15 seconds of poor judgment ... PPF damage from IPA

J

jayzbird

New member
So, I polished the car yesterday, including a pretty old PPF over the entire front end (very light polish with 3M SMR). I got the bright idea I might try extending the PPF`s life a bit and put some Opti Gloss Coat on it. So I did the normal 50/50 IPA spray and wipe down I`ve always done before applying Opti Coat. Sprayed it on the hood and within a few seconds, SH*T, what is going on! Anyplace it happened to sit more than a few seconds has got this whiteish etching, but it`s not on the surface.

I guess I`ll try parking it out in the sun today to see if perhaps this somehow evaporates off, but not optimistic.

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As a public service, filing this under under IPA Isopropyl clear bra PPF spots damage
 

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Stokdgs said:
Perhaps this can be carefully polished off?? Sorry this had to happen.
I have not used IPA anything in years.. What strength of IPA ? It goes way up to 91% last time I checked.. Was the clear bra hot or warm from the sun ?
As soon as the pre coating wipe off products were invented, I went to them and have never had issues with them on anything.. https://www.autopia-carcare.com/carpro-eraser-cleanser.html#.YLKff7epH3g
Good luck with this !
Dan F
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Thanks for the reply. It seems as if what`s happened is the IPA migrated through the film and caused it to "delaminate" from the paint underneath, or somehow adversely affected the substrate. I tried some AOI and a bit of compound by hand and it doesn`t seem to do anything. This was a 50/50 mix with distilled water after sitting overnight in a cool garage. The film is 10 years old and I was planning on re-doing in the not too distant future anyway, so this isn`t quite crushing, but still not a great reward after spending all day yesterday polishing!
 
God talk about ruining your day.Guess the only good from it is you planned on replacing and this is your car?So did this just get thru and damage the adhesive you think.Sorry this happend but like others I never got into mixing IPA.But doesn’t mean this could have happened with other types.Thanks for the post it took pretty big ones to admit this happend and telling people to becareful.Your thoughts on pulling it off to better inspect your paint for damage.Hope your weekend gets better man.I wish you that much after such a bummer
 
jayzbird said:
Thanks for the reply. It seems as if what`s happened is the IPA migrated through the film and caused it to "delaminate" from the paint underneath, or somehow adversely affected the substrate. I tried some AOI and a bit of compound by hand and it doesn`t seem to do anything. This was a 50/50 mix with distilled water after sitting overnight in a cool garage. The film is 10 years old and I was planning on re-doing in the not too distant future anyway, so this isn`t quite crushing, but still not a great reward after spending all day yesterday polishing!
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That sucks. At least it sounds like you found a good plan for removing the 10 year old film if that turns out to be the issue. Plans sometimes...
 
Stokdgs said:
Perhaps this can be carefully polished off?? Sorry this had to happen.
I have not used IPA anything in years.. What strength of IPA ? It goes way up to 91% last time I checked.. Was the clear bra hot or warm from the sun ?
As soon as the pre coating wipe off products were invented, I went to them and have never had issues with them on anything.. https://www.autopia-carcare.com/carpro-eraser-cleanser.html#.YLKff7epH3g
Good luck with this !
Dan F
Click to expand...

Well, some good news. The staining does seem to be responsive to polishing. Thank you Stokdgs for suggesting as my initial attempt by hand was utterly fruitless-I wasn’t even planning to try with the DAP. I went back first with a white pad and SMR and it helped a bit. A yellow pad and FCRC seems to be clearing it up. Below is the same part shown before. I’m not sure I’ll be able to undo all the damage, but at least I can make it presentable.

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Lesson learned here on the “apply to a small area first” rule! BTW, here is how she looked last night before this detour. Today was supposed to be LSP gratification day, but I guess that will be tomorrow instead.

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At least you were able to save it. PPF can sometimes do weird things like this. Next time apply the panel wipe to your towel rather than the PPF. Then you can apply gloss coat.
 
It took a lot of aggressive polishing at least as far as a DA goes, but it’s mostly corrected. This left a ton of polish residue at the edges of the PPF that I’d taped off the first time around, but had no choice but to gonzo it this time. I started using Opti power clean to help get it out, but this time observing the try a small section rule found it whitening the film too. So reverted to just cleaning the edges with a hose stream, which worked quite well. Dawn-washed the front, and will try again with gloss coat tomorrow…starting with a small section ��
 
I think Gyeon has a PPF specific polish named Renew. I’m intending on trying it on the piece of old clear bra that’s on half my hood, since that’s looking haggard at the moment. I really need to get going in having it rewrapped.
 
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