legacycentral bbs

Ever since I got my car a little more than a year ago, it had had what appeared to be a bad spot on the trunk. It kind of looked like someone had left too much wax there or something. I figured that was what it was and that at some point I'd take care of it.

The first time I washed my car with high pressure water, the area got bigger. It looked almost like I had sprayed the bad area wider. Since then I've only used low pressure water on that area.

The other day I was washing the car and was trying to clean some caked-on mud off the rear quarter panel with high pressure, and I created a spot just like the trunk one! I looked closely at it and it looks as if the metal body panel is laminated with plastic. The high pressure combined with some small particle of dirt must have torn a small hole in it and allowed water to spray in between the plastic and the body panel, causing a bubble not unlike one you'd get if you did an amateur job applying window tint.

I know this is really hard to respond to without pictures; I'll try to get some. I just thought someone who knows more about this stuff would know anyway.

I'm not that familiar with all the body care products out there, but I've never seen anything like this. Is this that "polymer sealant" stuff? Or is it something else? It wasn't like this from the factory, right?

I'd like to fix this up somehow... Should I just use polishing compound or something to rub it off? Or would that damage my paint?

i believe that is clear coat, i had a suby do the same thing awhile ago....thats what i figured it was..

Sounds like clearcoat.

MK

So clearcoats form a plasticky layer that can peel off as if it were a sticker or something? I thought a clear coat was more like just a layer of clear paint.

Does that mean that the only fix is to have the panels stripped and repainted?

clear can be peeled off like layers if the paint was not protected well, or the clear coat was not adhered properly.

Only real fix is to sand and repaint it. From what it sounds like, the whole car might have that problem. Maybe your car didn't get prepped properly, or there was some contamenants in the air when it was painted.

Crap. :(

The car's been in at least one front-end collision at some point in its life, but I would have thought that the rear paint was probably factory.

Clear is paint without the pigments. And yes, it sounds like it is having adhesion problems. Clearcoating the car is not that big of a deal. The hardest part is taping everything off. Then the painter has to blend the doors halfway when he resprays the clear. Find a painter that is someones friend and see if you can work out something where you will tape it up for him.

if you're going to have it resprayed.....i'd probably suggest just getting the whole thing redone.

If you do the labor of taking off the trim and prep work, I'm sure you could get it done reasonably....especially if you know someone that knows someone.....

But I have no money right now. :(

How bad is it for me to just put wax over it and hope it survives another winter?

vrg3 wrote:But I have no money right now.

How bad is it for me to just put wax over it and hope it survives another winter?

It shouldn't hurt anything as long as there is no serious rust problem. If there is some rust you should fix it right away, or if it is minor you can spray it with some WD-40.

My Mercedes has a big problem were the clear coat cracked from a bad respray, then the base coat cracked too, and now there is rust forming where the paint has flaked away. I have just sprayed it down with WD-40 in these areas, and it seems to protect the metal from getting any worse...

Thankfully my BC doesn't have any noticeable rust yet.

Did 123s come with clear coats? I just assumed my old Benz didn't have one, though I guess it could have all worn off...

vrg3 wrote:Thankfully my BC doesn't have any noticeable rust yet.

Did 123s come with clear coats? I just assumed my old Benz didn't have one, though I guess it could have all worn off...

Some did, some didn't, mine is Milan Brown Metalic Clearcoat. I know that many of the non-metalic color's didn't have clear coats

Ah, mine was a non-metallic blue.