timer00

I have my entire hood covered in these scratches. The hood was perfect as going into Winter of 07. As soon as spring came in 08 and I took a real close look there were all these white scratches on the hood. The scratches were not as bad back then because everytime I tried some Zaino scratch stuff or other products or even just some polish etc the scratches seemed to get more numerous and worse.

I am taking it to my favorite body shop guy but I thought I'd ask everyone's opinion. You can't feel any of the scratches with your fingernail but they also won't come out with hand buffing of light abrasives. I am figuring on a repaint which would kind of suck but o well I guess.

I am thinking someone vandlized my car but why stop at the hood and wtf did they use. Obviously I would never voluntarily do this to my car for no reason they hood was perfect after summer/fall 07.

Also the paint feels very rough and glazed compared to the rest of the pristine paint on the rest of the car. Some abrasivness might be from some products I tried but I polished/waxed after using those minor abrasives.

Thanks for any input.

Kaydee

holy crap...I've never seen anything like that. It almost looked as if the clear coat is gone...Hard to see how this is vandalism, unless they have sandpaper on hand

timer00

Well I certainly didn't do it to the car lol (maybe I was crazy drunk one night! not
Like I said the scratches were like 65-70% of that before I started uses some products on it then they got way worse even though while I was polishing or waxing you couldn't tell I was making new scratches. Its f'd up haha

ZippyGuy

iTrader: (9)

Looks like oxidation. Do you park the car outside or in the garage?

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

did you not drive it for a while or something?

timer00

It gets parked outside but when I was renting it was under a car port.
Bought the car in May 07 perfect conditon almost. Waxed it a few times, washed a bunch all the way up until after a NELOC meet I went to in late September or early October I forget of 07.. heres a pic from then before the winter.



Nice and shiny and I know it didn't have those scratches then because there was other people looking at the car at the meet etc etc.

Winter 07 comes and I only drive it when it wasn't snowing, otherwise took the wife's explorer. Spring comes and it stops snowing I wash and wax it for the first time and notice all these "water spots" all over the hood like its not "reflective" as it should be you can see all these spots in direct sunlight. Then after a few days I see these scatches espeically under fluoresent light. I try some Zaino Swirl/Scratch stuff very light abrasive and some other german stuff from walmart that got scratches out on my dads car. I would follow up with some wax to protect the areas after doing that and just left it go because I didn't have time to deal with it and couldn't prove it was "vandalism" because it seemed "why just my hood" and then since April 08 when all that happened all the white scratches got more numerous no mater what i tried to treat the hood with mostly just the Zaio AIO (All in One) which I used on the entire car.

Bottom line is the body shop guy will probably say repaint and I am going tomorrow or the next day to find out for sure.

Chris@GlimmerGlass

iTrader: (3)

looks like a brushed alum hood ....

That really sux man Almost looks to be rubbed w/ steel wool.

timer00

Yea I know it sucks I have to look straight down the hood everytime I go somewhere makes my car feel imcomplete lol

So Chris or whoever else whats a estimate on repainting a LS400 hood since its going to have to come out of pocket?

GS430V8

wow never seen something like this!

Chris@GlimmerGlass

iTrader: (3)

Depends if they plan to blend the fenders or anything. (aside from what paint they're using, who you take it to, etc)

I'm no painter, but I'd say they can respray that for ~350 though.

duncan73

Are there any animals (cats, birds, ferrets etc.) that would enjoy the warmth of a heated hood? Are there any scratches on the windshield washer bezels or are they untouched?
Just thinking out loud.

UDel

That is the worst I have seen scratches like that, they completely cover the hood and are pretty uniform like someone took some kind of sander to it. Looks like steel wool worked over the hood and other parts or sandpaper. Stuff like that does not just happen, it had to take some effort to get it that way and a car does not go from shiney waxed surface to looking like that from just sitting outside. Is it like that on the sides of your car? Maybe 2 or 3 squirrels were fighting on top of your car but I doubt it would cover the area as uniformly as that. Almost looks like vandalism but I would figure they would do something else. Did you take it to a automatic carwash at anytime? I would try polishing it with a PC and see what happens and if you can get those scratches out with a couple passes with some aggressive pad/polish combos.

timer00

Well here's some background. At my old rented place where this was all discovered I parked under a carport.

There were birds that would hang out under the carport sometimes but I never did see them land on the car ever. There were some stray cats (the house is near farm fields) that have hidden under my car and stuff. Squirrels I don't know maybe?

The scratches go all the way to the top of the fender which is right past where the hood meets the fender and then stop. I did live next to a catholic private high school with a bunch of rowdy kids on friday nights when the football games they would have in the fall/winter plus they all knew (all the students in football/etc that practice in the field next to our house a the time) I lived there and drove by everyday

The people would literally park within 10 ft of our patio and carport during the games so I don't know I figure 350-600 I can afford to get a repaint hopefully its not much more than that.

Nah never took my car to an evil automatic car wash haha especially the brushes there !
There is nothing on the washer bezels. Also the scratches right near the bottom of the hood maybe 1-2" before the chrome strip.

jcat_350

holy hell man...that almost looks like some horrible combo of scratches and clear coat failure....definitely respray, that cannot be good. like a flesh eating virus for a car haha

timer00

Going to my preferred body shop guy now I'll see what he says.

Well he took one look at the hood and said "Someone repainted this already" and apparently he also said it wasn't very good since it failed like this.
I am thinking after all the waxing and abrasives and rewaxing of the hood it broke down whatever was there and the scratches were being revealed more and more as I went.

He said definetely a respray while blending in the tops of the fenders etc... he couldn't give me a real estimate because he doesn't know whats underneath the old paint on the hood yet (bondo, body filler) but said could be 2-3-4 hundred depending which considering I can afford about $650 tops I really want to get it done.

Thanks for all the help

Carfax after I bought the car showed it clean but that doesn't really mean much if someone repainted a hood. Car drivers perfect straight and true and all the other body panels are pristine practically.