Real Car paintwork problem
 

The pics below are of the paintwork on my year 2000 MX5, about 6 months ago these marks started appearing in it and are very noticeable after it's been cleaned. It's affecting the bonnet and boot, not so much the sides. It doesn't look like its really surface finish and a bit of polish didn't touch it.

Any ideas what I can do, might be my wedding car in 5 weeks.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...n/P1000091.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...n/P1000090.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...n/P1000092.jpg

Is it on the surface, or are there little "puts" :o

strange! has the car been recently repainted or such?
doesn't look like your usual paint/clear problems so without actually seeing it in person i would guess it's gonna need stripping n repainting. take it to your local bodyshop for a bit of advice.

That looks like solvent pop but if it hasn't been painted recently it can't be. Without a doubt it's a respray I'm affraid

Looks like when it was painted it had a silicon problem affect the paint, did they start to show up when you washed it more ?

It would have taken some doing but those tinted polishes might have been able to hide it.

As mentioned above without seeing it in the flesh very difficult to work it out. Go to at least 2 body shops and ask them their professional opinion. Did you buy it privately or from a dealer ? If it was from a dealer I'd be tempted to go back there with it and see if they know anything about it. I presume you did an HPI check on it when you bought it ? If not I'd do one now just to check.

solvent pop or water blisters from the primer or base coat, as already stated respray I'm afraid Dan,usually caused when wet flatting base coat or primer and not throughly dried out before top coat,

looks as though it could be pitting, where bits of tiny grit are stuck on the surface and work into the paint. A clay bar may get rid of it, followed by a tcut and polish. Worth a shot as it wont do any further damage in the worst case.

Don't wash it? :confused:

The car is trying to tell you something its warning you DONT GET MARRIED. Trust it.

I agree with all of the above dan mate, to me it looks like water blistering.
Could be from a waterbase colour not being dried out enough before laquering.
Sand down and paint properly is your only cure. Or, carbon wrap the bonnet!!

happened on roof of my 106 if you remember dan, and spread like wild fire, it crackup in the end and the started to peel off had to most of the car respayed

Wow,

Thanks for all the replies! I need to check tonight to see if it feels like it's blistered or not. I've had the car for a year now (bought privatly) and though I knew it has has some paint (done well) to the rear arches I would have said that the rest was original.

Interested in this claying, I've read some of Nick Goodals's posts and heard it refered to but don't really know what it means or what to buy, any idiots guide links available?

HPI clear no concerns with that, no chance of me carbon wrapping it on the basis I think it makes your car look like a taxi.

Cheers,

Dan

Get it wrapped in red vinyl! Cheaper and easier than painting it. ( obviously not as nice tho)
You might not feel blistering on the bonnet mate, could all be well burried under laquer. Perhaps they only had bonnet done to get rid of stone chips, happens quite regularly in car sales.

http://paintcarendetailing.com/clay.html

Give it a good clay bar on the bonnet, then tcut it after and give it a polish, it may just do it for you. Worst case scenario you waste £20 trying. :thumbsup:

I dont think claying will remove that!

Take it to a proper valeter...i.e one of the ones from the Detailing world site , even better pop those pics up on there , see what the guys think.

Another vote for claying (although I'm not sure it'll help in this case). Hadn't used it until a few years ago, but after using it I'm a convert. Used it on my 911 before polish and you could feel how much smother the surface was afterwards, all the dust and really fine grain dirt was lifted straight off the surface.

Even buffing it won't shift that. My first classic mini (1996!) did this on the original paint on the bonnet, was caused by I suspect sunlight on the red paint using cheap washing products and not drying it in hot sunlight. The sun passes through the lacquer and fades the paint as red fades badly. Yours could be different, as the pattern in the red doesn't look the same.

And.... I fixed it by respraying it.

I know someone who'd do you a great job at reasonable price, text me if you want his details.

I think it looks quite cool actually. Your own custom sparkly paint

Hi Dan,

Best bet would be to have a word with the previous owner to see if he took someone on to do the bodywork, if he took on someone on the SMART repair side for them to paint & laquer full panels, especially a full bonnet is a big ask in the conditions they work in. I know this first hand!

As suggested take the car into a couple of bodyshops to get some quotes, i know a trainer who has 20 plus years of shop experience so if you need an honest unbiased opinion give me a shout & i can pass the details over to him.

Claying
 

Another + for claying from me. NEVER has the paint on my car felt so smooooooooth.

If you are interested in claying best to look on Youtube there are loads of clips but here's what I do to my car before claying and after. It is worth investing in some decent microfibre cloths, Solid WAX polish and natural sponge's.

Rule No 1 - It takes an hour to wash a car by yourself but a day to clean it so set aside a day to do this with no disturbance.

1. I wash the car using Zymol car shampoo and rinse. Leather off paintwork and leave to dry.

2. Find the worst affected areas ( normally horizontal like roof and bonnet ) by using a microfibre cloth gently on the paintwork and you will feel the cloth tugging and pulling on the paintwork if it's really bad. Do not use your hands to find affected areas, if you have rough hands this will scratch the laquer and push the muck you are trying to get out of the paint further in !

3. I use the Mer clay bar kit and it works really well, just follow the instructions in the kit for great results and do your roof and bonnet in 1/4's
4. After claying I will rinse and leather off the car again and allow to dry.

Once the paintwork is smooth does it have any scratches or swirling in the laquer ? If not you are a lucky soab and move on to the final stage.

5. I do not use any of the usual polishes available from the usual outlets, 90% of it is crap ( my opinion ). I use Harly Wax it is 100% No1 yellow carnuba wax ( the best ) and the results are outstanding. Application by a damp natural sponge and removal by a microfibre cloth. They quote that waxing your car should last 6 months but realistically more like 3 - 4 months if your car lives outside.

If you think all the above can be done in less than 4 hours you are a better man than me and deserve a medal.

claying wont remove paint blisters and if it does it will leave a hole were the top coat has lifted, dont waste your time and money,

The picture isnt clear or focused enough to say they are paint blisters. But yes sure waste your money on a full respray when their is a chance clay bar 'may' remove them.

They could be water spots from hard water deposits even, in which case clay bar will remove them. They could also be where grit has eteched the surface of the lacquer.

There is many possibilities. Try the clay bar, they cost peanuts :thumbsup:

heres a guide on water spots, they can happen on the surface and below the surface.

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums...ve-Water-Spots

might not be this problem though, check the pics against your car, theres loads more on google, some look really similar to yours.

Here's my 2p as someone who worked in a BMW bodyshop:

Claying as great.

However, the ONLY way to solve your contaminant in the paint (and that is 100% what the problem is) is to respray it, preferably from bear metal to guarantee all contaminants are removed.

We used to suffer this problem with well polished cars and bad prep work...

POST ONE DAN SAID HE HAD TRIED POLISH AND DOESNT LOOK LIKE SURFACE MARKS.

water marks can be on or under the surface, polish wont remove them either way :thumbsup:

Hi,

I had a look at it tonight, whilst there is some surface crap it doesn't seem to align to the marks at all. I had a go on it with some autoglym colour restorer and it did nothing so am resigned to ignoring it (respray isn't really on the cards as unless it's just washed clean it doesn't look that noticeable most of the time.

Chris, it gets washed with some fairly general wash/max stuff from Halfords, always dried with one of those drying towels and infrequently polished with autoglym super resin polish. There's no chance I'm making this problem is there?

Lastly there are a number of power stations near us and it's more noticeable here than anywhere I've lived than the car can get dirty after a few days just sitting outside and not being driven :(

Could be chemicals in the water in that case. They can actually eat through the lacquer then cause the water spots under the surface. Check out the link I posted, some good info on their. If the bonnets not been resprayed its looking more likely that this could be what the marks are.

Pretty sure the rain water will get contaminated from power stations to an extent.

By the way I'm not just spouting random stuff, I'm a pretty well educated 29 y/o and currently study at one of the top universities :thumbsup: did a good bit of reading on this for you. Too much free time at this time of year.....

I doubt it mate, I know you won't do anything silly like use fairy washing up liquid - that'll strip all protection and then *bam* your red paint turns pink.

Claying is good, but not for your paintwork. Claying is good for removing all surface contamination, such as tar spots, bird crap, bugs and even wax - ready to start again with a polish and a wax. Never clay and leave it, claying strips everything. I find claying leaves light scratches - so I only do it if I must, only before a good machine polish.... but what you have got is beneath the surface clear coat, it'll be in the red base coat which you can't get to.

We live near power stations here dan and working as a car painter for a long time for many manufacturers I have never seen this effect coming from them. You might get something they call fallout from time to time. This is like very small hard black spots that sit on the surface of the paint.
I'm taking a guess at this, but when you polish your car, does any red come off on the cloth? I doubt it. This will mean the car is lacquered and the problem you have is beneath it. No way of polishing, flaying or any other detailing method of removing problem.
Best suggestion I can say is to go to a body shop for a quote and see what they say from seeing the problem in the flesh.
Hth

Yes, when I got the paint renovator out the other day I particularly noted that no colour came off at all i.e. it was definitely lacquered and as best I can tell it looks a sub lacquer problem. On that basis I can't see how anyone could do anythhing without taking the paint off and therefreo I'll wait until it gets worse before I think about having anything done to it.

Really appreciated everyones responces.

Just as an after thought here has it been splashed deliberately or accidentally by something else ? Brake Fluid ? Some other paint hating chemical ?