Weird Paint Problem

Mike H · 09-10-06, 08:17

I'm running into a weird issue when polishing the hood on my black car. It's a 96 750iL, and the paint is pretty nice for a 10 year old car. The hood looks like clearcoat, but for some reason looks like it's a different shade from the rest of the car.

When I'm using a Random Orbital and polishing the hood, I get a black transfer on to the pad. It's only from the hood. I've cleaned the pad and then worked other sections of the car and none of the other panels bring this black transfer up. This happened last week when I polished using Griot's Machine Polish 3 and this week with the Griot's Paint Sealant. I've used 3M Adhesive remover to make sure it wasn't some kind of wax/polish/sealant on the paint. The cloth didn't show anything when using the adhesive remover. When I did the claybar it didn't transfer anything.

I'm pretty sure all panels are original. Prior to buying the car, I had a pre-purchased inspection and they said the car had all original paint still.

Any ideas?

One other question: What is 'hologram'ming and what does it look like? What causes it?

Thanks,
Mike

autoprecise1 · 09-10-06, 08:57

Assuming from the information you gave. Your hood has single stage paint on it. Before you buffed it/polished it was the hood more dull then the other panels? More than likely it was. A vehicle does not necessarily have to be in an accident to have one panel repainted, and it is highly unusal to have just the hood fade and the others not (from a factory coat of paint). Normally fading from factory paint occurs on the bumper areas and not the hood. If it does occur on the hood then the other top panels will begin to do the same thing (roof and trunk). So, I believe your hood has been repainted in a Single Stage coat of paint. Something you are stuck with, unless you have the hood repainted with a base coat/clear coat.
So solution:
buff/polish to your likeing
keep a good coat of wax/protectant on it to keep up the shine, eventually you more than likely have to buff it all over again, but up keep will help the shine last longer.