Hello everyone! I haven`t posted in some time but I still love polishing my vehicles. I was lucky enough to find a 92 Vette in decent mechanical shape. In other words a good driver with decent appearance, from 6 feet away! In your expert opinion does the paint look like the beginning of clear coat failure? I have washed, clayed,glazed and waxed. I was afraid to try my DA and even something as light as Meg`s 205 and a polishing pad if the clear is in fact just starting to fail. Here is a shot of the car and another close up shot of the paint on the right rear quarter. The finish on the whole car looks like this till just below the door handles. One thing has me questioning if this is clear failure on 25 year old paint or some type of damage to the clear. The previous owner worked at a battery factory.
Start of Something Bad?
- Thread starter ORANGERT
- Start date
Ronkh
Wax Waster
84-90`s had terrible failure on front/rear bumpers.....
But yeah the speckles looks like it could be or some sort of bonded contamination.
But yeah the speckles looks like it could be or some sort of bonded contamination.
GearHead_1
Long Time Member
Looks like the paint is giving it up. Any possibility that this area has been repainted?
Boden
New member
Quite oxidized and pitted. Is the base paint cracked anywhere?
I was told by the previous owner of 13 years it is original paint. All of the horizontal surfaces look like this: roof, rear deck, tops of left and right rear quarter panels,tops of left and right mirrors, and the hood/fender panel. The front and rear urathane bumpers are the typical sun faded for a vette this old. It does have a clear Carfax showing no accidents per their records and I haven`t found any evidence of a repaint anywhere. What has me questioning clear coat failure is there are no white looking areas here and there plus there is no paint lifting or delaminating - "yet". All the clear coat failures I have seen had splotchy areas of peeling clear coat.
Maybe this is a early stage of clear coat failure???
Claying the paint made no difference in the appearance whatsoever, but it does feel nice and smooth now.
Would you chance using the DA and Meg`s 205? Or should I play it safe and keep using just Prima Amigo and Prima Banana Gloss to play it safe? I`m afraid a coating would enhance the "specks".
Maybe this is a early stage of clear coat failure???
Claying the paint made no difference in the appearance whatsoever, but it does feel nice and smooth now.
Would you chance using the DA and Meg`s 205? Or should I play it safe and keep using just Prima Amigo and Prima Banana Gloss to play it safe? I`m afraid a coating would enhance the "specks".
There are tiny minuscule marks/dashes mixed in with the "specks". So that makes it very hard to tell, but the base coat appears ok to me. Not at all like the cracking and crazing I have seen in older C3 and C2 vets.
Oh and as a side note this may help. I just looked very closely at the finish on different panels using a magnifying glass. The specks look like teeny weeny craters under close scrutinity with the magnifying glass. Driving West in the evening it looks like a coat of dust on the hood when the setting sun is at a certain angle.
GearHead_1
Long Time Member
My guess and it`s worth exactly what is being paid for it, is if the paint is OE, it`s just as you suspect clear coat has decided to check out. It would be a great test bed. Pick an isolated area and do the works, wash, clay polish and see what it looks like. If nothing else it would be a great chance to see how much, if any you might improve it.
Civicclutch
New member
What state was it in most of its life. If in a southern state were dust storms are prevalent it my be sand blasted naturally
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ShaneB
New member
Looks like solvent pop almost. Definitely not any type of clear coat failure we typically see from UV exposure. Since its only on horizontal surfaces, I would think its not actually solvent pop though.
You say the previous owner worked at a battery factory. I would be willing to bet some highly acidic fallout from the factory may have happened to settle on the car and was allowed to eat away at the paint. Considering the defects are below the surface, and pretty extreme IMO, repainting may be your only option.
You say the previous owner worked at a battery factory. I would be willing to bet some highly acidic fallout from the factory may have happened to settle on the car and was allowed to eat away at the paint. Considering the defects are below the surface, and pretty extreme IMO, repainting may be your only option.
Boden
New member
If you don`t see the crows feet cracks near corners that means the gel coat on the fiberglass is most likely still in good shape. This makes repainting much easier if you decide to go that route. Until then I doubt a light m205 polish to remove some of the oxidized clear will do much harm. That should clear up some of the yellowing of the clear that is making it look orange. Test first and go light.
Accumulator
Well-known member
Noting that I`d do some careful experimenting like that if it were mine too, note that b/c paint is pretty much terminal long before you actually hit basecoat. You need a *thick* layer of clear on there if only for the UV protection, especially with red (which can fade to pink under thin clearcoat).
I`ve had that "sorta like solvent-pop, but probably not really that" type of pitting myself! Never got better with polishing, and in one case I simply sold the car as a repaint wasn`t in the cards
Hope you`re luckier, or at least less fanatical about what`s acceptable, than I was.Just FWIW, if it were mine I`d start with a thorough chemical decontamination. If it`s some kind of acidic fallout from the battery factory it may well need to be neutralized to truly stop its progression.
Noting that I`d do some careful experimenting like that if it were mine too, note that b/c paint is pretty much terminal long before you actually hit basecoat. You need a *thick* layer of clear on there if only for the UV protection, especially with red (which can fade to pink under thin clearcoat).
I`ve had that "sorta like solvent-pop, but probably not really that" type of pitting myself! Never got better with polishing, and in one case I simply sold the car as a repaint wasn`t in the cards
Just FWIW, if it were mine I`d start with a thorough chemical decontamination. If it`s some kind of acidic fallout from the battery factory it may well need to be neutralized to truly stop its progression.
Nice to hear from you Accumulator! I did try the FK1000P on my 2014 Ram R/T and like the appearance better than the 4 coats of Klasse I put on last year. Plus it wasn`t as labor intensive.
I haven`t done any "cautious" polishing yet as we are watching the grandkids for a couple weeks. I have many little hands helping me with things around the house lol!!!
What would be a good decontamination product to use? Something like IronX? I did try Klasse all in one as a chemical cleaner on the mirror after a wash and clay. Didn`t faze it. But I really didn`t expect it to as the damage is already done whatever the cause. My goal now is to try and stop the deterioration as long as I can as well as try to improve the appearance without making it worse.
Accumulator
Well-known member
ORANGERT- Ah, glad to hear your KSG vs. FK1000P comparison worked out the way mine did.
It occurred to me last night that my `93 Audi has this "pitting" issue too! Somehow forgot that earlier...
I decon`ed that with FK1119, which is some nasty, potent stuff. A safer, if less effective alternative is ValuGard`s "A".
I did use ValuGard`s "B" for the acidic step, but lots of companies sell "ferrous contamination removal" products these days (e.g., the IronX) and I bet they all work pretty OK.
Even if decon chemicals like those don`t seem to solve any problems, they oughta at least put an end to any ongoing case of the contamination "eating that paint alive". Good "clean slate" first step IMO.
Then do some gentle polishing but know when to say "when" and don`t get all Autopian about it
Then use something that fills a bit and top it with something that supposedly offers UV-protection.
I keep the `93 Audi out of the sun as much as I can, but after [however many years I`ve had it..maybe nine or so] it hasn`t gotten appreciably worse even though it has some serious cc failure and all sort of other "you have to repaint that!"-type issues. To hear some "experts" tell it, that paint should`ve peeled right off the car ages ago, but it`s still getting admiring looks and compliments from people all the time. The older it gets, the more that "awful paint damage" can pass as "patina" and I bet it`s the same with that `vette.
It occurred to me last night that my `93 Audi has this "pitting" issue too! Somehow forgot that earlier...
I decon`ed that with FK1119, which is some nasty, potent stuff. A safer, if less effective alternative is ValuGard`s "A".
I did use ValuGard`s "B" for the acidic step, but lots of companies sell "ferrous contamination removal" products these days (e.g., the IronX) and I bet they all work pretty OK.
Even if decon chemicals like those don`t seem to solve any problems, they oughta at least put an end to any ongoing case of the contamination "eating that paint alive". Good "clean slate" first step IMO.
Then do some gentle polishing but know when to say "when" and don`t get all Autopian about it
Then use something that fills a bit and top it with something that supposedly offers UV-protection.
I keep the `93 Audi out of the sun as much as I can, but after [however many years I`ve had it..maybe nine or so] it hasn`t gotten appreciably worse even though it has some serious cc failure and all sort of other "you have to repaint that!"-type issues. To hear some "experts" tell it, that paint should`ve peeled right off the car ages ago, but it`s still getting admiring looks and compliments from people all the time. The older it gets, the more that "awful paint damage" can pass as "patina" and I bet it`s the same with that `vette.