Big problem I think - help!

[Mic575]

I read this forum a lot and am thankful for all the knowledge I have gained here, I am just a hack who likes a clean car. I planned to clean up and correct my wife`s paint and knew I had to deal with some bad water spotting. I just bought and had planned to put 2 layers of FK1000p on it. Well it shows how naïve I am because these aren’t water spots at all!

I think I have clear coat failure, so sad! The pictures show the bad spots but if I look with a magnifying glass I can see other spots that are currently invisible. Black 2010 Murano, daily driver.

Some questions come to mind.
1. Is this clear coat failure?
2. Is there anything I can do about it short of a repaint?
3. Anything I can put on to stop it and keep it from getting worse?
4. Should I just use something to hide it?
5. What would you do with this?

Thank you for any help you can give.

[GearHead_1]

It appears to be a clear coat failure of some kind. That of course can come from a number of conditions. Wondering if that is solvent pop with compound or wax in the cracks? Then again, maybe bird etching that has wax in it. Has it been repainted? How old is the paint? Is it only visible on the horizontal surfaces? Solvent pop usually manifests itself fairly early in the paint jobs existence. If it were etching and there is enough material (which likely there isn`t) it might be buffed.

Heck, I don`t know. I`ll be the first to tell you that I`m not body and paint guy. In my experience, solvent pop is much less likely to show on OE paint than compared to a repaint.

[Mic575]

I don`t think its a repaint but we bought it used about 3 years ago. I see no signs of a repaint. I think they must have had something on it covering this up, I just never looked at it that close. I see a couple of spots on other places but 95% is on the hood.

[GearHead_1]

Well, I`m bringing you no closer to a real diagnosis but if it`s primarily on the hood, perhaps you can repair it without painting the whole car.

[rlmccarty2000]

I`m no help either. Strangest looking pattern I have ever seen.

[Mic575]

I`m no help either. Strangest looking pattern I have ever seen.

Well that doesn`t sound good at all.

[Bunky]

I would guess it is chemical fallout or the substrate was not prepped properly during the initial painting. I bet the rest would like fail.

[tom p.]

We`ve seen damage like that before. You`re going to need a re-paint to take care of it, Mic.

[Accumulator]

Nasty [stuff] gets on vehicles, often dwells for a while on the paint, and [stuff] happens.

Mic575- I bet it`ll deteriorate *SO* slowly as to basically be a non-issue in the functional sense; its appearance will bug you but that`s it.

IMO (and I`m guessing here..) the only way to effectively hide it would be to try getting some single-stage touchup paint into the cracks, something like DrColorChips. Might look a tiny bit better, might look considerably worse (but hey, you could just wipe it off with their leveling solvent). I wouldn`t bother...didn`t bother on the `93 Audi with it`s paint-failure issues...but that`s just me and I thought it was still worth mentioning. But again, I have not idea how it`d turn out, just throwing out a possibility.

[Mic575]

We`ve seen damage like that before. You`re going to need a re-paint to take care of it, Mic.

That has been my conclusion too after I stewed about it for a while. I think I am going to try to live with it for a while.

[Mic575]

Nasty [stuff] gets on vehicles, often dwells for a while on the paint, and [stuff] happens.

Mic575- I bet it`ll deteriorate *SO* slowly as to basically be a non-issue in the functional sense; its appearance will bug you but that`s it.

IMO (and I`m guessing here..) the only way to effectively hide it would be to try getting some single-stage touchup paint into the cracks, something like DrColorChips. Might look a tiny bit better, might look considerably worse (but hey, you could just wipe it off with their leveling solvent). I wouldn`t bother...didn`t bother on the `93 Audi with it`s paint-failure issues...but that`s just me and I thought it was still worth mentioning. But again, I have not idea how it`d turn out, just throwing out a possibility.

Thanks Accumulator, it actually helps knowing someone with your skill lived with something like this for a while. I think I am going to try putting some black hole on it. I know its not made to cover clear coat fail but what the heck. I`ll try putting black hole and FK1000p on it and see how it looks.

[Accumulator]

Mic575- Yeah, I thought that kind of cracking/etc. would drive me nuts on the Audi`s dark blue paint, and I *do* have to watch that I don`t get white FK1000P/etc. residue stuck in the deeper fissures (can`t do anything about the "white spiderwebby evidence of cc failure"), but after a while it quit bothering me. Maybe it`s easy for me to just say "hey, it`s patina!" on something that old, but generally I`ve been pleasantly surprised by how I end up being able to just live with it. Keep your Inner Autopian in check and see what you think after a while.

[TheDetailer718]

I had my suspicions that this is from bird droppings. I confirmed it by looking up one of Mike Phillips posts on another site.

Type II Bird Dropping - Fractured/Wrinkled Etching
Type II Wrinkled Etchings are usually too deep to fix safely. The problem is the paint fractures, (splits apart in tiny lines,), or wrinkles as the paint swells and bunches together. In both instances, the resulting defect is throughout the clear layer of paint and not topical. Thus trying to remove it will require removing so much clear paint that you will likely expose the basecoat, or colored layer of paint which has a dull appearance. For this reason it`s not safe to try to remove a Type II Bird Dropping Wrinkled or Fractured Etching. - Mike Phillips

[Mic575]

I had my suspicions that this is from bird droppings. I confirmed it by looking up one of Mike Phillips posts on another site.

Type II Bird Dropping - Fractured/Wrinkled Etching
Type II Wrinkled Etchings are usually too deep to fix safely. The problem is the paint fractures, (splits apart in tiny lines,), or wrinkles as the paint swells and bunches together. In both instances, the resulting defect is throughout the clear layer of paint and not topical. Thus trying to remove it will require removing so much clear paint that you will likely expose the basecoat, or colored layer of paint which has a dull appearance. For this reason it`s not safe to try to remove a Type II Bird Dropping Wrinkled or Fractured Etching. - Mike Phillips

That sure looks similar. I wonder if its from some other substance though because I have 60 or more spots like that on the car and its never been covered in that much bird poop since I`ve had it. Though it could have happened prior to my getting it. Maybe it just got covered at one time.

[RaskyR1]

That looks like damage from tree sap IMO.