Craters/dimples in paint (due to acid rain?)

[Logan]

Hi all,

I recently got a black 2006 Mustang GT. It is a DD with 71k miles on it. Like we all do, I have a desire to perfect it. I’m not sure, however, if it would be reasonable to do so. I created an account here hoping some of you are familiar with this problem.

When I got the car, the paint had typical swirls and pretty bad acid rain spots. Washing and claying did nothing to remove them. M105 + LC orange foam pad took them all off without a problem. There are still some etchings that look like this:

46877
(not my picture)

There are a few of those, but that isn’t my biggest concern. The problem I have is that there are little dimples or craters left in the paint, which I assume is because of the acid rain. It’s hard to get a good picture of them (I don’t have the best photography skills lol).

Water spots before correction:
46880

After correction:
46881

They are all over the car, but are much worse on the hood and the roof. I made many passes trying to remove a scratch on the roof, and while I didn't remove the scratch, there are less of these craters around the scratch compared to the rest of the roof. But there is still a good amount of spots there. I’ll try to get a good picture of it tomorrow.

Before this 2006 GT I had a 2007 V6 that was also black. It also had some of these spots on the roof and hood, but they were very minor and the rest of the car other than the hood and roof was fine. The GT still looks pretty good, but, when looking at the V6 (I still have it, selling it very soon though), it looks better overall; more reflective and just pops more because the clear coat is nice and smooth.

Is it reasonable to try to remove the craters or would I be risking too much clear coat loss? If it's possible to do, would it require wetsanding?

Thanks

[Rsurfer]

Do you have a PTG? I would not attempt to wet sand without a PTG.

[Logan]

Do you have a PTG? I would not attempt to wet sand without a PTG.

Sadly I don't. Wet sanding is my last resort, but if it's necessary I'll have to get one.

[Setec Astronomy]

Yeah, acid rain, water spots, bird poop, tree sap, brake/rail dust, industrial fallout, and general neglect, name your reason, those are small etched spots from whatever--it's not important really from what. as Rsurfer alluded to, it could be removing a lot of paint to take them out and you don't really know what's been done to the car before you bought it.

Either you live with it or you can risk thinning the clear too much. You can get a rough idea with a PTG but without knowing what the thickness was originally it's somewhat of a crapshoot. You can try the doorjamb trick.

[LSNAutoDetailing]

It's hard to tell from your photo's but it could quite possibly be solvent popping.
Solvents used during the paint process, instead of evaporating may pop to the surface. I'll leave you to google the reasons why... there are some good articles out there on it.

Here is an older Mike Phillips post regarding solvent popping
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/hot-topics-frequently-asked-questions/21639-seeing-dots-help-pinhole-solvent-pop-common-paint-issue-3.html#post305384

One thing to keep in mind is after you corrected with 105, you cleared a way a lot of the swirls, scratches, surface contamination that would be hiding the solvent popping. Sadly, it's more prevalent, or easy to see in enamel paint vs. metallic. You can have a local body guy assess, but there is no amount of buffing that will remove it.

Even my 2005 Mustang (not a DD) has some amount of solvent popping on the horizontal surfaces, which became more prevalent after paint correction. I've come to accept it and just enjoy the car... The car is just getting old... like me :-)

Hope this helps...

[Logan]

Yeah, acid rain, water spots, bird poop, tree sap, brake/rail dust, industrial fallout, and general neglect, name your reason, those are small etched spots from whatever--it's not important really from what. as Rsurfer alluded to, it could be removing a lot of paint to take them out and you don't really know what's been done to the car before you bought it.

Either you live with it or you can risk thinning the clear too much. You can get a rough idea with a PTG but without knowing what the thickness was originally it's somewhat of a crapshoot. You can try the doorjamb trick.

What is the doorjamb trick?


It's hard to tell from your photo's but it could quite possibly be solvent popping.
Solvents used during the paint process, instead of evaporating may pop to the surface. I'll leave you to google the reasons why... there are some good articles out there on it.

Here is an older Mike Phillips post regarding solvent popping
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/hot-topics-frequently-asked-questions/21639-seeing-dots-help-pinhole-solvent-pop-common-paint-issue-3.html#post305384

One thing to keep in mind is after you corrected with 105, you cleared a way a lot of the swirls, scratches, surface contamination that would be hiding the solvent popping. Sadly, it's more prevalent, or easy to see in enamel paint vs. metallic. You can have a local body guy assess, but there is no amount of buffing that will remove it.

Even my 2005 Mustang (not a DD) has some amount of solvent popping on the horizontal surfaces, which became more prevalent after paint correction. I've come to accept it and just enjoy the car... The car is just getting old... like me :-)

Hope this helps...

After seeing some of those pictures that's pretty much what it looks like. I'll try my best to get better pictures tomorrow.

Also, like you said, they weren't visible at all until after the correcting the paint. It was the same way for the V6. It wasn't noticeable until I polished with a LC white pad and M205.

Thanks for the help

[Logan]

Here is the full resolution picture:

http://i64.tinypic.com/2ci73nn.jpg

(http://i64.tinypic.com/2ci73nn.jpg)

[Setec Astronomy]

The doorjamb trick is to measure the paint thickness in the doorjamb where there is minimal clearcoat. Compare that reading to the exterior to get an APPROXIMATION of how much clearcoat you have left.

I personally don't think that's solvent pop, although it does look pretty uniform. IMO that's just from stuff getting left on the paint for long periods of time and eating into it (translation: The previous owner didn't wash the car much).

[GSKR]

Those are a lot of pits and imperfections,I say spend 350 to repaint instead of so much time try to make it better.although you can try to minimize the look of what ever it is by damp sanding with 3000 and compound.I don't think it will be a dramatic improvement,but a improvement.If it were me personally just paint it if you can good luck.

[Bicycle]

Solvent popping?? Thanks for that post. My last two red GMC trucks have shown some of that after polishing.
I've scratched my head wondering what in the world caused that. Certainly makes sense.

[WaxMaster1]

I had a similar issue with my Ford daily driver. I corrected it as best as I could, however, still bad. I went to an excellent body shop and told the painter what I'd like him to do.............he agreed and that was to sand lightly into the clear without disturbing the pearl coat (car has 3 stage paint) and reclear. All I can say is they exceeded my expectations. If your Stang is straight up Black with no metallic, I wouldn't hesitate a second to just repaint the hood.

[Logan]

Thank you all for the replies


I had a similar issue with my Ford daily driver. I corrected it as best as I could, however, still bad. I went to an excellent body shop and told the painter what I'd like him to do.............he agreed and that was to sand lightly into the clear without disturbing the pearl coat (car has 3 stage paint) and reclear. All I can say is they exceeded my expectations. If your Stang is straight up Black with no metallic, I wouldn't hesitate a second to just repaint the hood.

It is straight up black with no metallic. I'm not sure if there's any good body shops around where I live so I'd have to look into it

I finally got some good pictures, as promised. Took me a while to figure out how to use the camera lol. A few of the pictures are blurry because of that but I deleted most.

The scratch on the roof that I mentioned in the original post:

http://i64.tinypic.com/14scks3.jpg
http://i64.tinypic.com/2vv0xfr.jpg

Just to the right of the scratch:

http://i64.tinypic.com/2nsmfqv.jpg
http://i63.tinypic.com/xddtvp.jpg
http://i65.tinypic.com/14kwh37.jpg

It's that much better around the scratch because of the few extra passes I made with 105, which makes me think a lot of them are actually pretty shallow.

Other pictures - the rest are on the hood except for the last one:

http://i.imgur.com/R9U4hnN.jpg
http://i63.tinypic.com/fky2d4.jpg
http://i64.tinypic.com/oq99ux.jpg
http://i64.tinypic.com/2uska5g.jpg
http://i64.tinypic.com/vxyw6q.jpg
http://i64.tinypic.com/msmww2.jpg
http://i63.tinypic.com/imikix.jpg

So what I think I'll do is try the wet sanding route to see what kind of improvement it shows. If there's not much improvement, I'll have to make the decision to either live with it or get it resprayed.

[Setec Astronomy]

http://i.imgur.com/R9U4hnN.jpg


Once again IMO that's not solvent pop, it's neglect. You've got all different sizes and shapes of "pits"--it's from stuff sitting on the paint and not getting cleaned off.

[Optntdr13]

Once again IMO that's not solvent pop, it's neglect. You've got all different sizes and shapes of "pits"--it's from stuff sitting on the paint and not getting cleaned off.

Agreed somewhat...I think it's most likely the "sandblasting" effect from getting pelted on the highway by small bits of gunk. It's common.