Why does my hood look like it has thousands of rock chips?

M

motobuild

New member
Sorry, that's the best way I can describe it.



And this may be a stupid question...haha



My hood had lots of swirls. I used IP and a CMA yellow pad with pretty good success. But now, the hood seems to have a bunch of tiny "dings" in the clearcoat. Like tiny, tiny, tiny rock chips is the best way I can describe it.



Did I do something wrong? I did the same process over the entire car. Some of the other panels have this as well, but not as bad. Don't get me wrong, it looks so much better than when it had swirls, I'm just curious what this is....from my process, or something else? I thought my procedure, although amatuerish, was still very slow and thorough...and careful.
 
Is the paint chipped itself or is just alot of dings. Without pics it makes it difficult to diagnose. Depending on the products used imperfections are going to show alot more. When I put a couple of layers of SG little dings showed up alot more because of the reflectivity of it.



It could be from a hail storm the car went thru (I know I got some of those) either that or stop tailgating. ;)
 
did you clay the car before polishing? also since you have a clean suface you might notice those little rock chips more because your paying more attention to the specific apperence of the surface then you had previously.
 
Yeah....I know pics would help, BUT....I don't have a digital camera.



Him...I don't think they are actually rock chips, most of my rock chips can be felt. These cant. They are basically imperfections in the clearcoat. Thousands of them, about the size of a pinhead, probably smaller than that actually.



Yes, I clayed prior to polishing.



They are actually all over the vehicle, just were more noticeable on the hood, and many more.



I don't tailgate, actually, It barely gets driven (It's far from a stock vehicle)....and when I do drive it I follow way behind vehicles.



Thanks!
 
mine has this too! it is only on the hood though, which is fiberglass. I kinda figured it might have something to do with that.



what kind of car do you have?
 
It's a 2001 VW Jetta, Cool White



That would be a similar pick to what mine PROBABLY looks like...but since my vehicle is white I can't be certain if that's the same thing....but yup...that's what I'm thinkin I have too.



BUT, my hood isn't fiberglass.
 
That looks so much like paint overspray, but you said that you clayed, which should have removed it. However, if it sat on there for awhile, it my have cured to the surface making it very difficult to remove. And since you can't feel it, it makes me think that it is something else. On the Jetta, try QD'ing it, it may be the case that the IP "dusted" upon removal, the specs may be an extreme case of the debis left after removal. Just a couple thoughts, hope they help.
 
Tusin take a pin and see if the tip of it will go in one of the little imperfections .. If it does it could be chemical damage.. this is common around here .. we get SO2 fallout here and add a little water and you get H2SO4 .. as the droplett dries it gets smaller and concentrates the acid .. eventually making a tiny pin hole in the clear.



I have used a colored wax with some sucess to mask this and on black it works well.
 
I'll try that...but, I don't think we've ever had acid rain up here in Alaska. I could be wrong though.



Plus...if it something like that wouldn't it be on the roof too? I say some on the roof, but not as much as the hood.



Really, it looks very similar to the pic posted, expect my car is white so it doesn't show up nearly as much.



I'm just a little bummed though...now instead of seeing swirls from the sun I see these tiny "chips"...but like I said, I can't feel them with my finger, fingernail, etc.
 
Tusin said:
I'll try that...but, I don't think we've ever had acid rain up here in Alaska. I could be wrong though.



Plus...if it something like that wouldn't it be on the roof too? I say some on the roof, but not as much as the hood.
Click to expand...



Usually there is more on the hood becuase of the heat generated there... If you have any form of industry up there there is a possibility of acid rain .. it can even blow in fron Russia.. A good portion of the acid raim problems we have in Ontario come up from the US to the south.
 
i found something similar on my BMW. It has small white flecks ALL over the car. At first i thought it was some wierd type of metallic fleck ... because its a metallic blue paint, but then i realized it was not because the flecks are also on my black window mouldings. They did not come off after claying, and two steps of polishing. I scraped a few off w/ a fingernail, but most won't come off. They are *slightly* raised and i can barely feel it with my finger. Can't figure it out ...:nixweiss
 
It can really be anything.



A few years back, I had parked next to a building. During the day, the building's interior was being painted and the painting crew would open the buildings windows.



Overspray would go out the window's and onto the car's parked outside. The drops were very very fine and you couldn't really tell. I actually didn't notice them until a few day's later when I washed the vehicle. It wasn't until I went back to the same building that I notice where the problem originated from as the car's parked out the front had noticable paint on them this time.



If it's mainly on the hood and a bit on the roof. It could really be anything.



If you were following a truck to closely that had something leaking out the back (i.e. garbage truck, construction truck etc.), road paint,



Residual Polish can be very difficult to remove i.e. I'm going through that on my windshield and some DACP splatter ..



Picture's would help.



I doubt very highly it's related to the IP/Yellow pad. The polishing may have just made it more obvious now.
 
Yeah, I don't think it has anything to do with me polishing...I mean, I would figure that, if anything, the polisher would cause swirls, not what I'm looking at on my hood. But you're right, they may be more noticable now because of it being polished.



I think I'm going to buy a Digital Camera tonight...so I'll post pics, at least try to, I don't know how well they are going to show up with it being a white car. If anything, I'll post pics of the car, she sure looks PERTTY...will look even better with some SG.



But, like I said, I cannot feel the imperfections, so I don't think that it's overspray.
 
Well, I TRIED taking pictures this evening, but they didn't turn out very well....I'll try to take some tomorrow in the sunlight and see if I can pick anything. I just think it is going to be tough to show since it's white on white.



Anyone have any suggestions for picture taking? I JUST bought the digi-cam, and it isn't the nicest, but it isn't bad either.....
 
A possibility is that it is from a pearl or metallic in your paint. My car is Arctic Pearl White, and in certain lighting and angles, I can faintly see what you are describing. It is more noticeable on the hood and trunk lid. It has been clayed and polished (DACP, #82, #9, HT Light Cut, etc....) countless times. I believe mine is from the pearl (a needle can not be stuck in these "specks").

Anyways, it may be more noticeable on the hood because the hood usually gets more attention when polishing, etc.... This extra attention makes the hood extremely glossy, which reveals paint defects more. Mine is most noticeable when the paint is extremely glossy. But like I said, it takes certain lighting/angles to be visible.

My theory may be way off base, but it's a possibility.



Dave
 
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