Paint cracking/chipping

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charlestek

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I have a 2003 Black Nissan Maxima which I purchased recently, that I recently went over with Meguiars 205, Poli-Seal, Opti-Seal and OCW.

After doing the car, I noticed a fairly large area a couple inches across of crystalline cracking near the edge of the roof. Otherwise for a couple weeks everything else was fine. Today after washing the car I noticed at least 20 or so chips in the roof maybe a millimeter across two maybe 2mm on the largest. The chips essential have black paint cracked so that the white primer shows in between the cracks.(or it could be the clearcoat cracked, with the white being part of the clearcoat)

I was fearing that someone had thrown gravel on my roof or something to do it (and was thinking about filing a comprehensive claim), till I thought about it such that there are no scratches in the surrounding paint, so the only other unplausible explanation would be someone throwing droplets of paint solvent on my roof, which doesn't seem likely.

I am speculating that the previous owner may have polished the car to the point of taking the clearcoat out and somehow the basecoat is cracking?

Update: I found this link with a picture of clearcoat cracking, though I have that plus tiny spots with cracking. It suggests I may have caused the problem with polishing with M205 and PoliSeal, which makes me sick:
What is clear coat failure and paint cracking? - Detailing Bliss Forum

Or that my swirl removal process (I was using a PC on setting 6) did something to weaken the paint so that it is cracking off?

In any case the roof is going to have to be repainted, but I'd sure like to know what caused this.

Any analysis or suggestions would be welcome.
 
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I don't see M205 even on speed 6 causing any kind of problem like this. Chances are that it was there before and you just now noticed it. Do you have any pictures to share?
 
Dubbin1,

I will take some pictures in the daylight tomorrow.

I am seeing some of the tiny snowflake, crows feet in the trunk deck and hood as well. Man, it looks like I'm going to need a complete repaint, I don't know if I can even sue the person who sold me the car. I'm getting pretty upset right now. I wish I had a paint guage when I bought the car.
 
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I worked on a Honda Civic recently on which the hood looked pretty much identical to the pics in that Mazda 626 post. Based on my observations from that Honda, I would say that most likely what you're dealing with is just clear coat failure, probably brought on by the previous owner's neglect -OR- possibly a bad quality refinish job in the car's past.

One thing I can tell you for sure is that there is practically NO way you caused this polishing with M205 on a PC at speed 6 unless the clear coat was right on the edge of failing, and even then I don't think it would show up as a series of cracks/tick marks. It IS possible that polishing made the tick marks more noticeable than they were before you polished, but that's about the extent of it.
 
I've heard of this happening a few times. What is usually the case is the cracks were already there begin with and you just never noticed them. What happens is, when you polish your car the polish fills in those previously empty cracks. Then as the polish begins to dry it makes it seem like cracks started to form out of nowhere.
 
Thanks guys. The spider cracks I can account for , but the 1mm-2mm areas with cracks in the middle appeared to just happen after I washed the car. Polishing definitely did not cover them up. You can feel with your fingernail the cracks inside the chip, and see white in between the cracks. In this case I'm really wondering if I'm seeing the primer in between the cracks on the chip.

The car definitely has not been repainted, as I had a mechanic and a friend who owns a body shop look at it over a month ago when I bought it (before these problems)

In any case, it looks like I'm looking at least at $4000 or more for repainting, or I get rid of the car. Considering that it has 44k on the odo, I think I'd have a hard time selling it with the paint issue. So the question is would I lose $2000 to sell it over what I paid for it vs. $4000 for a repaint. Since I'm not working and looking for a job, I'm still feeling sick to my stomach. The only way I would have know this is with a paint depth meter when I bought the car.
 
Here is a picture of the spider cracks. However, the small chip cracks bother me more, but I can't take a picture of them without a macro lens and a polarizing filter.
Clearcoat.jpg
 
I could be wrong, and I'm sure someone with more experience than me will stop by and tell you what they think, but that kind of looks to me like something is eating the paint, maybe you parked by, or drove by an area they were working with something?
 
charlestek said:
Here is a picture of the spider cracks. However, the small chip cracks bother me more, but I can't take a picture of them without a macro lens and a polarizing filter.
Clearcoat.jpg
Click to expand...

That right there definitely looks like bird poo etching to me because of the shape and the localized area.
 
Looks like a bird possibly, but I can't tell because I don't know the scale of this. Otherwise, as what ROMEO said, it could possibly be some sort of chemical spilt on it.. but hey, Japanese cars have horrible paint jobs (for the most part). They look great but chip so easily.
 
Chip.jpg
Here is a non closeup of one of the chips, I have at least 5-6 of them, and they weren't there last week or when I polished and waxed the car 3 weeks ago.
They are white in between the cracks, suggesting the primer. The rest of the spots are dust and dirt.

Unless armored acorns fell on the roof, my only other thought is that the clearcoat is breaking down, or the basecoat is cracking.

If something fell on the roof, I think I would know it.
 
charlestek said:
Unless armored acorns fell on the roof, my only other thought is that the clearcoat is breaking down, or the basecoat is cracking.

If something fell on the roof, I think I would know it.
Click to expand...

It is NOT the basecoat. Looks like clear coat etching. You're not seeing primer there, you're seeing spots where the clear coat has delaminated from the basecoat.
 
So does that suggest that the clearcoat layer is too thin and is failing??
 
That is definitely clear coat failure. Tree sap and bird droppings often cause damage like that...
 
The spot chips weren't there a week ago, and there have been no bird droppings on the car in the last week so I am at a loss to explain them appearing in a week. Like I said, I polished the car with a PC and orange pad on speed 6 with M205, but I suspect that the car finish had already been harshly polished, perhaps stripping most of the clearcoat before I bought it. I am going to a body shop tomorrow and see what they say. Perhaps they have an electronic paint guage.
 
I just looked at the car tonight and another small few centimeters across spider crack section as in my first picture has appeared on the middle of the roof where it was not before and apparently in the last few weeks. Since there hasn't been any bird droppings, it is not from a bird dropping. Also the many cracks as in the second photo have enlarged in size and depth. I disagree that both these are clearcoat issues, they are cracking in the basecoat over the primer. They weren' there before I polished and sealed the car two months ago, so I still believe the paint was fragile to begin with, and I pushed it over the edge (M205 with hard buffing on a PC at 6), or something else is going on. The chip/cracks like in the second spot are starting to appear on the hood where they weren't there before. Those cracks you can feel down to the primer below. Clearly I have a big issue going on. I went to one body shop but they told me the spots were from tree sap or whatever, and that can't be
 
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