My son is buying a Black 2000 Accord That has been kept outside most it's life , it's got a few 10 inch or so circles of white on the top, hood and trunk that looks like the clearcoat has failed . It's a beater but I thought he would have more pride in it if we could get them out . What do we do ? Thanks !

 

You can try polishing it with a PC, cutting pad, and cutting polish...but if the clear coat as truly failed, those areas will need to be resprayed with clear if you want them to be protected.

I'm sure Richard has some tips here but he's out of the country...

 

I'm no expert but I have taken classes in auto painting and painted a dozen or so. If the clear coat is delaminating there really isn't much you can do other than re-paint. Since the existing top coat is coming off, the RIGHT way is to sand it down and start over. Not an inexpensive option. You can use an inexpensive paint shop (MAACO) if you do all the sanding off of the crud yourself.

I actually have this problem on the hood of my Honda Element right now. I've spotted a few areas to try to stop the delamination, but it just comes back in another area. So I guess I'll be sanding the entire thing down and re-shooting it soon. BTW I don't blame Honda, I fixed a dent in this hood about 3 years ago and it was the first time I shot base/clear for "a keeper"; only the hood has the problem so I guess I messed up the application (the timing between the application of the base color coats and the clear is a factor). Which does bring up the point to ponder....has this car been repainted??? Much more common for a repaint to delaminate then a factory job. That's not to say factory jobs don't, but most factory problems were in the 80's and 90's

BUT if you check Honda and Acura sites you'll find plenty of examples of this....or just google clear coat delamination

 

Thanks , I just goofed around with it before dark scrach x doesnt do much , claybar cleans it up a bit but underneath is flat looking , the black doesnt come off with light rubbing . I'll take some shots when the sun comes up .

 

Does it look like this?


If so you can make it look like this:

We used an orange pad and Cut then stepped down to Swirl and then finished with Swirl on a white pad. If I had it to do over again I would have used a yellow pad first but we got there eventually using an orange. It took us about 8 hours and it still wasn't perfect but from what it looked like and the fact that it was a pick-up it wasn't bad.
Do not try this by hand - you need at least a PCDA. Someone like Richard would probably use a rotary to speed up the process even more.

 

Wet sanded , rubbing compound , nothing worked , at least its smooth now , the rest of the paint looks good after claybar and wax .

 

Wow! What a diffrence! I'm a complete noob when it comes to advanced car care. Other than wash/wax every so often you're speaking greek to me.

I have an old miata that's hood and fenders look exactly like the truck above. Is there a FAQ on what/where/how to replicate the above results? Thanx.

t

 

Yup, that is some clearcoat failure you've got there. You'll have to have it sanded off and repainted.

Rest of the car sure looks nice, though!

 

+1

Over the years there have been many recalls for clearcoat paint issues, GM had a recall on many Celebrity models in the early 90's.....and once this starts the only way to remedy is to strip it down and start over.

 

those pics of your black car ... that's clear coat delamination and no amount of polishing wil help. In base/clear...the color aka base is thin and has no gloss property. That will come from the clear. Two step color with out clear on top won't last long.

The red truck pics ... that was damaged/abused clear coat and as long as you don't wipe a hole thru it....yes it can be brought back. A strength of base/clear system.

A tell-tale sign is the edges of the bad spot....if you find flakes then the clear has/is delaminated and there's little recourse than a repaint AFTER a good prep. Can you spot repair it???? Welllllllll, imho the area an inch over is probably gonna lift next month....

 

Now that it's clean and waxed it looks like parts of the car including the top have been repainted before .