I have an 02' GT-S and the rear bumper was repainted before I owned it. There are imperfections in the clear. "Cloudy" would be a good way to describe it. It's almost like if you were parked on a paved driveway and the pavement was wet and the sun reflected off the water and was shining on the car.

Is the "cloudy" spot factory painted, or been re-done?

 

If your having clear coat problems I would bet almost anything it been repainted in that area most likely from a wreck.

 

Im having the same problem with my paint... but a few years ago my motor hydrolocked and it sat for 2 years. Like an idiot i didnt buy a cover for it. i've tried buffing it an waxing it but after a few days it returns and now my clear coat is chipping off. so pretty soon im gonna paint it myself.

 

the tops of my side view mirrors are starting to peel, as well as the door handles.

 

^ that's what i have on my 00. it isnt bad and isn't noticeable. the bad are my hood scoop and stock wing which have been both replaced

 

After 10 years you can reasonably expect factory paint to start showing signs of age. I have some clouding on the horizontal panels mostly, roof, spoiler and shoulders near the 1/4 windows.

 

try using paint cleaner first, then apply wax. if the spot cleans up a lil better, then the paint is fine. if not, then you might need new paint (or at least a re-clear).

a common cause might be due to someone applying wax before the paint fully cured after the paint was freshly sprayed. if your paint is still factory paint, then this shouldnt be your case, but if you got the part thats fading repainted, then you are supposed to wait a month or two before waxing or else the wax can seep into the clearcoat during the curing stage and cause that hazy appearance. most people assume that fresh paint needs the most protection and slab on wax right away. thats a biiig no-no.

well anyways, try the paint cleaner (i personally like meguiars products) and wax that wont leave a film afterwards and let the wax COMPLETELY dry before removing it.

if all else fails, you can try Meguiars ultimate compound, but thats mainly used for small scratches and such. the cloudiness may be throughout the whole depth of the clearcoat. doesnt hurt to give it a shot though. jsut dont burn your paint off

 

yeah mines ****ed too, around below my side windows. passenger side it looks like a ****ing toad. the clears starting to flake bad in areas, it an 04 and has been garaged for the last 2 years every night. i noticed where the clears flaking up the "toad" look. almost like brown spots are not present so im sure its my clear, ive done the clay and wax and it still doesn't solve anything.

took the "rust" sparkles out but not the toad look. makes me angry. thinking about just repainting it in a few years and then fix the hail with bondo. instead of the paint less repair.

 

does your paint look like this:

haha jk.

guys, pictures speak louder than words. snap some pics so we can all see what youre talking about cuz quite frankly, bob, i dont know what you mean by a "toad look". are you talking about orange peel?

 

nope, no orange peal look. its brown and spotty like a toad. kinda weird. first i though it was oil speckles. but it wasn't

 

nope, no orange peal look. its brown and spotty like a toad. kinda weird. first i though it was oil speckles. but it wasn't

oooh the COLOR is like a toad. i thought u meant the texture haha. my bad. hmmm... does it look like its in the clear coat? or do you think its in the base coat?

It wasn't that bad untill I used meguiars swirlX on it the other day to get rid of some of the fine scratchs and that is when it got worse, so be careful what you use. It wasn't till a few days later though that I noticed it. The car doesn't show any evidence of being repainted though, except for the wing, mirrors, and scoop that I had repainted because of bad peeling. Since I've only had the car for about 2 years now I don't know what kind of care the previous owners took.

to be honest, i dont like swirl x. ive tried to use it countless times for many different occasions, but it never does anything. for whatever swirl x fvcks up, the ultimate compound fixes it and works wonders. im in love with that stuff be careful because the Ultimate Compound is harsher than the SwirlX so if not used correctly, it can fvck up your paint more or even thin out the clearcoat which will look nice the first day, but wont stand up more than a few days under the sun before it starts to fade again and possibly peel.

 

It wasn't that bad untill I used meguiars swirlX on it the other day to get rid of some of the fine scratchs and that is when it got worse, so be careful what you use. It wasn't till a few days later though that I noticed it. The car doesn't show any evidence of being repainted though, except for the wing, mirrors, and scoop that I had repainted because of bad peeling. Since I've only had the car for about 2 years now I don't know what kind of care the previous owners took.

 

Im pretty sure its the clear, where the clear is chipping is where it is not toad like. And its only on my passenger side. I'll try to get a pic of it today.

 

yeah definately try getting a picture. im having a hard time trying to picture that in my head

 

I have a red 2000 and it is just starting on the roof. It really looks like its bottom of the clearcoat or the top of the red.

The spoiler is peeling, but I think that's been painted. I don't know about the roof.
Bought used in 2003.

 

So what do paint jobs cost? For now i'll i've heard is around 3k for it to be right. But there has to be something between Maaco @ $300 and other shops @ $3k.

 

dont do maaco. horrible stuff. you get what you pay for.

you can get a decent paintjob for under 2k if you have hookups, but if you dont know any hookups, then 3k sound about right for an acceptable paintjob where they properly mask off everything and remove what can/needs to be removed like headlights and tail lights and where they do the door jambs and stuff.

warning, crappy cell phone pics ahead!!

yeah, its yellow its hard to see but bare with me.

oh ok i see what you mean now! you could have started off by saying the paint looked spotted rather than saying it looks like a toad lol. i guess thats what threw me off. but by the looks of it, it looks either like dust got caught inside the clearcoat or its growing mold, but its highly unlikely that its mold (very rarely does that ever occur) so im leaning towards it being dust. have you tried using any paint cleaner? if not, try that first. ive also heard of people using degreasers in some cases (some guy on an acura forum used a spray called Spray Nine. never heard of it myself, but his car was white and he had the same spots you did and he said it worked like a charm. i cant back that up tho since ive never used it :shrugs. if that doesnt work, most likely wetsanding will be your best bet. i dont really know what to tell you after that besides that you may need a respray (either of just clearcoat or possibly even basecoat too if the spotting is that deep).

I have tiny circles etched by hard water from a previous life's sprinkler

if the spots arent from acid rain, then try these methods:
-clay bar/polish
-2:1 distilled water/white vinegar
-distilled water/isopropyl alcohol (not sure on the ratio, but try 1:1 and adjust as needed)
-1:1:1 distilled water/white vinegar/isopropyl alcohol

for stubborn hard water spots, use either white vinegar or isopropyl alcohol un-diluted.

 

warning, crappy cell phone pics ahead!!

yeah, its yellow its hard to see but bare with me.

see ya don't see it in the actual paint itself just the clear. was thinking of kinda sanding it down a bit and re clearing where its pealing. then wet sanding then maybe it'll come out. maybe a good wet sand might bring it out.

moar, not help full but i uploaded them so im gonna use them.

 

Pics didn't need to be that big, now I'll have to add a 56K warning of nothing but paint. :chuckles:

 

I have tiny circles etched by hard water from a previous life's sprinkler

 

acid wash helps with that, there's stuff out there to get that off.

 

lol, i did think twice about doing that. i clicked don't resize thinking it shouldn't be a crazy enormous size.

i'll get back in there and upload some samller ones, brb.