Buffed out marks reappear?

[Davidfc]

I am working on restoring a 94 caddy and it has blemishes in the paint from having been left under some pine trees. Probably water spots or other gunk that made them. I buffed it out with light cut paint leveler and machine polish and it looked fine. But then all the marks came back the next day? It was in the sun the next day.

Attached is a picture of half looking buffed and half the way it came back the next day.

Does this need wet sanding or is it clear coat breakdown? Thoughts? Thanks.

[BillE]

From that picture, to me it does look like CC failure.

Hopefully others will chime in with their thoughts.

Bill

[Setec Astronomy]

It's hard to tell from that pic--are you saying you buffed the whole thing and the next day it looked like the pic, where half of it stayed "buffed" and the other half looked like crap?

Or are you saying that you buffed the whole thing, and the next day the whole thing was hazed back up, and you rebuffed that right side?

As I said, it's hard to tell from the pic if that's gunk on top of the paint or "in" the paint, but what you are describing where you get some oil or solvent in the paint and it looks good until the sun bakes out the oil/solvent, is certainly the way failed clear behaves.

[jfelbab]

It looks like clear coat failure to me as well. 1994 = 21/22 year old paint. You can chase this for a while with polish and maybe a coating but if you are planning on restoration, I'd budget for re-paint.

[lawrenceSA]

From the pic it certainly looks like CC failure.

What polish did you use.... it is possible that the polish may have been laden with oils/fillers etc that temporarily made the sections where the clear coat has failed look better?

[Davidfc]

It's hard to tell from that pic--are you saying you buffed the whole thing and the next day it looked like the pic, where half of it stayed "buffed" and the other half looked like crap?

Or are you saying that you buffed the whole thing, and the next day the whole thing was hazed back up, and you rebuffed that right side?

As I said, it's hard to tell from the pic if that's gunk on top of the paint or "in" the paint, but what you are describing where you get some oil or solvent in the paint and it looks good until the sun bakes out the oil/solvent, is certainly the way failed clear behaves.

Thanks for the thoughtful responses.
The second way is how I meant it. I rebuffed the right side the second day using the light paint cut leveler-without the polish this time. Kept it in the shade mostly for the last day or so and that still looks good. Will put it in the sun in the next day or so to see if that makes it revert again...

For those of you that have seen CC failure-does it appear to go away when you buff and then come back in the sunlight or does buffing not help at all? I think that is what is confusing me.

I know the picture is difficult to see but it is more like numerous splotches in the paint. Looks similar to what Ammonyc.com showed in a video as waterspot/bird poo etched spot that he removed by wetsanding.

To answer the other questions- I was using an older bottle of HT61 light paint cut leveler and followed with 3M finesse it II machine polish the first time I did it. The second time I just did the paint leveler.

I picked up some Mequires compound to try next if needed and to the point about putting a coating on it if the sun is causing the issue-did you mean wax coating? Going to try that too.