Chemical burns to paint (?) and then cutting through clear coat....

S

stapes

New member
Hi all -





So, I'm providing my list of mistakes not so much for sympathy or advice (it may be past that) but maybe I'll save someone some pain in the future....



I have a 2006 BMW M3, titanium grey, daily driver, kept outside in Northern Virginia. Until recently, the paint was in pretty good shape. A few months ago, I was early for an appointment with about 30 min to kill and right next to one of those 'do it yourself' car wash places. Since I had a professional detail about 3 months prior, I figured (wrongly) that a DIY car wash would be better than an auto car wash. In go my quarters, out of the nozzle comes some sort of chemical that instantly (as in, while I was standing there watching) fried the paint on sections of my hood. It went sort of opaque, like really bad water spotting or sun damage - over a large area. I washed it off with water and the mild detergent as best as I could, and then washed it at home later. Looked pretty bad. Hand cleaner wax, hand polishing, etc didn't phase it.



So, the paint was pretty trashed on the hood. I know from my detailer that the paint is pretty thick (past respray I didn't know about before) and I know (suspect) that most people looking at it would say "respray" because they didn't want to be the ones to cut through the clear coat. So, might as well go for broke.



I washed 3x, clayed, and hit it with a PC DA and Meguiar's Fine Cut at speeds 5-6. Once again - didn't seem to do anything. Changed to Meguiar's Ultimate Compound. Spent about an hour trying to work out a few small areas. finally saw some improvement, just as I think i went through the clear - although, even below the clear the paint looks discolored. Followed with swirl remover, glaze, paint sealant. Still looks like crap. Guess I have to respray.....



So - my only real question is: have any of you all seen this happen before? Does wheel cleaner (or whatever was in the nozzle of the spray gun) really burn all the way through that fast? For the curious, I've linked to a few photos on Imgur (I can't post attachments, I'm a newbie). It's hard to photograph the extent of the damage - metallic grey car in overcast conditions.



Burnt Paint - Imgur





Long story short - those spray wash booths can kill your paint. Not just some brush scratches that can be buffed out, but kill it dead.
 
Just an educated or uneducated guess since am not aware of how long ago the paint work was done, or how agressive your "detailer" was when he did the car, however it appears that all that may have actually took place was the following.

Detailer took too much clear off in those spots and covered them up with a lot of wax/sealant and the wash solution removed this "makeup" from the areas.

Or

The bodyshop that did the paint work removed some dust nibs from those areas, removing excessive clear and since the hood area was hot from engine heat and the spray wand may have had some more caustic product in it from the last users, the chemical found it's way through the much too thin film build of the clear.

In either case, the clear in those areas is not there in sufficent thickness and no buffing, etc is going to correct them, a refinish is required.

Just some thoughts.

Grumpy
 
Thanks for your reply Ron - the idea that the clear was mostly gone hadn't occurred to me (so I appreciate opening up the possibility that it wasn't ALL my fault).



The spray job would have had to have been several years ago. When I bought the car used, it had a clean CarFax - but that doesn't mean no paint work. The seller walked around with a paint thickness gauge and showed me all the readings were good on the fenders, sides... guess he missed the hood. I learn a new trick every time.



The detailer who did the last detail on the car was a very well known, great reputation, and one of the go to guys for paint correction around here. He's the one that showed me the paint thickness discrepency on the front end - I think that the standard BMW finish was in the 160 mils range, and the front end was in the 240 mils range. It's been awhile, so the numbers could be off - but the front end was about 60-70% thicker than the rest.



The dust nib theory is interesting - as I was working on this issue I moved around some trim and saw the paint line; so this wasn't an incredible quality spray job. Seems reasonable that they may have had the same attention to detail on the rest of it.



The bad news is it's bad enough now that I can't put more make-up on it. Two coats of sealer and it's still pretty ugly.... Time to find a paint shop. Or maybe some of those bullet hole decals.....
 
Hi Dan,



No - I did the self assessment that it was about a 90% chance it was too far gone. I figured as the owner, I have no risk with being pretty aggressive. If I screw it up, it's a paint job - but it was a paint job anyway. I thought I may be able to get past the damage and still have a whisper of clear coat left - but not so much.



The too hot factor is something I had not thought of. I had been driving for a while. I also know that what shot out of the pressure nozzle first wasn't the standard soap rinse - different color.
 
I've seen some single stage paints on a few cars go from glossy to oxidised looking with just a quick wash with a self serve car washes pre soak product sprayed on the car in the bay.



Can happen.

I wouldn't wash my cars with any pre soak or even car wash from these places, they get filthy vehicles in there and need to strong stuff to get it off
 
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