Newly painted car going cloudy with mysterious scratches

[sneekycheese]

Hey guys, im fairly new to the painting and detailing world but i have some strange things happening to my paint.

i recently painted my girlfriends car, 1989 suzuki vitara.
the car had clear coat failure all over it so we decided to give it a whole new start.

this was my method:
1. sand car 600-800-1000grit
2. primed car
3. sanded with 1000grit
4. applied colour ( i think 2pac acrylic)
5. applied clear ( 6 coats)
6. sanded with 2000grit
7. buffed with kitten cut and polish.

It came out almost like a mirror finish, i was amazingly surprised as to how well it came out, especially for a 1st time home garage job!




The paint looked great and looked even better in the sun, however the car was left in the driveway and sun for a few days, and now its all covered in white scratches! the paint is also far less reflective (cloudy)

ive polished the car with repo cream including caranuba wax and it fixed the problem for another couple of days, so i think its something to do with the wax.

ive tried wax and grease remover to get the wax off but it didnt work, and washing the car does nothing.

my point is, its the wax thats causeing the marks when it gets hit by the sun and goes chalky but how do i stop it ?
how do i get the wax off ?

many thanks !

[tomsteve]

Re: Newly painted car going cloudy with mysterious scratches

that paint is pretty fresh to have wax on it. it's best to wait 60-90 days before applying wax to let the paint off gas, in which time the clear can dull. after wet sanding and buffing a new paint job and applying a glaze, i like to have the vehicle back in a month or so to re buff. most of the time the owner wont see that the finish has dulled until after i buff it up again. what i would do is get the wax off the car. theres different ways to do this and i would personally use dawn dish soap. then apply a glaze until the finish has cured.

[sneekycheese]

Re: Newly painted car going cloudy with mysterious scratches

Thanks for tw quick repl Lu and great info ! So I should wait at least a month and buff the car again, then I can wax it?
Will that stop the car going milky and white after a few days? Is it just the gasses bleeding into tw wax making it hazy ?
And I can't get hold of dawn dish soap around here any other ways to get it all off?
Thanks

[sneekycheese]

Re: Newly painted car going cloudy with mysterious scratches

Just to show what the paint it doing.

This is the bonnet when I finished
[IMG][/IMG]

And this was what it looked like a few days later
[IMG][/IMG]
the bonnet has not been touched by anything other thn the sun, and those scratches wernt there at the beginning, so where did they come from ?!

[greg0303]

Re: Newly painted car going cloudy with mysterious scratches

the bonnet has not been touched by anything other thn the sun, and those scratches wernt there at the beginning, so where did they come from ?!

Are the scratches only on the bonnet (hood) or all around the fresh paint ?

Something must have touched those affected area(s). Did anybody wash the vehicle or use a quick detailer ?

[tomsteve]

Re: Newly painted car going cloudy with mysterious scratches

you got some serious scratches there!. if you can feel the scratches with a finger nail, they are too deep to correct with buffing. you may want to try some wax and grease remover( or another product i hope someone will chime it to assist with) to get the product you have on there off. then, since you say you layed 6 coats of clear, i am gonna assume the clear is thick enough to wet sand again. start at 1000 grit and sand in one direction( even with high quality sandpaper like megs unigrit i like to change to new paper every panel, and soak the paper for about 30 minutes before using), then go to 1200 grit at an angle to the pass with 1000 grit( about 30 degrees). this will help you see if you removed all the 1000 grit marks. then go to 2000 grit at another 30 degrees from the last pass. the object is to remove the sanding scratches from the previous grit and make the scratches finer. sometimes i will go up to 3000 grit( havent figured out what determines that for me yet. sometimes i do and sometimes i dont). good lighting is very important when wet sanding( another lesson learned the hard way). when sanding, i like to do it by hand. i can hear the sound of the sandpaper working and if a little piece if dirt gets between the sandpaper and finish, i can hear it and rinse out the sandpaper and block. a little piece of grit can make a lot of problems( another lesson learned the hard way). once to either 2000 or 3000, then its time for me to buff.


just a thought: how long after initially painting did you sand and buff the first time?

[sneekycheese]

Re: Newly painted car going cloudy with mysterious scratches

Greg0303 the scratches are appearing everywhere :/ and yes I washed it after I noticed the scratches to see if I could gget the wax/marks off

Tomsteve thanks for the detailed reply, and no you cannot feel them with your fingernail at all, that's why I'm so confused as to where they came from.
And yes the clear is pretty darn thick, I made sure of that for just such an occasion. I also only wetsand by hand, gives me more controll an I can hear particles scratching under the paper.
and when I finished painting the car I left it for 24hours at low humidity and about 27C temp, then started to wet sad and buff. It's just so odd how it all disappears with a tiny bit of polish or wax, it's like new and when it was painted :/ paint can be strange !

Thanks guys !

[greg0303]

Re: Newly painted car going cloudy with mysterious scratches

If the scratches are not so deep try to remove them using aggressive paint cleaner/ compound, like Meguiar's M105, M95 or M86 and then polish it back to high gloss with M205.