What happened to my paint?

[my95tsi]

So here's what happened. I live near Chicago Illinois and for those of you that live near Chicago you also know that there is a tremendous amount of salt on the roads. For the last week i've had alot of salt on my car since it's been snowing alot and I finally got around to washing my car today. Just for reference I have a black Lexus IS350. I noticed that when I was applying spray wax to my car after the wash that on the drivers side of my car for about a 2 foot strip from the front fender to about half way down the drivers door there are a bunch of what look like circles or clouds all over the clear coat. I can feel it with my nail and I can't tell if it's ontop of the paint or in the paint. I tried claybar, vinegar, lightly applied scratch x and nothing could get it out. This same effect is also on the driver side of my rear bumper and alittle on the back of the rear bumper but not on the passenger side of the car, front bumper, hood, or roof. Now my front fender was replaced about a year and a half ago where they blended the paint by repainting the hood and the drivers door and my rear bumper was repainted about 2 months ago due to a minor grocery cart incident. It appears that this effect is only happening on the repainted surfaces of the vehicle and not on the factory paint, however it's not happening on all repainted surfaces. My hood is fine and the other half of my drivers door is also fine. It pay close attention to my car and this literally happened within a very short period of time. The surface still has gloss to it but in sunlight I see a lot of cirles all over and like I said before it's runs about 2 feet long in a 6-8 inch wide strip right down the drivers side. The cirles have are difficult to describes and but i can tell you that the centers of them are glossy but the edges almost look like cuts or smaller circles. What would cause these, is it the salt. I know black cars can be a PITA and show nearly everything but i'm hoping that it's not the clearcoat failing. I did notice that soon after I got my rear bumper repainted I had this effect in a small area of the rear bumper but scratch x seemed to fix it. Any thoughts? I'd hate to have to repaint nearly the entire vehicle as it's in such a concentrated area.

[William_F]

Re: What happened to my paint?

Can you take some pictures? That would help a lot in figuring out what you're dealing with.

[my95tsi]

Re: What happened to my paint?

Unfortunately I tried to already and they are too faint to show up on the camera. I'm alittle scared as i'm beginning to think that clearcoat is failing and starting to fade, however i'm not sure how that could happen over the course of a month with a little salt on the vehicle.

[William_F]

Re: What happened to my paint?

If I understand you correctly, it's only on part of the repainted areas?

Could be that the surfaces weren't properly prepped or something go on the panels while they were being painted.

Edit: Check your paper work from the shop that did the repairs. When my wife's truck came out of the body shop recently they gave us a lifetime warranty on paint defects. You may be able to get it fixed for free if your shop offers similar service and it can be determined that the defects stem from an error they made in the repair process.

[my95tsi]

Re: What happened to my paint?

Well my rear bumper was painted 2 months ago but my front area was painted nearly 2 years ago, what would make that pop up now and only in certain sports on just the side of the car?

[Michael Stoops]

Re: What happened to my paint?

Pictures would be a huge help, but it really does sound like an issue with the respray. If the paint is only 2 months old and is now being exposed to a lot of road salt and only the resprayed areas are showing any negative side effects, that would seem to point to the body shop. It also sounds like the areas of respray that are showing the greatest damage are the areas that impacted the most by salt, right?

It might be time for a quick trip to the body shop that did the work just a couple of months ago and get their assessment of the problem.

[my95tsi]

Re: What happened to my paint?

I know, I know but it won't show on pictures. However like I said the areas it's affecting are just two areas, my newly repainted rear bumper and my front fender and part of my drivers door, which were also resprayed at one point in time but it was nearly 2 years ago, those areas have been absolutely fine until now. The salt was all over my car, my hood was also resprayed about 2 years ago and doesn't have an issue. Also most of my rear bumper doesn't have an issue other than the drivers side.

[Andrew Wilson]

Re: What happened to my paint?

I think I know exactly what happened, but then again I could be wrong. When you washed your car, you followed it up with UQW on the surface. Depending on the temperature outside and the temperature of the surface, UQW could have dried faster (or froze) than you think it could of. The cloudy circles that you are seeing could be resulting from the UQW freezing on the paint in a circular shape. If this this is the case, their should be nothing to worry about.

I live in Chicago, and this happened to me once when it was waaaayyyy too cold to wax the paint. Then again, I am not sure if this happened, but it could have.

[Murr1525]

Re: What happened to my paint?

When I had some paint work done on my bumper, it was warrantied for a year. Hopefully your shop is similar, incase it is not just frozen product.

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: What happened to my paint?

This sounds like a trip back to your body shop. Good luck, let us know the outcome.

[my95tsi]

Re: What happened to my paint?

Well I brought my car back to the body shop and they don't know what caused it or even what it is, they are going to try to buff it out on Wednesday. However they didn't paint my front fender and door which was done 2 years ago and it's doing the same thing on those areas too. I really don't know what it is, it appears to be etching but nothing at all will seem to get it off. It looks like tiny little puffs of white that take the shape of drops of water and each puff of white up close has little square like shapes that make it up. It's really weird and straight on it can't be seen but at an angle in the right light it all over in a concentrated area and it can be felt with my finger nail. This is why it's so hard to take pictures of it. The weird thing is I can't tell if it's on top of the paint or in the paint, since I can't scratch it off it appears to have formed itself in the paint.

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: What happened to my paint?

Hope the body shop at least makes it less noticeable. By your description it really is weird what it could be.

Could you have driven threw something that splashed or sprayed on to the lower portions of your car? Just guessing.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: What happened to my paint?

We'll be watching to see what happens after the body shop gets their hands on this. What you're describing sounds very strange indeed.

[my95tsi]

Re: What happened to my paint?

Well like I said the body shop wants to try to buff it out but what worries is that they don't know what it is. I brought it to a professional detailer today and he took a look at it and said it's definitely not the clearcoat failing but it does appear to be etching potentially from hard water or acid rain but it's unusual because it's on on a 6 in by 2 foot strip on the side of the car and part of the rear bumper. He wants me to bring it by tomorrow on my lunch break and he's going to wash my car and use his professional grade products to see if he can get it out. He refuses to use rotary buffers on black cars and prefers to work it in by hand. He said he will try clay first and then try to rub it out. We'll see what happens.

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: What happened to my paint?

Good luck.