Car paint issue - how to remove, resolve or hide :-)

[bigman66]

Hi all.

I have just taken delivery of a nice, safe, solid, reliable (etc, etc) Black sedan for my daughter... Came at the right price (i.e cheap) but, you guessed it.. There was a catch...

The paintwork is a bit average... Lots of stone chips etc which show up nicely on a black car, but these are easy enough to fix.. The problem is that it seems that somebody has had a botched attempt at cutting/polishing the upper door frames.

The paint has been finely "scratched" and appears to have a white type glazed appearance. If i wet the problem area with a bit of water, it seems to come back with a bit of colour, but that goes as soon as it has dried off.

Please see the pictures below for an indication of the car and the issue with the paintwork..

I guess the questions is, is there anything that I can do? And what product(s) should I be looking at using? Don't need a showroom condition job (i.e it is the daughters first car and she should be thankful that she has wheels at all) - but if I can make it look better then that would be great..

ScratchX, ColourX, Ultimate Compound? Or is there something that will be better?

Can I do this by hand, or is a DA Polisher a requirement? Have been pricing them up anyway, so this may be a perfect excuse :-)

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

[Marc08EX]

Re: Car paint issue - how to remove, resolve or hide :-)

It's either heavy oxidation or clear coat failure to me.

If it's heavy oxidation, there's still something you can do. I would go ahead and purchase the big guns, Ultimate Compound. You can try fixing your problem by hand first and see if you get any improvement. Just make sure to work on small areas and apply heavy pressure on the foam pads as you work the product in. It won't yield you the best results but this will be the cheaper approach. Once you see an improvement and you know your problem is just heavy oxidation then I would go ahead and purchase the G110v2 to completely eliminate the oxidation. If you don't see an improvement by applying the Ultimate Compound by hand then it means it's clear coat failure and there's no way around it other than a new paint job.

To experienced members, please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Murr1525]

Re: Car paint issue - how to remove, resolve or hide :-)

I would tend to agree, but I would start out more gently, dont jump right to hard pressure.

Or if you already have some products, can start with something like SwirlX. But if I had to buy stuff, I'd probably buy the UC.

Dont know if I would buy a DA just for a door frame.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Car paint issue - how to remove, resolve or hide :-)

Very strange that this issue is confined to this specific area of the car and nowhere else. What kind of car is this, and how old is it? Are we sure these are painted panels and not gloss black plastic?

It does look as though there's a bit of residue from something - paint cleaner, compound, wax, etc - on some of the rubber trim so maybe someone just used an old school rubbing compound here, but honestly the damage to the paint doesn't look like it was done via that mechanism. We would be inclined to do a test spot with Ultimate Compound applied via foam wax applicator pad, working just a small area mind you, and see where that gets you to start. It could clean things up very effectively, but it's a bit hard to say without seeing this in person.

We're inclined to agree that it looks like heavy oxidation or clear coat failure, but it's just so odd to see either of those issues concentrated on a small panel when adjacent panels seem to be fine, all the more puzzling because these are not the upper surface (horizontal) panels that one might expect to oxidize/fail first. Any indications that some or all of the car was repainted at some point in time?

[bigman66]

Re: Car paint issue - how to remove, resolve or hide :-)

Thanks for all the advice. - good to be able to get some opinions on what the best course of action is.

Panels on questions are defiantly painted, not any type of plastic. There has been a quick polish/wax done on on the car recently (probably prior to sale to me) - Lots of residue left on the car as you could see in the pics... On the upside, a lot of what I thought were paint chips on the door panels etc were actually flecks of polish and I could just buff them off ;-)

Car is 10 years old and it does not appear that there has been any paintwork done to the car at any stage.. No overspray etc or indications of filler or repairs that I could pick up.. So if it has been sprayed, they did a clean job of it. The damage IS specific to that portion of the car.... Rest of the paintwork is chipped and scratched and looks like it has lived all of its 10 years, but nothing like what is in the pictures.

Re: the 2 options - TO be honest, it didn't really "feel" like either option although as a rank newbie at this, I may have a different/incorrect perception of these issues than reality...

1) Oxidation.. TO me has always appeared to be this is where you get al almost "chalky" residue on the surface of the paint.. A straight polish with (i.e NXT) does nothing to resolve this - while it protects the paintwork to some extent, it still appears chalky feels gritty/chalky etc to the touch.. Basically due to sun damage and normally on the upper panels?
The paintwork is smooth to the touch and does not really appear to have an oxidised look to it (Could be wrong of course)

2) Clear coat failure is where the clearcoat basically loses adhesion to the base-coat and bubbles off? There is one small on the car that is like that one one of the door jambs where it has chipped and the clear coat is starting to lift. The interesting thing about the damaged paintwork as pictured is that the damaged area blends straight into good paintwork, no appearance of clear coat flaking off etc... So I really don't think that it is traditional clear coat problems.

To ME.. It almost looks as if some fool has taken 800 grit sandpaper and given the area a light sand...

Looks like (potentially) the best place to start is with UC and have a go at a small patch.. See if things can be made better at all

[Murr1525]

Re: Car paint issue - how to remove, resolve or hide :-)

Doesnt have to be 'lifting' to be failing, although that would happen in the end.

Do you get any black on your pads anywhere from the car?

[bigman66]

Re: Car paint issue - how to remove, resolve or hide :-)

I just picked up the car yesterday - haven't had a chance to do anything to it at all.... Today is Saturday in Australia... SO I am off to the paint shop to get a small pot of touch up paint mixed and then off to the Auto Supplies to pick up Meguiars Ultimate UC, Polish, Wax etc.....

Not likely to do a full wash, polish, wax on the beast for a few weeks though - I am going to be busy doing stone chips and trying to get all of that sorted... Will spot test UC on the door today though - and probably do the whole problem area if it seems to resolve.

[Marc08EX]

Re: Car paint issue - how to remove, resolve or hide :-)

The last picture looks terribly like CC failure to be honest. My old car had CC failure and it has very similar features like that one.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Car paint issue - how to remove, resolve or hide :-)

The last picture looks terribly like CC failure to be honest.

We're inclined to agree, except that it looks so severe and the rest of the car isn't effected at all. That is very strange given the placement of these panels on the car.

[bigman66]

Re: Car paint issue - how to remove, resolve or hide :-)

Well...

Tried Ultimate Compound (followed by Ultimate polish and Tech Wax)

Made a slight difference/improvement but nothing dramatic......

Had black residue on the applicator pad for all 3 products, so I am guessing that clearcoat has been removed somehow and I am down to the colour coat on the paint.

At least now I know that I will have to re-paint or something of the sort to resolve the issue.

[Murr1525]

Re: Car paint issue - how to remove, resolve or hide :-)

That could be possible.

I'd be interested to see if you use a little UC or UP on the roof near by, door, etc... and if the pad still turns black.

Esp if the rest of the door is still clear coated, that would be an answer.

[bigman66]

Re: Car paint issue - how to remove, resolve or hide :-)

Ok.. Spot tested some UP on the roof not far from where the paint problem is on the door frames......

Not a speck of black is apparent on the foam pad.......

So.. I guess that would mean that for whatever reason.. The clearcoat has been removed from the problem area and I am down to the paint/colour coat.

Now... I am going to ask a question I cannot believe...

Turtle Wax has a product called Color Magic which comes in black... Yes.. I know Turtle Wax products are s**t to start off with.. and that coloured Polishes are just at attempt to hide paint issues that you should be fixing...........

But - It seems to me that I may actually be at that stage for the door frame... It would appear that it really needs to be repainted (which isn't an option in the short term) - What about the idea of multiple coats of Black Colour Magic (only on the door frames that are affected) followed up with a topcoat of NXT.... May possible bring up the paintwork a nice black color and the NXT may be enough to keep it that way?

Or are there any other suggestions to hide the problem?

[Mark58]

Re: Car paint issue - how to remove, resolve or hide :-)

Turtle Black wax has a lot of fillers in it and it just might help. I have an old bottle here. That's the one that comes with a paint stick.