1999 Audi A3, black. Bonnet/hood not nearly as shiny as rest of vehicle. *PIC*

[grue]

http://i.imgur.com/QNJGhar.jpg





Just bought this car and while I`m familiar with the day to day care and normal detailing steps for a black car (I had a 2000 VW Jetta/Bora for 7 years), I never ran into anything quite like this, so I`m not sure if I should attack this myself (and if so, what I would need), or if this is something to take in to a professional for machine work.



I`m not looking to make it look like a show car, but I`d like for it to look good for its age if possible.

[Richard Grasa]

First thing I think of when I see a hood like this when the rest of the car is ok is clearcoat failure. If you look closely at the paint, do you notice any tiny cracks in the paint, or anything else? It`s hard to say from this pic. In the pic, the middle of the hood looks blotchy, can`t tell if it`s the reflection or the paint. Any way of taking a close up pic of the hood? But from what I can see in this pic, it looks like the clearcoat is failing.

[grue]

First thing I think of when I see a hood like this when the rest of the car is ok is clearcoat failure. If you look closely at the paint, do you notice any tiny cracks in the paint, or anything else? It`s hard to say from this pic. In the pic, the middle of the hood looks blotchy, can`t tell if it`s the reflection or the paint. Any way of taking a close up pic of the hood? But from what I can see in this pic, it looks like the clearcoat is failing.



Doesn`t look like there are any tiny cracks… Got some more pics:



http://i.imgur.com/2KHH9RJ.jpg (http://imgur.com/2KHH9RJ)

http://i.imgur.com/byfNOIc.jpg (http://imgur.com/byfNOIc)

http://i.imgur.com/WkNjpGt.jpg (http://imgur.com/WkNjpGt)



Excuse the fibres on the hood, it rained after the original post and I just used a towel I had laying around since I obviously don`t have to worry too much about this paint right now :lol1: Had to put lens cap and finger in pic to get the focker to focus



In any case, if the clearcoat is boned I basically need to the hood taken off, sanded and repainted I guess?

[Richard Grasa]

In the pic with the lens cover, right below it, all the way to the left, you can see some sanding marks under the paint. To me, those scratches, it looks like it had body work done and resprayed. It looks like it may have been resprayed with single stage paint that`s now oxidizing. I would take some abrasive polish on a mf towel, wrapped around your finger and rub it on the hood. If the towel turns black, it`s single stage and may be able to be compounded and brought back. If no color comes up on it, I would say it may need a respray. I`m sure others will give their opinion as well.

[grue]

In the pic with the lens cover, right below it, all the way to the left, you can see some sanding marks under the paint. To me, those scratches, it looks like it had body work done and resprayed. It looks like it may have been resprayed with single stage paint that`s now oxidizing. I would take some abrasive polish on a mf towel, wrapped around your finger and rub it on the hood. If the towel turns black, it`s single stage and may be able to be compounded and brought back. If no color comes up on it, I would say it may need a respray. I`m sure others will give their opinion as well.



Ok cool, I`ll give that a shot. Thanks :)

[Accumulator]

In the pic with the lens cover, right below it, all the way to the left, you can see some sanding marks under the paint. To me, those scratches, it looks like it had body work done and resprayed..



Right, those are prep marks from repainting, where the paint has "shrunk" back. This is common in my area where painters are still getting the hang of the new water-based paints, which are less forgiving of such [shoddy] prep work.



SOMETIMES you can wetsand it smooth and it`ll be OK. But that`s rare enough that I used to think it could never work until my painter proved me wrong by fixing an identical issue on the hood of my wife`s A8.



But if/when that doesn`t work, you`re looking at repainting the panel and they need to take better care to avoid a repeat of the problem.



Oh, and Welcome to Autopia!

[Ron Ketcham]

In the pic with the lens cover, right below it, all the way to the left, you can see some sanding marks under the paint. To me, those scratches, it looks like it had body work done and resprayed. It looks like it may have been resprayed with single stage paint that`s now oxidizing. I would take some abrasive polish on a mf towel, wrapped around your finger and rub it on the hood. If the towel turns black, it`s single stage and may be able to be compounded and brought back. If no color comes up on it, I would say it may need a respray. I`m sure others will give their opinion as well.



Yeah, I wouldn`t get my hopes up that anything short of a correct refinish paint job will make it right.