What is this, and how can I fix it?

[davey g-force]

Re: What is this, and how can I fix it?

Wow, strange indeed.

You could almost leave it and just pretend it's some special decorative finish!

[Dolphin Gray]

Re: What is this, and how can I fix it?

Thanks Michael for the input. Your observations are spot on - it is nice Dolphin Grey Pearl Metallic in-between the ugly patches. The patches do appear to have the "scratch" marks you see. I bought the car in 2007 and have never put a cover on it. The hood is perfect by the way. The marks didn't appear until about 3-4 years after I bought it. The only thing I can think of is maybe some kind of chemical mixed with rain water sat beaded up on the surface to create the pattern, but that seems like a long shot as I would expect that the patterns would be randomized over time. Maybe Audi offered a delayed-release tortoise shell finish no one knows about

I tried Ultimate Compound a couple of years ago and it did help a bit. I will give it another shot on a small area, and report back with the results....

[Michael Stoops]

Re: What is this, and how can I fix it?

Yikes!!! This has to be one of the craziest looking paint defects we've ever seen! Is there any chance that a plastic covering sat on the car for a period of time and trapped moisture under it? We've seen that cause this sort of issue in the past, but never quite so widespread or in such an....um.... interesting pattern. Blowing up the image a bit in Photoshop it almost looks like the darker areas is healthy paint showing some nice metallic aspects to it, but the lighter areas look like they're full of straight line scratches. Is that how it looks in person? We can't imagine why it would look like scratches if it wasn't actually scratched, though, or how in the world this pattern of scratches and non scratched area could have come to be. Unless, of course, it's not actually scratches but an imprint of the texture of the plastic that covered the paint for a while. You wouldn't be able to feel that in the paint as it's more a staining issue, and it may even be so deep that wet sanding can't even fix it. Please understand, we are most definitely NOT suggesting you wet sand this, so let's not even go there.

We would love to see what an application of some Ultimate Compound, just in a small area (like one foot square) would do for this, if anything.

[Dolphin Gray]

I have an older Audi A4 (2002) that is in great shape overall, but I have some weird finish problems on the roof and decklid. A couple of years ago when I first noticed it, I tried to remove it with Ultimate Compound (by hand). It helped, but didn't get rid of it. It has since spread to the decklid and the roof has gotten worse. I recently tried using the Meguiar's clay kit on it - not much came off, probably due to the relatively recent compound application. The rest of the paint looks perfect.

I haven't seen any pics like this online, so I don't even know what the problem is that I should be looking for solutions for. You cannot feel the defects on the surface of the paint. The pattern (especially the streaking) makes me think it is due to baked in road grime from the intense southern heat. I don't think it is clear coat failure, since I have another car that had that and it looked very different. Any ideas on what this is, and how it could be corrected, would be much appreciated!!