So despite all my frequent washing, waxing, and trying to keep the car in the shade as much as possible my clearcoat is starting to fail. Minor spots on the roof, but it's really a matter of time at this point until it looks atrocious.

I'm curious what my options could be as I've heard there are newer clearcoat options out there. I read a place near me offers Opti-coat which is supposed to be much better, but I haven't heard of too many people who got that done so I can't get any insight.

Anyone else has their paint + coating take a shit, and need it fixed?

 

Other than respraying, you can get ceramic coating for preservation or vinyl wrap to cover badly deteriorated clear coat...

 

You're talking about DIY, right? It's really not THAT bad, but I'm just concerned about things looking uneven across the whole car if I only do sections, DIY or get a pro.

 

 

..... you want pics of my clearcoat failure? Alrighty...


The sun was hitting it just perfectly so not only does the clearcoat look as bad as possible, you can see all the nice swirl marks, too

 

Once it starts failing, the only thing you can do is try to protect what is there. What waxes/sealants have you been using? Traditional waxes don't last more than a few days (if that) and are a waste of time these days for the average person. The older sealants lasted few weeks to years depending on the brand. Zaino lasted for at least 3-4 years on my Silver TL (garaged when not at work) the 2nd time I put it on in 2009. Lasted about 2 years on average for the whole kit with outdoors parking.

Ceramic coatings are supposed to last the longest and provide the most protection, CQuartzUK is supposed to be the best value product as of some time ago.

 

Really? You mean as far as protection or...? I mean it's not like it completely wiped off so I guess I'm curious how useless it could still be. by the way I would use Meguiar's carnauba wax every couple months and sometimes use Meguiar's cleaner wax inbetween. It's ironic because I only hand washed it for the first few years I owned it and only noticed clearcoat failure in a couple very small spots maybe 3 years after I started waxing it regularly. lol...

But I was seriously considering just getting it re-painted and re-coated. I have no desire to sell the car as it's been great to me (transmission never had any problems ) and I'm not really feeling any new car itch either. Any insight anyone can give me into that would be appreciated Typical cost, best options, etc.

 

carnuba waxes degrade in heat and with UV exposure in short order. The cleaner waxes are usually a chemical polish to make sure there's less contaminants on the surface of the paint. Sometimes they do have minor abrasives in them.

If it's just the roof, get vinyl wrap and start using a good sealant on the paint to protect it asap. IF it's all over the car, you'll need a body shop to respray the clear coat.

 

No wax/polish in the world will fix that. Wrap or sand/re-clear.

 

this

 

Longshot: would you guys re-clear with spray can clearcoat, or get a professional?

 

how much do you care about how the car looks?

 

Well how bad would it look? I mean people like us can spot paint imperfections from a distance, but the clearcoat failure I posted ^above^ wasn't readily noticeable for anyone I showed it to; once I pointed it out they saw it. Could I get a reasonably OK look with DIY clearcoat fix, or would it just look like shit all-around?

 

Alright so I used a DA polisher + some compound on the whole area (there was a decent-sized section of oxidation around the clearcoat failure, too) and it really seemed to clear some of it up. It's definitely less noticeable now It's not a complete fix but I'm feeling much better about the way it looks for now.

I can't believe I wasn't aware of sealant, though I was always under the assumption wax = protectant for the clearcoat. I had been waxing 4x a year religiously for nothing... I did buy a bottle of ceramic sealant spray which hopefully will give it a good amount of protection so it won't get worse in the near future. Thanks to everyone who posted!

(after pic isn't the best for comparison, but it does look a lot less noticeable in person, even when the sun hits it directly)