Is this clear coat cracking?

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spotco2

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2003 Honda Accord that had hail damage repaired about 6 months ago. The top of the car was recleared (local body shop, not a guy in a van in a parking lot) but not painted. I was washing it today for my wife and noticed that the hood was acting funky when I was using some swirl remover on it with my PC. It was almost like it was drying out faster than I could go over it. The same thing happened with Pinnacle final glaze and Meg liquid wax. I had a bear of a time getting the wax to buff out flat without leaving what looked like drag marks all over it.

I thought she had some water deposits on the hood or some dried bugs (she commutes about 150 miles per day) but nothing I could throw at them would take them off. It also looked like the front of the hood was covered in fuzz and spiderwebs that would not move.

Here are a few pics. Let me know what you think about them. Is the clear cracking or is it something else?
 
yep, that is failure. pic 3 and 5 show it without a doubt. little baby cracks...crow's feet.
 
Yep.. its clearcoat cracking aka crowsfeet... and it will need to be repainted to repair. Sorry mate :(
 
What causes clear coat to fail like this?

Poor prep? Applied to thin? Fate?
 
spotco2 said:
What causes clear coat to fail like this?

Poor prep? Applied to thin? Fate?
Click to expand...
I'm not entirely sure, as my knowledge regarding painting and refinishing is rather limited, but apparently this is a common problem with Hondas black paint. If you type into google "crowsfeet paint" the first results are from some honda forums with similar black paint.
 
spotco2 said:
What causes clear coat to fail like this?

Poor prep? Applied to thin? Fate?
Click to expand...

My only thought if it was recoated 6 months ago is that it was a very thin coat.... put on improperly...... wasn't prepped properly maybe.....or wasn't put on at all. Either way - sorry to see the failure man.
 
Classic Honda crows feet. Have it on my car as well. I don't necessarily know why this happens. But it seems to me that the paint actually splinters, causing those little gashes. Repaint is the only option unfortunately.
 
Must have been a VERY poor clear coat application.

I had one side of my 1992 Explorer worked on five years ago. Drivers door was painted and cleared, the front fender and rear door were blended and cleared. The panel behind the rear door was just cleared. It looks like brand new after five years, and that is the side the sun hits.

I would take it back and have it repainted under warranty from the previous repair.
 
She has to drive it to work tomorrow but I will take it to the shop this week.

Best I can remember they cleared the roof, hood and trunk lid when they did the repairs in Oct 2010. The hood is the only place that I saw any problems.

I think it was poor prep or to thin. The car has not been buffed until today since it was repaired so I know that it has not been buffed to death.

Thanks everyone. I'm hoping this guy will stand behind his work and take care of it.
 
Paint failures can result from a number things but mostly from improper surface preparation.

Contamination; oils, silicones, dust, wax, that have not been properly removed prior to painting will result in poor surface adhesion. Incomplete sanding or sanding with the wrong paper will also cause issues.
 
Kristopher1129 said:
Classic Honda crows feet. Have it on my car as well. I don't necessarily know why this happens. But it seems to me that the paint actually splinters, causing those little gashes. Repaint is the only option unfortunately.
Click to expand...

:iagree: I have seen this too many times on Honda's....great cars.....not so much great paint.....especially the Accords
 
No doubt, it's a problem with the prep work. The surface wasn't properly cleaned and preped prior to spraying. I do a lot of detailing for local car clubs and have noticed that if they have to have a new coat of clear, it's much better to go to a custom paint shop instead of ANY DEALER! Dealers typically follow the manufactures protocol for painting, but custom painters know that a re-paint or or re-clear requires a different process to get a quality job.
 
Had the same thing happen to the factory paint on a 2004 Honda, cracks all over the hood and top portion of the front fenders if memory serves me correctly. This was the Nighthawk Black Pearl.

Post about this a few times... here's one thread...

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...-stopping-progression-clear-coat-failure.html


You can't fix the problem because the cracks are throughout the layer of paint, not just "on" the paint.

This is a case where some people had luck with a "colored wax" but any success will be short lived and the product will have to re-applied often.

Time for new paint or maybe a "wrap"


:)
 
Thanks again. I am taking it to the body shop towards the end of the week. We'll see what happens.
 
The same thing is happening to my daily driver (2000 Nissan Frontier - Black) I have those cracks "crows’ feet" all over the hood of my truck. I just bought a new Dodge Challenger though so I am not too concerned with my old truck at this point. I still take care of the Nissan but since it has these crows’ feet all over the hood I put more time and effort into my new vehicle.

This last weekend I used Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing Lotion followed by Poorboy's EX sealant on my Nissan Frontier and it seemed to make the clear coat failure less noticeable, and that is the best that I can hope for cause I am not going to pay to get the car repainted. At this point it I am just going to pile the miles on the Nissan and save my new Challenger from the damage caused from being a daily driver.
 
OHSNAP said:
The same thing is happening to my daily driver (2000 Nissan Frontier - Black) I have those cracks "crows’ feet" all over the hood of my truck. I just bought a new Dodge Challenger though so I am not too concerned with my old truck at this point. I still take care of the Nissan but since it has these crows’ feet all over the hood I put more time and effort into my new vehicle.

This last weekend I used Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing Lotion followed by Poorboy's EX sealant on my Nissan Frontier and it seemed to make the clear coat failure less noticeable, and that is the best that I can hope for cause I am not going to pay to get the car repainted. At this point it I am just going to pile the miles on the Nissan and save my new Challenger from the damage caused from being a daily driver.
Click to expand...

The Nissan was always kept outside too, for 10 years, in the hot California sun. And for a few years I hardly kept up on it. I would say 6 out of the 10 years I have owned the Nissan I took decent care of it (e.g. wash/wax). Is 10 years about the right time to start seeing clear coat faliure? Or was it the lack of care that I gave it? Or the fact it was kept outside (no cover) for 10 years? Is this something that people should expect from a car of that age that was kept outside?
 
"Paint failure" would be a more proper term for this IMO.

I've seen this on a lot of Honda's lately, some of which are only a year or two old. It seems to be most common on the darker colors, and on the panels surrounding the engine bay...so heat appears to be a large factor.

In a repaint application, some common causes for cracking is excess material, too much hardener/catalyst in the paint, or insufficient flash time between coats

I'm not sure what going on with the OEM applications, but I don't believe the cracking is limited to just the clear coat and it actually originates in the primer or base coat. The panels needs to be stripped down to bare metal and repainted.


Rasky
 
OHSNAP said:
The Nissan was always kept outside too, for 10 years, in the hot California sun. And for a few years I hardly kept up on it. I would say 6 out of the 10 years I have owned the Nissan I took decent care of it (e.g. wash/wax). Is 10 years about the right time to start seeing clear coat faliure? Or was it the lack of care that I gave it? Or the fact it was kept outside (no cover) for 10 years? Is this something that people should expect from a car of that age that was kept outside?
Click to expand...
I am also in Ca . and see a good majority of clearcoat failure On cars 10- 13 years old . I would say yes thats normal for a car that sits outside and is not well taken care of to have clearcoat failure but you will always see exceptions. Theres no hard rule when failure happens because there are so many variables and are many different types of factory paint that are used .

Sun is the paints worst enemy I would say though! A garage is really going to help preserve the paint !
 
Spoke with the body shop that did the repairs. It seems that they removed some hail damage from the hood using paintless dent repair and actually only painted the roof and trunk lid.

They suggested I talk with Honda.

Honda said if it was still in the 3 year / 36,000 mile warranty it would be covered.

Looks like I'll end up eating this one.
 
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