NissanTracker

iTrader: (8)

Hey forum,

It looks like my clearcoat is failing. I have large milky spots in some areas and small pin size holes starting to form in the clear coat. The car paint is original from my knowledge (3rd owner). It only has 56K miles, bought it with 38K miles. I've owned it for a little over 2 years. I detail it once a month and never saw anything of this sort.

The interesting part, this clearcoat failure started out of the blue. From one week to the next, it went from some spots to entirely covered. Front driver side fender, rear quarter panel, roof, hatch, spoiler. Nothing on the bumpers, doors.

Wanted to know if there are any known issues with the HR's in AX6. I'll post some pictures after, but basically looking for some advice. Will a re-clear work out?

-NT

dkmura

iTrader: (64)

AX6 (Redline) was never a big percentage in Z33 production. My '03 preorder track model has its original paint and I've never had any issues with clear coat failure. The '06 SCCA Touring car by contrast, was sandblasted after seven years of D2D racing and had a complete respray. Never heard of any "known" paint issues with the '07-08 Z coupes, either.

There must be some kind of environmental contamination where you live. Something that eats through the CC and strips the adhesion. Do you garage the Z on a regular basis or does it sit outside? Working on my racecar for the past month here in Colorado, and I sure notice how much gunk gets on my street Z sitting outside. I use Blackfire wet diamond sealant on both vehicles and it seems to work well with AX8.

NissanTracker

iTrader: (8)

I have a car port for it. My current place of residence does not have a garage or place for a car port, so I would leave it at my parent's place. If i was driving it for a couple days straight, it would be outside.

I used Optimum opti-seal on it at the beginning of the year. Just before this happened, I used Optimum instant detailer

Before this happened, we had a lot of rain and humidity. sigh... just dropped serious money and now this clear coat issue is driving me nutz

dkmura

iTrader: (64)

You asked about re-clear coating the paint, but I doubt this will work. Once the clearcoat is compromised, you'll need to take it down to the color stage and will never get it to look right without a full respray. Who knows? The microscopic paint damage could have occurred previously, and the resultant rain storms may have simply made it much worse. Unfortunate, but it's the price of owning a used car.

zakmartin

I was having similar problems with the clear coat on my 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse that was painted Kapalana Black. This issue was widespread enough that there was a class-action lawsuit filed against Mitsubishi, and of course, only the attorneys came out ahead. Car owners were offered a meager $150 for the trouble though.

When the "clear coat cancer" started to appear on my car, at the advise of a detailer I went to who specialized in black finishes, I covered the damaged areas with mineral spirits, letting it soak in to the paint for a few minutes before hosing it off and going at it with a buffer loaded with Scratch-X, followed by a wax. As long as I stayed on top of it, the damage didn't spread. When I sold my car, the paint still looked as good as new (photos of the car in my profile).

I don't know if the same technique will work with the damage you're experiencing, but you might try it out on a small inconspicuous area to see if it helps at all. You could run your car by a professional detailer to ask them if they can do anything to help with the issue before a re-spray is required.

I share your pain and know how much it sucks to see your paint go bad.

zakmartin

Follow-up to my last post.

I thought about it last night and realized I couldn't remember if I used mineral spirits or paint thinner on the clear coat damage. Turned out I used Oderless Paint Thinner. The first time I used it was for damage caused by a nasty diarrhetic bird, but I also used it for the "clear coat cancer" issue.

Here's a link to my fix-it post on the Club3g website:

http://www.club3g.com/forum/show-shi...ml#post2479103

The whole thread covers clear coat issues. Hope it helps.

NissanTracker

iTrader: (8)

lol, nice. I've had a couple of those. Destroys the paint. I usually will polish it out.

I was sick the past couple of days, but I'll give the paint thinner a go on my pillar.

I assume this should be light rubbing as any pressure will damage the clearcoat?


-NT

zakmartin

Yes, light rubbing. As I recall, you'll see the cloudiness in the clearcoat disappear in less than a minute. Once it's gone, give it some time to dry out and then wash it down with soap and water. After that, go at it with the Scratch-X and wax. Like I said, try a small spot first. I know red paint oxidizes more easily than any other color, so I'm not sure how the treatment will react with that pigment (or if they'll be any difference at all compared to black).

Again, this isn't the optimal solution to something that needs a re-spray, but in my situation, it worked great and I was able to nip the clear coat issues in the bud. Most black 3rd generation Eclipses weren't so fortunate.

NissanTracker

iTrader: (8)

I tried paint thinner.. then odorless mineral "spirits", but didn't work. I took some 2000 grit sand paper to it and tried to wet sand it out.

It was working a bit, but then i saw white/grey. I was checking the pad to make sure there was no red. At least I know now that it needs to be re-sprayed. I'll worry about it in the spring.


Thanks for the advice!

zakmartin

Yeah, that sucks dude. Sorry the thinner trick didn't work. Post some before/after pics once you do the re-spray.

NissanTracker

iTrader: (8)

Sure thing. I'm hoping that I need to just respray the hatch (paint + clearcoat) and just re-clear the spots that are failing.

I did have a buddy who is a "paint specialist" come by and he noticed that the clearcoat is failing is spots where there are curves. So the left/right side of the hatch, where the front/rear driver's side fenders flare, and the pillars. Could be just from many polishing jobs... clearcoat got thin and absorbed moisture while the car cover was on during that rainy period. I never polished the front/rear bumper.. .and those are fine.

I just haven't decided if i want to do it now or the spring.... kinda driving me nutz if I don't get it done ASAP! lol