Clear Coat Haze

[Showmob]

Your going to need the help of a machine as doing it by hand will not remove the haze from the sand paper if you cannot get ahold of a Da run it down to a detail shop something like that will only take a few min to fix if that.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Clear Coat Haze

Pictures would be a great help here. 2000 grit sandpaper doesn't sound all that aggressive at first, but what sandpaper you used and exactly how you used it can make a huge difference here. Inexpensive 2000 grit paper you pick up at the hardware store, or even at an auto parts store, may not be the best stuff you can use. Doing it by hand, especially if you don't have a proper backing pad, can still make things quite aggressive even with 2000 grit. The big issue here is uniformity of grit size; a non uniform grit will leave much deeper marks that show up as tracers even if properly buffed out with a rotary buffer and a proper compound. If you sanded in a circular motion by hand, which is a bad idea to start with, it just exacerbates the problem. Not using proper lube when sanding will also get you cutting deeper than you might think, and the subsequent sanding marks then become even more difficult to buff out.

It can be quite easy to go right through the clear coat with any compound even when working by hand. 15 minutes of hand application in a small area with any compound, if done with the proper amount of pressure, will rub through any clear coat. You can rub through clear coat with a terry cloth towel and baby oil in less than 15 minutes if you scrub in a small area. We've seen too many cases of this sort of thing happening and it's always difficult to inform the car owner that they've gone too far and a trip to the body shop is now required.

Touch up repair can be very tricky if you aren't sure about the process. Once you understand it and know what's really happening and how to control things, it can actually be very easy to deal with it.

Now, as for the growing hazy looking area on this particular touch up, it could also be that the applicator being used, a terry towel for example, is hazing the paint even though you're a long, long way from going through the clear coat. We see this all the time as well. So, again, a picture or three will likely tell us a whole lot more about what's really happening here.