This morning when in a rush to leave for work, I saw the dew laying funny on my fender. I had to get going, so I just rubbed my hand over it and thought it felt like a paint bubble. When I came out to work this afternoon, I found my clear coat had flaked off in a nice sized spot So when I got home, I looked her over and found tons of issues. Both myself & my husband have washed this car by hand several times in the past few weeks & didn't notice these particular spots, so whatever is causing this, I think is happening quickly This car is parked out in the open 99% of it's life. It is not under trees or getting stuff dripped onto it, I also wash off bird poo quickly since the nasty @!#$ that ate my fender in a few hours (see pics) years ago. It's been washed with Meguiar's by hand this season & hasn't been in a public wash since maybe early spring if at all this year. For the last wax, all I had was some Turtle Wax which I figured was better than nothing.

Any ideas what could be causing this? It's mainly along the fender lines & that kinda flat spot under the rear quarter.

Front drivers fender







Rear passengers fender, just waiting to flake off



Rear drivers fender (big circle spots are from bird poo), right along the fender line



Behind the drivers rear quarter



This car makes me sick when I look at it
Any advice to stop this issue will be appreciated.

Welcome to the club. The clear on my 98 Z is doing the same thing near the decklid. I will probably try to save up the cash to get the ca repainted.

Did yours happen in a matter of 2-3 weeks? That's the last time I washed it and I know it wasn't there then.

Its been there a while, but getting worse.

That is from a lack of waxing the clearcoat, so it dried up and flaked off. not much you can do now but prevent more from coming by getting it buffed/waxed.

Funny how it never happens to most cars that never see any wax.

yep ur clear took a turn for the worse.(old age) looks like the blacks kinda oxidized in the pics if so the clears just sun beat and had enough. reclear is a opt but not to cheap.

DigitalN. wrote:That is from a lack of waxing the clearcoat, so it dried up and flaked off.

yep. black is the worse for obvious reasons. like all J's b-pillar peices do the same thing, because no one thinks to wax them and they get alot of sun and heat abuse.. how often do you wax your car? and are you the original owner? you might take awesome care of it but previous owner never waxed it or anything so it would still happen, you might have slowed the process down after you got it.


and also to answer this

stargrrrl wrote:Did yours happen in a matter of 2-3 weeks? That's the last time I washed it and I know it wasn't there then.

it very well may not of been there 3 weeks ago. but i can guarantee it was close to it, the process didn't just happen in a few weeks and once it flakes just a little bit it doesn't take long for the surrounding areas to follow, moisture and whatever else is now able to get underneath the clear coat and flake it away



Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Tuesday, September 09, 2008 7:48 PM

That is nothing. Same thing happened to my hood. Clear coat a big spot maybe the size of basketball. Best part happened in a matter of 1-2 days. Also my car is a blue 2004 as my name states. Thats why I'm in the market for a carbon fiber hood.

It's a 99, I've owned it for 8 of the 9 years. I was waxing maybe 5-7 times a year up until about 3 years ago when my time vaporized This year however, I think it's been waxed 3 times, last of which was the last time I washed it, about 3 weeks ago. Don't know why I even bother to shine my pos GM anymore, it's garbage.

sun damage ... needs to be wt sanded and re-cleared

The car isn't worth the time, effort or money. Irony is that I was about to make an appointment with my body guy to fix the bird @!#$ marks on the rear fender. No point in that now, it's a shame too because he really needs the work now.

Just looking back at pictures on the computer, I figure out August 12th was the last wax, August 23rd was the last wash. It kills me there was no sign of any of this until yesterday And somehow it slipped my mind that my husband's car had a few flakes starting ('01 GT) and he showed me tonight a huge section is peeling off of his roof. Complete garbage. Thinking back, I rocked my family's 1986 Pontiac 6000 until it was 12 without a single flake & never once saw my dad do more than a spray wash in a bay.

if it bugs you that much as much as I hate to say it, just send it into maaco and have them do a respray on the car. It would look alot better than all the clear pealing off.



2009 Ford Mustang V6

The01Cav wrote:if it bugs you that much as much as I hate to say it, just send it into maaco and have them do a respray on the car. It would look alot better than all the clear pealing off.

The thought crossed my mind, but it's simply not worth it. I'm going to hold out until some bills are paid & see if I can work a new car in the budget. I use my head more than my heart when it comes to things, making the "right" choice financially, which is why I still have this garbage car in the first place. Too bad it makes for a sad heart, I seriously have misted up a few times over this, the car is "dead" to me, it will cease to have any sort of good looks ...and it will run just fine with a peeling clear coat