LADavidGS

iTrader: (2)

Cleaning my car today and discovered this little problem. Can anyone help? It seems the previous owner did not take care of this situation thus, I am stuck with it..



It seems that clear coat is coming off.

eyezack87

iTrader: (4)

Pretty much the only option to remove it is to repaint that section. The clear cracked due to bird poo or bee poo. Sorry OP


Let me make this clear to anyone who thinks otherwise, polishing will NOT do squat for it. Anyone who thinks otherwise is putting false hope into the OP. Cracked clear does not regenerate from polishing at all since polishing is abrasive to begin with

LADavidGS

iTrader: (2)

how much is it to paint just that section? and do you have any place in mind in ca?

eyezack87

iTrader: (4)

Unsure but you can call a few places to get a quote. Platinum VIP comes to mind though for great quality work. The SoCal section of the forums should probably be much more helpful since plenty of people posted about a good shop in the past

User 41924

OK. I'm NOT arguing with you at all, eyezack! I completely agree! Obviously a repaint is in his future.

I'm just wondering if there is anything he can due to at least improve it until he gets it painted, or to minimize the color matching needed once it is resprayed. If a bird got him (and that's what it looks like to me), it's on an up facing surface, and any blemish would really stand out unless they did the entire surface.

On a temporary basis, I was thinking about something that might get out any dirt or residue still in the clear coat, and follow with some sort of masker and sealer. I've never tried it, or even seen it tried. I was just wondering if it MIGHT help. Also, when it is repainted, can you just sand and redo the clear without messing with the color? It seems like that would eliminate any color matching issues. I just don't know if it can be done, and I'm curious.

Nick@Autogeek

Depending on how much paint your car has, you can try wet sanding it. It will make it less noticeable if it doesn't completely remove it.

Check out this scratch removal how-to guide.

How To Remove Scratches

eyezack87

iTrader: (4)

Lol no worries bud I was just gonna put in my own input

Unfortunately, I never had any experience in repainting one section of a hood so I have no idea if you can just sand it to the color then reclear it. Oddly enough, you do have to factor in the time the color coat is exposed to the sun so it may or not make the color coat fade due to a lot less UV inhibitors. I suppose that a UV sealant like OptiCoat or AQuartz would theoretically work but it is still a UV layer nowhere near thick as the surrounding clear. So theoretically that means the affect of the sunlight/surrounding air etc might still cause a difference in color when repainted

All theoretical though since no of this has been tested by anyone to my knowledge. Same with wetsanding the area until the scratch is removed but just a bit of clear remains. If that is the case, then that one area would have CC failure faster than the surrounding area. THAT, I know is true since it happened on my ES

TCKeyz

This might sound stupid but would a touch up paint work? What I mean is use both the paint and clear coat to touch that area up to a point where it is higher than the rest, then wet sand it and polish it?

Don't try it until someone who knows this stuff puts their opinions on it... Just a thought.

Stormforge

you are thinking about dr colorchip or something similar. see this link below for the pros & cons (particularly note the comments made by OP in post #5):

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/aut...view-pics.html

eyezack87

iTrader: (4)

In my experience, touch up paint was too thick to be pulled into small cracks in a clear coat. I tried to do it like you said and wetsanded it but the crack was untouched by the clear. You need something super thin to be drawn into the cracks to have a chance. Then there is the question of the paint bonding within it. Does the touch up paint shrink when it dries or will it expand when it gets hot? Many factors to consider when dealing with clear coat cracking I'm afraid. I haven't used Dr. Colorchip but with touch up paint from the dealer, it aint worth the effort to try again

jfelbab

Home spot repairs of a metallic paint are usually always an eyesore. It is nearly impossible to get the same appearance on a small spot patch like that. It can be made less noticeable but that usually requires a professional with an airbrush and even then the light reflection properties of the metal flakes is almost always not the same where the repair was made.

Stormforge

^ and that's the reason why after i got my hood repainted for rock chips, i went with a full hood, bumper and front quarter panel clear bra wrap. cost me a lot of money, but the paint protection from future chips is worth it (imho)

97-SC300

iTrader: (17)

Honestly, I would not worry about repainting that. You can try to take some compound like M105 or Power Gloss (heck, any compound will work), put some of it on a microfiber towel, and rub that spot until you slowly see it disappearing. It's less risky than wet-sanding if you are not comfortable with it. Then take a polish and do the same thing, it will bring out gloss to the faded section after the compound. It should either make it completely disappear or at worst, make it noticeably less visible.

Before you do anything, gently run your finger nail over that section, if you can feel it, it's probably too deep to work on. If you can't feel it, or just barely, then give it a shot.