Please HELP Serious "Cross Checking"

[Glowin97x]

Well I have been lurking for a while and learning a lot. Hopefully someone can diagnos my problem.

I bought my car used and maybe a year or so years after I got it i started to notice what I call "cross checking" appearing on the hood. I hide it sometimes using Black colored turtle wax, but it only lasts till i strip the wax (plus i hate the wax).



Ok heres a shot of how it looks in normal daylight



http://www.autopia.org/gallery/data/501/13878p1010132.jpg



and heres with a serious flash and some computer enhancement to throw some serious light at it



http://www.autopia.org/gallery/data/501/13878p1010128.jpg



Its not THAT bad in real life but Ive never scratched this hood! Any help?! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAASE i cant stand it Please dont mind the dust spots too

[Jesstzn]

That looks like clear coat failure .. I did an Explorer like that a couple of months ago .. Same proceedure as you .. Turtle Wax Color Magic wax then topped it

[JasonD]

I believe the unanimous vote on this one would be major clearcoat failure due to some kind of poor prep or defect. I don`t think there`s much you can do other than try to hide it or repaint it. The problem is every *cross check* is a crack/split in the clearcoat that probably goes all the way down to the paint, if not farther.



I don`t know what kind of damage you would cause by doing this, but mabye polishing a little bit might round off the edges and make a little less noticeable, but I wouldn`t go crazy. Definitely do just a very small area and see how it looks.

[Glowin97x]

AH freakin Ford Paint Jobs! well i guess the best i can do is try to hide the failure (at least now i know what to call it:rolleyes: ) Any suggestions on how to best hide this beast would be great

[JasonD]

Well, I have a green 97 Explorer (my daily beater) and it has the same stuff on the hood and roof. I hit it up with the full Einszett polish trio (UPP, PP, MP), then AIO + SG x 2 and it looks great. You can still see them, but nowhere near as bad and extremely shiney. You can actually still see them up close, but at least you can`t notice them if you just glance at it now. You may not want to go as aggressive as I did, but I really didn`t care. It was such an eyesore that I just had to do something. Actually, a lot of people thought I got it repainted, and then they got up close :)

[Jesstzn]

Glowin .. here is the Ford I did .. the hood was the same as yours .. i checked my records and I used DACP on a white pad to take off the tops then TW Color Magic black wax to fill then I topped it with WG a couple weeks later.







http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/JessTzn/DSC00836.jpg

[JasonD]

If he can make his hood look that good, all I can say is :bow :bow :bow because that`s about as perfect as you are ever going to get. Man, this makes me want to buff on mine some more :D

[Glowin97x]

:eek: WOW:shocked that looks amazing! I need a PC... if that looked anything like mine did at first, you sir did an AMAZING job

[JasonD]

I wouldn`t attempt this without a PC, that`s for sure.



LOL, I wonder how many people are going to think this is before and after pics!

[jr weeks]

I`ve seen this on a few cars in my work, and in researching it a few years ago I found it can be caused by a few things;



Large and sudden temperature changes such as applying a "hot" or very warm water car wash on the vehicle when the sheet metal was very cold. The paint can`t keep up with the expansion and thus checks like that, although it`s usually not all the way down to the metal.



Thick paint. When vehicles get repainted a few times, you do reach critical mass as far as how thick in MILs you can go. Usually around 9-10 + mils you start running into issues. This is also exacerbated then by rapid temperature changes which can cause checking faster than thinner paint.





xylene as a component in some solvents has alsp been known to do this to certain paints (gasoline, lacquer thinner contain it as well as many others) but generally I`d fall back on the 1st and 2nd examples which are more common.



I saw it recently on a black 2002 Isuzu SUV I detailed. It came from up north so I would bet someone tried to wash it with hot water in the dead of winter, just a guess though. I made sure I showed it to the customer just in case they hadn`t noticed it, prior to my starting on the truck. You`ve always got to cover yourself these days as we all know. :)

[dternst]

The same thing has occured on my `99 Chevy Pickup but mine is UNDER the clearcoat.