What the hell are these (Spots on paint)

[MusicMan]

No photos are visible...

Do you know if the car was parked for a bit under a tree or some shrubs that had mulch around them since you had last seen it?



The reason I am asking is that this sounds like "artillary fungus" or in other words a species of mold that lives in mulch and "shoots up" and attaches, then actually enters the pores of the paint.

Gina is the real expert on this subject, and has developed a safe process to deal with them, WHEN they may be dealt with.

As I understand, there are times that nothing sort of a complete refinish will resolve the issue.

Grumpy

That looks like acid etch. Somebody in the show made sure he wasn't going to win.

She is only one of the most respected detail operators in the country.

Was voted Detailer of the Year a couple of years ago by Professional CarWash and Detailing magazine.

Her father has operated a very professional shop in Arlington, Va for over 3 decades.

Gina runs their multi shop operation in Richmond,Va, that are in conjunction with Car Pool carwashes.

Very professional, very intelligent and has done much true research on this and several other industry related subjects.

Her email is [email protected]

She was never an employee of AI, and only used what ValuGard products she felt were right for her operations.

No other connection than that.

Grumpy

Based on your photos and inputs, and my experience with such "spots", I'm quite sure you're looking at some sort of Pinhole/Cratering - a paint defect.



A long time ago, I saw these white spots on a customer's re-finished car

At that time, the owner washed and clayed the car, and both of us never noticed any "pinholes"/cratering or any defects on the paintwork. Then, we tried the newly launched NXT on the hood. The hood was previously done using multiple rounds of S100 and already looked beautiful.





After a few days, I was shocked to see hundreds of such white spots on the hood.

As you experienced, it could not be removed by claying, solvents, APCs, machine buffing etc. Those spots felt perfectly smooth.





And then, a BASF paint technical guy had a look and confirmed it was due to a DEFECT in the re-finishing job.





Hurrying the re-finishing job resulted in hundreds of pinholes that were normally unnoticeable. However, when certain types of polishes/waxes etc were applied to the panel, those holes would slowly turn white. I thought APC could remove the whiteness.....WRONG.





At last, after un-productive wet sanding, the hood had to be re-finished again, by someone else.







Dude, your situation could be the same as mine.

As a last ditch resort.....use a cotton bud and wet ONE spot with acetone for 1 min.

If this still doesn't shift it......DAMx !!!!!!

Well it looks like we may never know for sure what it was, but he got his insurance guy out there to look at it and he said he recommended that it be recleared....the whole car lol. So its back to square one, but the owner said that he would have us come back out there and re polish it out once the paint has cured....basically told us he's seen what we're capable of and what our work looks like and for that we are his detailers from here on out...so its a bitter sweet ending.



I HOPE it wasn't due to the re clear but, i know it was a possible...i just hope it comes out find this time