- My model of MX-5 is: mk1
- I’m based near: carlisle
- I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: __paintwork
Yikes!
Is that water marks or lacquer lifting?
Hard to tell exactly from the photo.
Looks like water, but as you say hard to tell. This needs specialist help IMHO - probably a machine polish as it will be tricky to get out by hand polishing with even a specialist bottle of something…
Hi guys. It’s not water marks, or peeling lacquer. Though it looks like it. It just appeared after I took it to the car was today. Could it have been a reaction to the chemicals?
You had new paint recently?
Nose and offside pop up look OK.
Just wondering if…a combination of underbonnet heatsoak had something to do with it.
Hi, there. I bought the car last November and everything appeared fine. The affected areas are the bonnet and the tops of each wing. It’s looking dull as well as having those weird water marks. I was going to try T-cut on it, but that probably won’t work. Might have to get a professional to have a look…
My boot lid does the same when it is left with standing water on it. Leave it a while in the sun & the marks disappear. it was resprayed last year so I can only assume the paint is slightly porous.
Me too, and you articulate better what I was thinking.
( Fresh BRG paint here as well by the way Tuckey)
I find the surface needs a lot of TLC eg Autoglym’s finest.
Was the “car wash” a Drive Through or do you mean hand lance?
I imagine lance…since it’s not hard-topped.
And yes…I’ve seen a soft top Mk3 going through the machine…it was not a pretty sight at all.
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Hi, it was a lance wash. I did notice slight discolouration a month ago, but yesterday’s development was a bit of a shock. The doors and rear are all fine.
I will take it in to a bodywork specialist on Monday to get their take on it. Might be looking at a respray
I’d allow for an experiment on the nearside pop-up first as a test patch.
It can come off easily after all if needs be so let them try that first.
Wallet-damage limitation.
I had a VW which did that on the bumper after a wash. I assume it’s just water based paint obsorbing some water, (and that it had been resprayed at some point) the marks faded after a few hours, but eventually they stopped doing that completely and the paint stayed all mottled.
I have exactly the same problem with my 91 V-spec in “Neo BRG”…bonnet, boot lid and tops of wings, the horizontal surfaces where blobs of rain will sit…it started a couple of years after a cheap respray using water based paint over the original cellulose. I recently took it to get a quote for another respray (2.5K) and was told it is because there is no lacquer over the base coat…the unprotected base coat ages and the blobs of rain that stand cause these lighter marks because the water is actually absorbed into the paint film.
Buffing and waxing hold it back for a short time, but apparently the only long term answer is a respray with a lacquer top coat.
T/pete
Hi, I had a go at a small section the other evening, (near side pop-up cover and near side wing) with some T-cut. This seems to have done the trick on those areas, but was going to wait until I had more time (and the weather has cooled a bit!) to do the whole bonnet. I agree with you; I think it has had a respray in the past, and the last few washings have removed whatever wax was hiding the issue.
The foam in those garage Lance washes is like truck wash or TFR traffic film remover, a mild acid, so whilst it gets the car clean it strips any wax or sealant protection.
Not advisable to use really tbh.
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When you t-cut was the cloth clean or green? Clean = Laquered Green = not laquered
Hi, it was green. So I assume it’s not lacquered? Was the original paint treatment lacquered?
Auto glym hand was from now on, I think!
original paint was not laquered, only silver cars were laquered. BUT any respray by a lazy garage would be laquered. (easier to laquer than get a shine on the paint) .
Bumper may have been sprayed.
Give it a really good coat of Wax (not Polish) after the t-cut.
And stop using car washes as they use TFR which is quite agressive on unlaquered finishes and strip all waxes. Use a car shampoo that is ph nuetral
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Will do. Thanks!
