Understanding clearcoat failure/burning

mjpowers728 · 08-24-07, 09:17

'kay guys, a couple weeks ago I was trying to remove a scratch on my fender. I tried a wool pad and it made no improvement (grant it, I'm still new to buffing, so I probably did it incorrectly), so I tried sanding. I was getting nowhere, so I buffed the sanding scratches out and noticed a sort of gray spot on the black paint, but the original scratch is still there.
I think I may have went too far, but if I did take off too much CC, wouldn't the scratch be gone??

I'm sorry I don't have a pic of it, but it's basically a spot that's lighter than the rest of the paint.

Bigpoppa3346 · 08-25-07, 07:42

Could it be compounding haze? What were you using, an orbital or a rotary?

The scratch could have been through the clear to the base coat, which is why it is still there if you went all the way through the clear.

brwill2005 · 08-25-07, 08:00

The gray area may be just sanding scratches that you did not remove completely. The other thing it could be is primer; which means you did remove too much material. More information is need though.

mjpowers728 · 08-25-07, 08:23

I was using a rotary. I was hoping its just haze that can be polished out, but I wasn't too sure. It doesn't look like scratches but I could be wrong. Also, I don't think it's primer.

I'm going to try to snap a pic of it today.

Thanks for the replies.

brwill2005 · 08-25-07, 08:29

What grit paper did you use? What pad and what product?

mjpowers728 · 08-25-07, 12:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by brwill2005

What grit paper did you use? What pad and what product?

2000 grit paper, then buffed with Wizard's Turbo Cut and a twisted wool pad between 1000 and 1400 rpm.

salty · 08-25-07, 01:34

Sounds like you went through the clear. The scratch is probably into the color coat. For deep scratches all you can do is make them look better by rounding them off. Wet sand until you are just past the orange peel. Cut, polish out. Should make them almost invisible from 5 feet away.