm wondering if the clear is failing, if so how long it will last? If I need to respray the clear does the entire clear layer have to be sanded off first, it even spots in the door jams. Anyone else experience this with a range rover, it's even spotting in places that I think they would have masked for a respray so I'm wondering if this is normal for even factory paint?

Thanks!

[NZ ECO1]

Hi,
Hard to say without pics. Could be the beginnings of clear failure but the door jams probably wouldn't be affected if that was the case. What I can say is that Range Rovers can be a bit ropey on the quality side at the best of times and paint from that era (95) will be starting to show its age now unless looked after fastidiously - even with low mielage, which may explain the respray. Get some pics up if you can and someone will be able to tell you what you are dealing with

[rst08tierney]

Hmm.....is the vehicle a salvaged title by chance?

[invstor17]

Clear title with maintenance/recall history. It was just used rarely.

[invstor17]

will try to recreate the issue and snap some pics tomorrow.

[thurman]

It sounds like you got a great deal. Even if the paint is questionable, 15K and barely used. Take care of it and if you have to repaint it ...big deal.

[invstor17]

Definitely happy with the purchase and would be willing to respray if necessary, just trying to figure out what I'm looking at, and if it does need a respray if I need to sand this celar layer completely off first to correct the issue. Really strange, looks perfect after drying and sitting for a bit. I washed and took some photos yesterday.

http://s1067.photobucket.com/albums/...t%3Dpaint2.jpg

http://s1067.photobucket.com/albums/...t%3Dpaint1.jpg

[bmrfan]

Really strange, looks perfect after drying and sitting for a bit.

Definitely could be clear coat failure but I'm used to seeing the clear coat staying white and not recovering after drying.

From what you've described, it sounds like the clear coat has poor water resistance. I've seen clear coat paints (used on furniture) have similar problems - when wet it becomes foggy but becomes clear after it dries for a period of time.

A wild guess - maybe the repaint was done with incorrectly mixed clear coat or poor quality clear coat.

Any additional info on the repaint?

[invstor17]

Unfortunately no addl. info on the repaint. It was owned by a celeb and getting any details from the go betweens was like pulling teeth

If anyone else has experienced this on their own car I'd be interested to hear if it stayed the same over time or if the clear began to fail while dry eventually.

Thanks!

[BillE]

I don't have any ideas, but I do have a question...Are the 'white spots' always in the same location or do they move around?

Bill