Cloudy clear coat

[nogrille]

My father unfortunately used some old / out of date / knackered bug and tar remover he found in the garage on his 2003 Volkswagen Golf GT TDI PD 130 (that's got to be the longest model of a car ever!).

The result is some cloudy marks on the clear coat. I've not had a chance to try anything on the marks yet but was wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences and what the solution could be?

Cheers

Paul

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Cloudy clear coat

Originally posted by nogrille
My father unfortunately used some old / out of date / knackered bug and tar remover he found in the garage on his 2003 Volkswagen Golf GT TDI PD 130 (that's got to be the longest model of a car ever!).

The result is some cloudy marks on the clear coat.

Cheers

Paul

Hi Paul,

I detailed cars professionally for over 15 years and I've seen a lot car finishes dulled and scratched and swirled-out by people with the best intentions, but the wrong product or process.

"Clear coats are a thin protective coating over a color coat also called a basecoat that are easily dulled and/or scratched. Once this clear layer of paint is dulled and/or scratched, it requires the right products, process, and technique, as well as the human elements of care and a passion, to restore a clear, defect-free, high gloss finish"

This dullness you now see on the clear coat is more than likely only topical and can easily be fixed. The upper surface of the clear coat has chemically dulled and to fix this all you need to do is to gently clean this dulled area with a safe, but effective paint cleaner.

Our first suggestion would be to use some ScratchX with a clean, soft foam applicator pad after first washing the car really well and claying the finish if a surface evaluation reveals above surface contaminants.



Apply the ScratchX to either the affected areas, or to the entire finish working one section at a time. These section should be small sections approximately 8" to 12" square. Of course you can base the shape of the area you're working on the shape of the panel. The idea being you don't want to tackle too large of an area at once or you will not be able to focus enough dedicated attention to each square inch of paint your are cleaning and thus your results will not appear uniform. After you have worked the product against the finish, for a few minutes, (ScratchX starts out as whitish, opaque film and as you work it against the surface and the diminishing abrasives breakdown, this film turns clear on the finish), remove any left over residue and move onto a new section, overlapping into the previous section for uniform cleaning action which will result in uniform defect removal, (or in your case the dullness will be removed equally), which will result in a uniform appearance over the entire car or the entire area worked.

After cleaning the paint with the ScratchX, as an optional step you can apply a pure polish like the Deep Crystal Polish, to take your results to their maximum potential for gloss, depth, clarity and reflectivity.



After either the ScratchX application, or the ScratchX/Pure Polish application, you need to re-apply your choice of wax to lock in the beautiful results you will have created and protect the finish.

Three things to remember,

1) Meguiar's compounds, paint cleaners, cleaner/polishes and pure polishes do not need to dry before removing. After you worked any of these product into the finish it is recommended that you immediately wipe off the excess and the move on to the next step. Only Meguiar's waxes need to dry before they are removed.

2) Always apply your products with clean soft foam applicator pads or other premium quality applicator material such a 100% cotton terry cloth toweling.

3) Always remove excess product using premium quality polishing cloths such as microfiber polishing cloths or clean, soft 100% cotton towels so that you don't re-instill scratches into the beautiful high gloss results you have created.

If you want to repair this area by machine I can also help you to do this, just let me know.

Hope this helps...

Mike

[Tim Lingor]

Hey,

I agree with Mike's suggestion of using ScratchX. I have seen damage like this before and as Mike mentioned, most of the time, it is topical.

Once it is removed, I would make sure to use from now on a tar/bug product designed for today's BC/CC paints. One of my favorites is Meguiar's Body Solvent.


Body Solvent




Please keep us posted!!

Tim