What the heck are we looking at here?

[Eldorado2k]

Guy fears clearcoat failure. What say you?

[Eldorado2k]

I feel like telling him to get some Ultimate Compound and get to rubbing.

[Desertnate]

Does it only show up when the surface is wet?

My daughter's Honda has an area on the roof that looks similar. In the wet it shows up pretty clearly like your picture. When it's dry, the area is less visible, but up close it can be seen and you can feel a difference in the texture. It's rougher to the touch than surrounding areas.

My diagnosis is early stage clear-coat failure. Rather than hitting it with a compound, I'm treating it as gently as possible and I'll likely never polish the roof of that car again. If the clearcoat is failing in that area, it must be extremely thin and barely hanging on the rest of the panel. I don't want to do anything which removes any of the clear still there and accelerate the failure. I wash it gently and hit it with a spray sealant every time to keep a good layer of protection from the elements.

[MI Mike]

I would leave it alone. First check with your local Honda dealer. A friend of ours had the paint on roof and side peeling off. When they checked they found that Honda had a recall notice on the paint on that year. It was applied bad/defective. They took pictures and sent Honda and their insurance company, Honda said OK will pay for repaint of sections.

[Eldorado2k]

I would leave it alone. First check with your local Honda dealer. A friend of ours had the paint on roof and side peeling off. When they checked they found that Honda had a recall notice on the paint on that year. It was applied bad/defective. They took pictures and sent Honda and their insurance company, Honda said OK will pay for repaint of sections.

It’s a Cadillac.

[2black1s]

Guy fears clearcoat failure. What say you?

Hard to tell. I always like to see the defect in person to make an accurate assessment... BUT... It does look like clear coat failure from what I see in the pic.

I like your first recommendation to hit it with some Ultimate Compound and see what that does. Might get lucky... Maybe it's some kind of surface contamination that the compound will remove. If not, then failure is the most likely diagnosis.

I like to inspect such areas with 10x (or greater) magnification when trying to make my diagnosis.

[MI Mike]

It’s a Cadillac.

My comment was to help
Desertnate

[Eldorado2k]

My comment was to help
Desertnate

Lol. I didn’t realize that.

[Danube]

Close physical inspection would help, instead of guessing.

If I'm to guess - compounding may help !

[PaulMys]

Be honest, Ric.

You spilled your beer on it........