Cloudy Paintwork Clearcoat?

[smithy010]

G'day All,

I posted here a while back about the atrocious condition of the paintwork on my car.. Someone had machine polished it and left some mean looking swirl marks all over it.

Well, i gave it a wash and polish last night, and it certainly did a good job on a lot of the swirl marks. A couple more goes at this, and it will be better.

My question is mainly regarding the roof. Before i polished it, it had a cloudy looking appearance, like the paintwork is sun damaged (it is a black car).

After polishing, it is a little shinier on the top, but it still has a cloudy sort of appearance. I have a feeling this is the clearcoat breaking down or damaged.

Is there anything i can do about this?

[gavs]

Interestingly mine has suddenly developed the same condition, seemingly overnight!!

I left for New Zealand on wednesday and the paint was fine on the roof, I washed the car on saturday and put on a coat of wax, it was still fine but yesterday parked at doncaster, I returned to my car and noticed a white cloudy haze on my roof in 2 spots!!!

Calling our resident deatiler, DMS Dan, can this just be removed with standard polishing/cutting compunds using elbow grease or an orbital polisher? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[smithy010]

Your problem sounds like it is something of a problem caused by the wax you put on it.

My problem is more like sun damage of the clear coat, or something like that.. Maybe they are related.. i have no idea.

[Jarred]

My old audi had cloudy spots when I picked it up a few months ago, now those cloudy spots have turned into flaking clear coat!

Not sure if it's the same in your case, but that's what happened in mine.

Perhpas a good wax coat to protect what's left? I'll let DMS Dan dispense the good advice..

[The_Hawk]

My black Golf has similar issues with white "cloudiness" coming up from what looks like *under* the clear coat.... I would be very interested in any suggestions to fix it up some.

Scratch X helped, Autoglym resin polish helps a little too, but I don't know that I would call either even close to a solution.

[DMS_Dan]

Hey Guys,

Cloudy clear can be failing clear, but it can be wax that has cured funny. Ive had it happen before where there was some moisture in the applicator and it made the wax go cloudy and patchy.

Strip any wax using
1) a clay bar
2) Prepsol or isopropyl alcohol
3) dishwashing liquid

Wash the car again then dry it very well.

Use a new applicator or very dry applicator and see how you go.

Waxing with something that has UVA and UVB blockers (ie Optimum car wax) will be the best thing if the clear is beginning to fail. In saying that the reason for failing clear is 99% of the time poor prep or to much buffing so there isnt enough left.

Also smithy what did you use to polish it?

[smithy010]

Um.. I used some sort of mothers polish.. it said it was suitable for clearcoat cars so i used it..
It did a really good job on some of the swirl marks. Still needs work, but it's heaps better.

[gavs]

Thanks Dan, come to think of it, i do remember that the applicator I used got a little damp when applying wax in some areas.......I'll try what you suggested, hopefully it is only the wax.....

I have some pretty evident water spotting on the roof so I need to approach that at some stage soon also.