My neighbor in my parking garage noted I take crazy good care of my car's finish and asked me to take a look at some damage he has on his 1984 Mercedes. The affected areas have sat under a leaking drain pipe for weeks if not months on end. It looks to me like the drain water penetrated the clear and has caused the clear to seperate from the paint. The surface is smooth (I washed the area's with ONR and then clayed, tried 50/50 vinegar and water as well), but it looks as if there is a gap between the clear and the paint (literally I bet if I pressed on the clear it would crack). I'm thinking a sort of clear coat failure and a repaint is his only option, but wanted to check with the experts before I advise him. Thanks in advance. And ignore the swirls, he's not looking for a detail, just a fix of the damage :doh. Close up
Looks like extreme water stains to me. I don't think it's possible for the clear coat to separate from the color after it's cured. Try some polishing, start with a medium, try a compound, see if you notice any improvement. I, personally, would compound it a couple of times, because if it doesn't come out, he needs a repaint to fix it anyway.
It does look like very bad water damage, but clear can separate from the base coat. If you have ever seen a very bad clear coat failure, gfs car has BADD cc failure, you will have it were a pin hose breach starts then around that pinhole the clear will start to separate over time. Normally the clear is bonded really well to the base coat but it can happen just is takes a lot. If you have a high powered loop, like 30x, take alot at the damage and see if you can see CC breach or hole in the clear. At this mag you should be able to get some insight into how bad it is.
Oh yeah, if he is going to repaint and repaint soon to were it does not matter what damage is done, try to hit that spot with some 1500 grit paper and see if that clear just falls off from the sanding and that will tell you if it cc failure or something else.
If the ceiling in the garage is cement (which I assume it is) it could be calcium from the cement dripping on it. My old apartment building had the same problem.
I followed up after reading the replies and I can not "crack" the clear, tried using my thumbnail (not my standard procedure) with light pressure, but it seems solid. Sooooo... it looks like extreme water or chemical etching....maybe ??? I only have a PC7424 so I am thinking I may need to refer him to a Pro. Any other advice? Responses below: I stated the car sat for weeks, if not months, but honestly I believe it was years. The leak was from a drain pipe leading out of a kidney dialysis center, so who knows what chemicals were running through it (leak has since been fixed). Need to verify, but I believe its the original paint.
Depends on the car really, some cars/colors had clear in the late 70s, metallic had 2 stage after the mid 80's, most went to clear in the early 90s and one black color on a AMG even had single stage till 95.
I did a Saab with that exact same problem. A pipe above the car in the parking structure was leaking. I was lucky enough a good claying took care of it.
I was going to say clay, or compound...but I'm going to guess its lime or something like that worked on an m3 that had that everywhere. unfortunately its not coming off.
Hilarious! That was my initial reaction. I'm on the board for our condo association and the dialysis center is required (and complies) to run everything from the their machines through filters and a chemical solution to ensure it is not a biohazard before its pumped through any "public" pipes. As for the pin-stripes, the Benz was left to him from his Grandma when she passed years ago, but still IMO....pin-stripes...:doh:.
