Need help with oxidation!

[Goforbroke510]

My Dad let me use his car while I was in school (still am). I got a motorcycle to commute to school and work, so I pretty much drive my car twice a week to the store or something.

My car usually sits in the driveway, and I don't have a cover on it or anything. My dad said the roof has started to oxidize. Well, he said that about 2-3 months ago, an yesterday, I went outside at NIGHT, and you could plainly see the chalky white clouds on my roof which is a kinda metallic/greyish car. It's a 2006 Hyundai Sonata and I've only had it for 1.5 years, so the oxidation is less than a year old, a year max. I wash it maybe once every 2-3 months, only waxed it once since I had it, so my poor maintenance on it has my Dad pissed off. I don't really know squat about the proper chemicals and solutions to use, so I've been reading everywhere on the web and this forum. I read about #7 gloss, some Crystal Deep Cut, stuff like that but I'm still not sure of what the process is.

If somebody could let me know what process I would have to take to get the oxidation removed, it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Also, I have the machine (buffer tool) that I use to wax my car instead of hand waxing (if that helps).

[Murr1525]

Re: Need help with oxidation!

Cound you share any pics of the area?

[TOGWT]

Re: Need help with oxidation!

“Oxidation or Clear Coat Failure?” - http://www.autopia.org/forum/autopia...t-failure.html

[Ryan Dodd]

Ultimate Compound helps to remove oxidation...

[Lexus Nerd]

Re: Need help with oxidation!

Any micro-abrasive cutting compound will remove oxidation but, if oxidation is the only problem, I prefer to use Meguiar's Deep Crystal System Paint Cleaner. It's a chemical cleaner that removes the chalky oxides with minimal effort, leaving your roof as clean as the rest of your panels.

Now, I've recently got the impression that the Paint Cleaner is being discontinued in the US. It's still listed at meguiarsonline.com, but not meguiars.com. If you can't get it, I suspect you have two alternatives:

1. Meguiar's Cleaner Wax - Removes oxidation and adds a layer of wax.
2. Meguiar's Clear Coat Safe Rubbing Compound, which is claimed to restore "gloss & clarity to neglected, oxidized paint without scratching."

None of these three products should be used with your buffing machine.

Apply one of these products by hand after washing your car, then finish off with a wax.

[TRILLIS]

ultimate compound helps to remove oxidation...

agree!!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Need help with oxidation!

Pictures will help here because in most cases what people think of as oxidation in clear coat is actually clear coat failure. See The Clearcoat Failure Photo Archive for some images of failure in various stages.

Modern clear coat paint systems usually don't oxidize in quite the same way that those old single stage lacquers did. Those old paints, where the color pigments were found throughout the top coat, could be buffed down to fresh, healthy paint, thereby restoring the color and gloss. The oxidation manifested itself in the form of pigment loss, a chalky appearance and texture to the paint, and essentially a breaking down of the upper layers of paint.

Modern clear coat is very different from a chemical standpoint. Because it's a catalyzed finish - it's durability, gloss and even hardness are essentially the result of a chemical reaction during the curing process - when it oxidizes it tends to break apart and completely fail. It can't be buffed out because the damage is through and through, and it's spreading.

Think of single stage lacquers as bare aluminum, and clear coats as steel. Steel is much harder than aluminum, and clear coats are much harder than lacquers. Steel and aluminum can both oxidize, but when aluminum oxidizes it tends to develop sort of a whitish or dull appearance - not all that different from those single stage lacquers. And just like those lacquers, you can pretty easily buff that top layer of oxidation off of the aluminum and restore it's gloss and luster. When steel oxidizes, it rusts, and rust is a very crusty, broken surface material not unlike the broken, crusty appearance of an oxidized clear coat. But paint coatings on cars are very, very thin; on the order of 2/1000 of an inch thick. If you had a piece of aluminum that thin and it oxidized, you could still buff it out and restore it. But a piece of steel that thin, once rusted, is pretty much done since the rust will quickly be through and through that thin a piece; grind away the rust and there's just nothing left! Same thing with a badly oxidized clear coat.

OK, so the clear is toast, what of the color under it? Can't that just be buffed out and made to shine like old single stage paints? You'd think so, but no. In a base coat/clear coat paint system all of the gloss and UV protection comes from the clear coat. The color under it won't hold a shine no matter what you do to it - chemically it just can't happen. The only solution is to sand the finish down and repaint.