Does buffing heat result in clear coat failure

**lj993** · 03-07-2019, 01:20 AM

We had clear coat failure on the hood of our Land Rover lr3. We also had clear coat failure on our Chevy Silverado. Both the Land Rover and the chevy are dark green. I have polished both of them on a regular basis. I used to spend way too much time on them until the all in one products came out. I am wondering if polishing. I know that heat is not friendly to paint and particularly clear coats. Would getting the surface too hot while polishing result in clear coat failure. Thanks. Phil

**SWETM** · 03-07-2019, 01:37 AM

Before the you started with AIO did you use instead a combo of compound and polish regualary?

And about how many times did you use a compound on your cars if you did that?

/ Tony

**rmagnus** · 03-07-2019, 01:47 AM

Heat is the enemy of clear coat so yes heat isn’t good. That said modern paints and clears are very durable. I doubt your polishing did the damage. Where do you live? What was your regular polish regime? How old are the cars? Lots of variables here to deal with.

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**lj993** · 03-07-2019, 08:52 AM

San Diego on the coast. Until the last couple of months it is usually pretty sunny and nice here, thanks to global warming, errrrr, wait, that isn’t a thing anymore, climate change. Sorry guys, I am joking. No acid rain or extreme conditions.

Both trucks are outside 24/7. Land Rover is a 2005. Chevy is a 1998.

I would do a compound, polish and wax every couple of months. More so on the Land Rover. The Chevy had clear coat failure on the hood and top, to a lesser degree on the bed rails.

The Land Rover had clear coat failure on the hood, the roof snd the rear spoiler, not too much of a painted roof on this vehicle, most of the roof is glass.

Vehicles were hand-washed weekly.

We had the top and roof repainted on the Land Rover. Came out 98%. Painter struggled with getting the paint match spot on. Something I don’t understand.

I just can’t justify getting the truck repainted. It is 20 years old, has 150k miles on it. I use it haul surfboards and sandy kids to and from the beach, Home Depot runs and the occasional dump run.

Still drives well, frankly I hate that it looks so bad.

I started using the optimum products, they did and still do work well. I started with an old porter cable 7424. Upgraded to an almost new 7424xp that found on Craigslist for $50. the guy that I bought it from gave me all of his detailing products and pads, and some autogeek literature, bad mistake on my part, the slippery slope began.

I added a Rupes 21 and a dozen Rupes pads and liters of every Rupes products. I added the Rupes Uhs pads and product when those were introduced.

Then I Added a flex 3401 to the arsenal. Frankly, the flex 3401 is my favorite polisher. Strong, consistent and it doesn’t bog down on curves and non-flat panels, sorry Rupes.

Currently, I pull out the flex 90% of the time and the Rupes and split the other 10% between the porter cable and the Rupes. The pc mainly on tighter spots with a 4inch backing plate and the Rupes because I really want to like it more, it is just a pain in the butt to use when it bogs down so much. I have heard all of the suggestions on technique. I don’t buy it. The machine design has major flaws. It just doesn’t work well on anything but large truck and suv hoods, roofs and trunk lids. Sides and curves are just a fight.

We have a 1996 porsche 993, the Rupes won’t even keep rotating on the rear fenders. Really, I want to like it. I have two liters of Uhs, six Uhs pads. Two liters of Rupes blue, two liters of white, two liters of green and two liters of yellow. Plus some Rupes micro fiber pads, which frankly I have never really used. I have found that the Rupes blue pads or lake country orange pads work just as well and they don’t require gallons of product

I could almost open an autogeek west coast distribution center with all of the detailing stuff that I have accumulated. I am pretty sure that there is a new category in the psychiatric journals for “auto geek ocd. “

Dang 25% sales and free shipping sucker me in every Time!

Well I am done with my early morning rant and complete detour of this thread. So much for waking up at 4am.

I am interested to see how the new clear coat restorer works out. I think that it is an optimum product. I watched a video on it. Looked amazing. I haven’t seen it listed for sale on autogeek yet. I am noticing some tail tail signs of clear coat failure on the rear spoiler on one of our Range Rover sports I have a buddy with an older BMW X5 in dark blue. His top and rear spoiler are getting chalky looking b. Seems like the perfect product for that application. An area that you don’t really see, but needs to be corrected.

Love this forum! Phil

**Vanquish Auto** · 03-07-2019, 09:12 AM

If you compound and polished every couple of months that sounds like what the problem is. You only have so much clear coat and every time you compound you are cutting away at that clear until now you have none left. Invest in a paint thickness gauge and only compound when you absolutely have to and do a light polish every 6 months or so.
As for the Chevy truck. Opitima has a new product that might be able to help you called CCR (clear coat restorer).

**Desertnate** · 03-07-2019, 09:52 AM

Agree the frequency of the compounding/polishing and not the heat was the most likely culprit in the clear coat failure.

For long term ownership I've never polished more than once a year, and now that I'm using coatings it is somewhere around 18~24 months. I also am only lightly polishing, not full on compounding so there is very little clear coat being removed. I could see compounding and polishing on a frequent basis taking a toll on any vehicle's paint.

i don't see how you could hit damaging levels of heat while polishing. When polishing I notice my pads heating up, but I've never had them heat up to a temperature anywhere near what the surface would reach on a hot summer day outdoors. I'm pretty sure if I got into that temperature range while polishing the pads would start to come apart. The pads are simply a bit warmer than room temperature and I rotate them out to let them cool. The surface itself never warms up much because the pad is always in motion and I don't stay in any one place long enough for it to heat up. Maybe a rotory polisher will hit much higher temp?

**DBAILEY** · 03-07-2019, 10:37 AM

I agree. I can't say that I've ever heated up a panel as hot as a panel would get in full direct summer sun. All your UV absorbers and blockers are either used up or have been removed with the repeated polishing. Now the sun's UV is breaking apart the molecular bonds in the clear coat.

**Bruno Soares** · 03-07-2019, 11:07 AM

Can't compound that often. Read this article: Clearcoats are thin by Mike Phillips

**SWETM** · 03-07-2019, 02:37 PM

As you can see on the answers above after description of your compound and polish regimen. Was why I asked you how you have done. Sorry to say it's likely so that you thinned out the clearcoat to a level where the build in UV protection was comprimised. And you get clearcoat failure on horisontall panels cause of that.

Compounding is your enemy here at a regualar doing. For helping you out further I will ask another questions. How do you do your washes? And what products do you use and what equipments are you doing it with? How was the defects when you did compound and polish every 2 months? And do you use a light to control the defects on the paint with?

Cause if your environment you live in is not crazy hazardious. Something is needed to be changed so your don't have the need to be polishing or compounding every 2 months or up to year. So you can save the clearcoat thickness for a long time to come. And also maybe invest in a paint thickness gauge if you don't have one yet. To have a control of your different cars paint.

The new Optimum Clear Coat Restorer seems like an option for you. Even if it's not made for total clearcoat failure. You could get it to save it for a repaint on your cars. It's a big bottle and can reach to do some cars with. So get it when you have the ability to work on the cars you are going to do during a month of time as it's the shelf life of CCR. Look up Apex detailing chanel on Youtube and his 2 videos about it and also Optimums videos to get a knowledge and see if it's something you would be willing to try out. Meantime use the Optimum Car Wax as much as possible after a wash to get a high UV protection on the cars.

/ Tony

**rmagnus** · 03-07-2019, 08:04 PM

Phil now that’s quite a rant, lol. I live in Laguna Hills not far from you. Base coat clear coat paints don’t last forever especially parked inn the sun 24/7, potentially near the oceans salt air. You got pretty good longevity from both vehicles. No need to compound a bunch on daily drivers. Coatings should help the cause. Once clear starts clouding up or gets crows feet it’s toast, just a matter of time til it peels.

If the sides of the truck are good repaint the hood and roof. Now you have a custom truck. I’ve seen people rhino line the entire truck. Now its a tank and car washes can hut it anymore.

Go to a high school or trade school that has auto painting and bodywork. Let them supply the labor and you the canvas and paint supplies. Cost will be about $600.

I agree with you forced rotation buffers over underpowered DA’s. Love the Flex 3401 and PE-14 rotary. I started detailing on the custom painting side and that meant a Dewalt rotary - its a beast. Still love the rotary buffers today their fast and efficient. If you work clean you avoid pigtails swirls holograms etc.

BTW blue is a tough color to match but a professional paint shop with the right tools can do it. As a DYI type guy I know blue is tough to get right.

Now you know using a polisher is fine but stay with soft pads. Personally I stick with daily drivers that are white, silver or gold all colors that hide dirt. Hand wash weekly, try avoid swirls but don’t freak if there are a few.