Paint Emergency

[Farls]

Luckily, this did not happen to my mustang, but to my wife's car.
About 4 days ago, somewhere, somehow, we got something sticky on our hood. We just figured it needed washed so we took it to a car wash and they could not get it off. So today, we took it to a detailer and they told us it would be no problem to clean it off. So we left it there for an hour and they buffed it like there was no tomorrow. The car looked great except for what we thought was lint on the hood. We drove it around the parking lot (trying to get back onto the street) and noticed that the lint was flying off. Under closer inspection, the front of the hood has spider web shaped scratches all over it. We looked the car over and it's only on the front of the hood. If you take your fingernail and lightly run it across the hood you can catch the edge of the cracks.

Well, we pulled back into the shop and asked to speak to the manager. We were told that it must have been like that before we came in. We explained that we just had the car washed a few days ago to clean off the sticky stuff and there were absolutely no scratches on it. He then explained to us that it must be the age of the paint. I told him that the hood is the only place it appeared so it could not be the age. He then said it must be the heat of the engine may have weakened the paint.

Has anyone ever had this happen before? Is this something that can be polished out? I've attached a few pictures, but I have a really cheap camera.

Thanks for your help.

 

[fastcoupe68]

how old is the paint?

 

[Farls]

how old is the paint?

Sorry, forgot about that!
It is a '98 Honda with factory paint. We bought it from the dealer in late '98. For about three years it was parked in the garage daily.

 

[fastcoupe68]

do you have any idea what that sticky stuff was?

 

[Farls]

No, I don't know what it was, but the scratches in the paint are not in the same spots as the sticky stuff. Most of the scratches are near the front of the hood and the stuff was scattered in large spots all over the hood and bumper. By the way, the bumper looks great.
It was a lot lighter then tree sap and it appeared as though it had splashed on the hood, like we had driven through a big mud puddle.

 

[fastcoupe68]

obviously somethimg caused you paint to start cracking without seeing it in person it is tuff to tell but I dont think the detailer could have caused the paint to crack but I quess anything is possible How deep are the scratches or cracks and do they appear to be getting any worse?

 

[Farls]

The scratches are pretty deep. You can feal them if you run your hand across them. As far as I know they are not getting any worse, but they've only been there for a few hours!

 

[dolfan87]

If all he did was buff it, I seriously doubt it was his fault. Did they do any color sanding?

Those pictures are really tough to tell what is going on.

87

 

[fastcoupe68]

it almost seems like there was bodywork under the paint and if it is not prepped right it would cause this type of cracking spiderwebbing

 

[gp001]

Keep in mind I am no paint expert, but what if they buffed almost through the clear coat? Maybe the thin areas of the clear coat are cracking???

 

[fastcoupe68]

if they buffed the hell out of it it would have caused the paint to burn it wouldnt have cracked

 

[fastcoupe68]

if they buffed the hell out of it it would have caused the paint to burn it wouldnt have cracked

 

[67bluestang]

Luckily, this did not happen to my mustang, but to my wife's car.
About 4 days ago, somewhere, somehow, we got something sticky on our hood. We just figured it needed washed so we took it to a car wash and they could not get it off. So today, we took it to a detailer and they told us it would be no problem to clean it off. So we left it there for an hour and they buffed it like there was no tomorrow. The car looked great except for what we thought was lint on the hood. We drove it around the parking lot (trying to get back onto the street) and noticed that the lint was flying off. Under closer inspection, the front of the hood has spider web shaped scratches all over it. We looked the car over and it's only on the front of the hood. If you take your fingernail and lightly run it across the hood you can catch the edge of the cracks.

Well, we pulled back into the shop and asked to speak to the manager. We were told that it must have been like that before we came in. We explained that we just had the car washed a few days ago to clean off the sticky stuff and there were absolutely no scratches on it. He then explained to us that it must be the age of the paint. I told him that the hood is the only place it appeared so it could not be the age. He then said it must be the heat of the engine may have weakened the paint.

Has anyone ever had this happen before? Is this something that can be polished out? I've attached a few pictures, but I have a really cheap camera.

Thanks for your help.

Looks kinda like the paint on my 97 GMC dually. My hood (worst), front fenders and part of the drivers door (slight) has it. Looks like someone took a lot of short hairs and tossed them all over it while the paint was still tacky. Mine started out as just a slight place on the hood that looked like a bird did his thing on it. It has really started spreading in the last couple years. It use to be just slightly noticeable, but not anymore. I really hate the thought of painting this big thing. I had one person tell me it was the clear coat cracking and i may be able to just sand it and reshoot the clear. Another person said it may be in the paint and have to be stripped. I may also stop by the dealer and see if they've had any problems with the paint like this. A friend got his Suburban repainted because of a factory defect. Maybe there's something for mine.

 

[Farls]

That sounds like what had happened, but they were not there before I took it to the detailers. I'm possitive it was not there before, because we just had it washed and inspected it to see if the sticky stuff was gone.
I was wondering if using to much rubbing compound or a buffer at the wrong speed would do it. They buffed the entire car, but it only appeared on the front part of the hood. Wierd.

 

[hungrymonkey]

my 97 honda has it. It really shows up after I wax and polish it. since some of the wax gets into the little scratches and when its buffed it will not come out of the cracks.

I guess the paint and sheet metal on those years of honda's are pretty shoddy. my 92 does not have them.

I always figured that the scratches were from small rocks. but the engine heat theory sounds plausable. since it is only on my hood.

 

[1320stang]

Did it get egged?

 

[INDSKYS]

HERES SOMETHING U CAN TRY . BUT FOLLOW CAREFULLY I DID THIS ON MY WHOLE CAR .GET SOME CRC BRAKE CLEANER . SPRAY IT IN A SMOOTH CLOTH TOWEL ,UNTIL JUST DAMP . RUB THE CRACKED AREA GENTLY AT FIRST AND SEE IF IT BLENDS AWAY THE CRACKS . IF IT WIKRKS WITH NO ILL AFFECTS RE-DAMPEN TOWEL AND CONTINUE TILL ITS SATISFACTORY.MIND YOU THIS WILL REMOVE PAINT . SO BE CAREFUL AND DONT LET IT SIT . WHEN DONE WIPE AREA WITH WAER ON A TOWEL THEN HAND RUB GENTLY WITH TR3 RESIN GLAZE.

 

[Ozsum67]

HERES SOMETHING U CAN TRY . BUT FOLLOW CAREFULLY I DID THIS ON MY WHOLE CAR .GET SOME CRC BRAKE CLEANER . SPRAY IT IN A SMOOTH CLOTH TOWEL ,UNTIL JUST DAMP . RUB THE CRACKED AREA GENTLY AT FIRST AND SEE IF IT BLENDS AWAY THE CRACKS . IF IT WIKRKS WITH NO ILL AFFECTS RE-DAMPEN TOWEL AND CONTINUE TILL ITS SATISFACTORY.MIND YOU THIS WILL REMOVE PAINT . SO BE CAREFUL AND DONT LET IT SIT . WHEN DONE WIPE AREA WITH WAER ON A TOWEL THEN HAND RUB GENTLY WITH TR3 RESIN GLAZE.

I wouldn't EVEN advise this.

 

[Ozsum67]

Sounds to me like they got the clearcoat REAL hot with the buffing, and sort of made it brittle, and flaked some of it off. A paint shop can fix it.

 

[hungrymonkey]

I will have to get some pics of mine when its clean. it looks exactly like that. I have never had it uner the buffer. always by hand.