Wild Bill

Noticed a small blemish on my drivers side door window frame last night. Thought it was just some gunk or debris of some kind. When I scraped it off with a finger nail the clear coat peeled off with it. Started out as a small area of about a dime, but when I tried rubbing compound to sooth the edges it just kept lifting more and more clear... Oh crap!!!

Now about three inches long with the edges still lifting further. What should I do to stop this? I searched through archives, but found nothing much to offer a solution... Other than it is really hard to feather in new clear if I was to respray the area. Any one BTDT? Is it time to contact a professional?

TIA,
Bill

Lizard928

use a cut wax to remove the wax off of it, and do it over the entire car, but then it sounds like you want to have a wet sand done on the car and a new few layers of clearcoat applied

tuk_928

Re: last question your posed....I'm afraid the answer may be a definitive "yes." My experience on my old BMWs is that once the clear coat starts lifting...time to respray the offending panel not necessarily the entire car. Based on my limited knowledge, nothing can stop it (the clear coat) from lifting further. I'll defer to the others here with paint experience and await edification. Good luck and keep us posted!

Jim V

Short of having the panel (or car) repainted, about all you can do is to try to seal up the wound. It's about impossible to feather the chipped edges without sanding thru the exposed color coat.
If you are able to find an stop point for the peeling clear coat, all the better, but what you want to do is scuff the surrouning area for recoat; then very carefully, by hand, with very fine sandpaper (a worn piece of 600 or finer should work), wipe the wound a couple strokes to give it "tooth".
Respray the area with a couple good coats of clear (mask, etc. where needed 1st). After time to fully cure, go ahead block sand the repair paying special attention that you don't cut through the clear over the wound. Spray, sand; spray,sand. After a couple cycles you should be able to get the area level enough, the buff it to a shine.

Alot of work, yes, and really only a patch-up but it will look much better and will stop the clear from flaking back even further.

Wild Bill

That is the problem... where does the flaking stop. This is exactly how I went from a dime to 3" long and growing scar. I thinking last night was that I needed to remove any clear that was loose, but I stopped when I began to worry about peeling off the whole car!!!

Do I continue with my finger nail scraping along the edge to remove the loose clear? It seemed that just when I found the outer limits of the damage a new blister would pop up and I would have to remove that too. Should I try wicking some thinned clear up under the tattered edge and let that dry before attempting sanding with some very fine paper?

Yikes, just thiking about it makes me shudder... Perhaps I should go see a paint specialist first.

I'm sure they will want to respray the entire freak'n car...

Lizard928

Bill when was the last time the car was painted?

Vlocity

The best thing you can do is stop and take the car to a reputable body shop. The beauty of clear coat is it's repairablility. As long as you have not gotten into the base coat, this shouldn't be a big deal at all. Expect 3-4 hours of paint time to to clear the door with some blend time probably another 2-3 hours into the adjacent panels.

Whatever you do do NOT rub, sand or wax on it any further. There is no magic way to blend the edge. Continued waxing on the base coat, which is not made to handle wax will only drive the wax and silicones into the base coat and cause the shop nightmares. They will need to use a remover to get all of the wax etc. off so that the clear doesn't fish eye.

The bigger question hear is why did the clear let go?

It shouldn't have.

Regards,

Ken

Vlocity 89 C-4 37,000 miles
Uproar 85 928S

Wild Bill

This is the original paint, but the car has obviously been well taken care of before me... probably garaged for most of its life. I keep it garaged, but I only acquired it this past summer. The paint looks very nice with, no fading or defects other than the usual minor door dings and stone chips. This is the only place where the clear has become an issue.

Vlocity

Wild Bill:

You will be fine then. It could be that someone spilled something on the clear that made it blemish. It's pretty unusual to see clear coat delaminate from the base coat. Just talk to some of your freinds and get a line on a good body shop. They'll have your car 2 days and you'll never know you had a problem when you get it back.

Ken

Wild Bill

Thanks for the advice Ken.

Body shops... or should we say, insurance claim processing body panel replacers. I will start asking around, but I have zero luck with paint and body work in the past. Most places do not want to fool with anything other than large insurance claim type work. The places that will do the small stuff... well, they usually are on the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak. Pretty sad...

Wonder how much $$$ this is going to set me back?

Robert_H

Bill,

It may not cost you as much as you think. I took my car around to several shops to see about getting the nose resprayed on my car. Most had estimates between $200-500. I still decided to do it myself (mostly as a learning experience). Good luck. One thing you have going for you is your car is not a metallic. That would make it tougher.

Rob

Vlocity

Wild Bill:

I'd say close to $350 if you didn't get into the Base coat, thats where the problems start in having to match the color over again.

Speaking of Insurance, if you have a good independent local agent I'd ask him where he would go to have HIS car fixed.

Ken

soontobered84

A lot of dealers use a subcontractor to do small touch ups. The subcontractor comes to the dealer in a truck or van of some kind and use an airbrush to touch up dinged new cars. Talk to some local dealers and find out who they use. It is usually very inexpensive. Good Luck

Wild Bill

Rob, it is a metallic color... a very complex color in that it looks different depending on what light it is in. Sometimes looks dark grey, sometimes bright blue and sometimes has a purple hue to it when the sun hits it just right. Kinda cool... but I'm a bit biased. The tiny areas that I have touched up the base color do not show except when in direct light.

I will check with some dealers to see who they use for this type of work... I have an airbrush. Wonder what the mobile paint guys secrets are?

I know experience... It is what you pay for.

Thanks,
Bill

Ron_H

Try this: http://www.carcareonline.com

You want to speak to John Paterek. If he is out, wait for him to return, and then call back.