B r i a n

I have this spot on my hood.
It is about in the center of the center left of the hood - can barely make it out in the front view of the car - I took a couple of close ups.
It was there when i bought the car - I do not know what caused it (my guess is a bird or soda left for a while).
Is there a way I can fix myself or is professional help needed?
Please let me know your thoughts.
I have a bunch of small scratches on the car (and hardtop) I was going to work on.
But I figured i should see if the hard spot is going to take me to a professionally anyway.
Any help appreciated.

uzj100

go to autopia and search for D J Mayo. Pretty sure he's in the NoVa area. I don't know him personally, but based on his write ups and photos he seems to be very capable.

HTH

MoeMistry

Unfortunately that's the clear coat that has crackled. Not much more than a repaint will fix that. What happened?

TOGWT

A chalk like appearance on the paint surface or small triangular marks (crow’s feet) or other similar marks on the paint surface - basically the chemical integrity of the paint matrix has been degraded by ultra violet (UV-B) radiation, stress, environment fall out, acid rain and etc.


Correction- usually entails a re-paint of the affected panel, although sometimes wet-sanding may remove it, if it’s not too deep

Oxidation really amounts to a weakening of the resins that bind paint, which results in the micro-pores becoming exposed and a larger area of paint becomes oxidized. Once the paint has been breached in this manner, applying waxes and polishes temporarily wets the surface making it appear better.

Removing more that 0.3 mil (7.5µ) of clear coat will cause premature paint film failure as the ultra violet (UV) protection percolates to the top of the clear coat, there is ultra violet (UV) protection all the way through the paint, but the majority of it migrates to the top of the clear coat along with the thinner solvents and particles.

Therefore removing clear coat ultra violet protection is not a linear process; by removing a small percentage of the clear coat paint tends to remove a larger percentage of UV inhibitors. So once you remove too much clear coat you'll have no paint UV protection other than what you apply with a LSP

perkman87

Yes, you can not do anything about that. Seems to happen from bird droppings sitting on the paint for long periods of time. my daily driver has 3 spots similar to yours and Ive learned to live with it.

Nick.944

To fully correct that you will need a body shop if you wanted someone local to look at the other problem areas (I see heavy swirling on the hood) I could take a look I'm local and have done quite a few cars in Alex.

B r i a n

Thanks for all the information - great technical rundown.
Also, Nick.944 thank you for the offer - I may take you up on it.
I am still thinking about how serious I am getting the paint all correct.
It is a daily driver, I would hate to get the paint perfect and get all the parking lot dings around DC.
My plan is when the weather warms up I will take a full weekend or so to do a full cleaning with claybar and then polish up and wax and to see what I have (I have only had the car since August and have only washed it).
On the other hand, I do keep in garaged and park in a covered garage at work...