Clearcoat Failure?

[techjazz]

I've had these defects in my paint ever since I bought the car used 4 years ago. Are these examples of clearcoat failure? I'm pretty sure but I wanted to get some opinions.









The funny part is it's never looked like the clearcoat failure affected any other parts of the car! It's always looked this good... It's only spotty on the roof and the hood.

[Raymond]

Re: Clearcoat Failure?

It could be defects that were on the surface before the car was painted (assuming it was repainted). I know my grandma's Camry has a few spots that look like that since she got her car painted. They did an otherwise great job on the car, but those few spots stick out. Probably bad prep work.

[techjazz]

Re: Clearcoat Failure?

The paint is original except the passenger back door and rear panel. It was in a wreck I suppose, the paint "grain" is different on each side. They did a great job though.

I'm assuming this cannot be fixed unless I had the roof and hood repainted; and I'm in college, so we know how that story ends...

[BlueZero]

Re: Clearcoat Failure?

Can you feel the imperfections? Do they bump up from the surface? It almost looks like you could flake the clear coat off with your finger nail in the top photos. However the last photo looks like it could be etching. Have you tried anything on them yet? I love the color of your car!

[techjazz]

Re: Clearcoat Failure?

Can you feel the imperfections? Do they bump up from the surface? It almost looks like you could flake the clear coat off with your finger nail in the top photos. However the last photo looks like it could be etching. Have you tried anything on them yet? I love the color of your car!

YES. You can definitely feel them with your finger. I haven't tried to flake the clearcoat off with my fingertip, but I'm sure it's possible if I tried.

Funny thing though. I did clean and polish with the DC system last month and the white went away for a little bit, but the next day going to apply the second coat of wax, the white came back. I'm pretty certain I have failure, but I'm glad the rest of the finish didn't suffer.

It's a great thing really. When the entire presentation of the car looks great, the imperfections that we cannot remove aren't as noticeable.

[techjazz]

Re: Clearcoat Failure?

I love the color of your car!

Thank you! I rarely see this color in a CR-V, let alone a clean one in general.

[the other pc]

Re: Clearcoat Failure?

Looks like some sort of chemical etching, maybe from bird bombs.

It appears that the topcoat has failed in those localized areas but the rest of the finish should be fine.


PC.

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Clearcoat Failure?

I think that the first couple of pics are failure. I think that one pic is some type of etching. I think you could probably safely remove or greatly reduce its appearance.