little white cracks in paint

[kuko]

Hi.
On saturday I polished hood of black Saab. I used orange pad LC and ultimate compound. After polishing I found little white cracks in paint. See enclosed picture. Do you know, what could happened? Thanks

[kuko]

Re: little white cracks in paint

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums...012_114806.jpg Here is picture

[The Guz]

Re: little white cracks in paint

This should help since your photo didn't load.

[The Guz]

Re: little white cracks in paint

Can you feel them with your finger nail?

[kuko]

Re: little white cracks in paint

Just little

[davey g-force]

Re: little white cracks in paint

Did you wipe down with IPA (or similar) after compounding?

I'm thinking the cracks were there all along and they filled up with UC, making them more visible.

[The Guz]

Re: little white cracks in paint

Did you wipe down with IPA (or similar) after compounding?

I'm thinking the cracks were there all along and they filled up with UC, making them more visible.

I'm thinking the same thing. Or whatever wax you used filled them in.

If you can feel the scratches with your nail then there is no way to remove them with compounding or polishing. The only way to fix them is to either touch them up or repaint.

[Scott's 62]

Re: little white cracks in paint

Its the start of the clear going bad. I detailed a black Ford Expedition a while a go and the hood looked like that but it was way worse. I'm with davey you might need to strip the hood and just use a spray wax so the cracks are less noticeable.

[jmmoore3]

Re: little white cracks in paint

^^this. The clear is going. I would bet the hood has been repainted. Looks similar to what they call crows feet and as time goes on it will get worse. Only fix is really a respray unfortunately.

[kuko]

No I didnt use IPA. I used NXT wax after. You are right. I would need to use something like Sonax which contains littlebitbof black color

[Michael Stoops]

Re: little white cracks in paint

This is what's known as "checking" in the paint, and it's usually a heat related issue. We hate to say it, but it's most likely only going to get worse with time. That you specifically mentioned seeing this on the hood of the car only further reinforces the heat related nature of this problem. One of our forum members, MaximusZTS, used to have a red Ford Focus that had this throughout the hood of the car, except for a very large "X" shaped area from corner to corner. When we popped the hood we noticed two things: no insulating pad under the hood, and a large "X" shaped cross brace reinforcement that perfectly matched the large area on the outside of the hood that had no checking at all. It would seem that this crossbracing was enough to insulate the paint from the engine heat and prevent the checking.

[kuko]

Re: little white cracks in paint

Thanks Mike. I was afraid, that I did something wrong. I will try compound trunk and observe result. Does this can happen because of too much heat between pad and paint?

[Michael Stoops]

Re: little white cracks in paint

Thanks Mike. I was afraid, that I did something wrong. I will try compound trunk and observe result. Does this can happen because of too much heat between pad and paint?

No, it has absolutely zero to do with the buffing process, no matter how aggressive you might get. It's all about long term heat exposure, usually a combination of the heat underneath the hood created by the engine, and the radiant heat of the sun acting on the top side. It's not uncommon to find this issue only on the hood of a car rather than throughout the vehicle. The hood is subject to more heat than the rest of the car due to the engine heat so this is usually the first, or only, panel to suffer this sort of defect. But it is possible for this to happen everywhere, given enough time. It's just that hood is usually the first to go.

[jarred767]

Re: little white cracks in paint

Yup, clear us going. My black Ford Explorer has the same things except twenty times worse. Covering the hood working its way down the vertical panels. Not a ton that you can do outside of respray. I know its a problem on a problem on a lot of Fords; maybe some Saabs too???

[BillE]

Re: little white cracks in paint

[QUOTE=jarred767;554773]Yup, clear us going. My black Ford Explorer has the same things except twenty times worse. Covering the hood working its way down the vertical panels. Not a ton that you can do outside of respray. I know its a problem on a problem on a lot of Fords; maybe some Saabs too???[/QUOTE]

You can add at least one black 2000 Subaru into the mix. Been an 7 year on going situation for me.

Bill