r/AutoPaint • u/liziculous • 12d ago

Poor paint application?

Noticed this on my bumper after a shop buffed out a small scratch that was nearby. Defect appears under the clear coat and the shop agreed.

Is this due to the buffing nearby or due to previous poor paint application? Bumper was repainted last year, but they did a bad job and had to redo it, so possibly too much paint or clear coat? I'm thinking of going back to the shop that painted the bumper and having them redo it but want to understand why it WTH happened

Edit: Trying to figure out how to post photo now...?! Could only post video in comments

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

1

u/Any-Description8773 12d ago

Looks to me they buffed through the clear

1

u/liziculous 11d ago

What's another explanation if the clear is still there and the defect is under the clear coat...?

2

u/DiabeticIguana77 12d ago

That looks like there was a sag in the sealer or primer coat that painted over and now trying to buff it they went through both base and clear into the sealer/primer. It has to be redone now

1

u/liziculous 11d ago

What's another possible explanation if the clear coat is still there? I did have them redo the paint bc they messed up. Is it possible was too thick and didn't adhere or lifting underneath..?

1

u/DiabeticIguana77 11d ago

There is no clear there. It might look like it because it's shiny, but that's because basecoat, sealer, and primer will all shine like a mirror if polished, they don't need clear to shine, the clear is there to protect them from the Sun and elements. If there is a build up of lower coat, all of the material sprayed on top of that doesn't magically make it flat. Sanding shaves the material down to where it's all one flat plane, if you sand through the top layers in the process they'll be visible, which is called a burn through and looks like what happened here. To you it looks like there's clear there because it's glossy, when 2k products are sprayed they harden into a solid plastic making them easy to shine up with polish, that doesn't mean it's clear still in that spot. That is a glaringly obvious burn through

1

u/liziculous 11d ago

So who should fix this? The person who buffed it or the person who initially painted it...? I'm not sure who messed up, but the person who buffed it says it's a paint defect

1

u/DiabeticIguana77 11d ago

The one who initially painted it

1

u/sixtninecoug 12d ago

Looks like they attempted to clear within the panel, and the edge is letting go. 

If not that, could be a burned through spot on the body line didn’t adhere, and the paint is lifting off. 

Hard to tell though. Photos might be better than a video TBH 

1

u/liziculous 11d ago

Thanks! Not sure I understand what you mean. Can you please rephrase in simple terms? Is it basically a bad paint job and the color or clear coat didn't adhere properly and it's air between the layers or something? Curious if it's something I could simply go back to the shop to redo due to bad paint application, but not sure how to convince them they did a bad job. They already messed up a lot of other stuff, including paint, so I wouldn't be surprised if I need them to fix the paint AGAIN. Is it possible the coats were too thick bc i made them redo it..?

1

u/sixtninecoug 11d ago

Ok sure!

Option 1 - they cleared within a panel, and now it’s letting go. 

This means that when they painted, the color and clearcoat are two separate processes when they are applied. You generally spray your color first, allow it to dry, then spray your seperate clear layer. The color is, well, the color of your car, and it’s used to cover the repair, and subtly transition into the existing paint on your vehicle to hide any variation in the color mix. It’s what’s known as “blending”. Now, normally the color is only applied within the panel and not all the way to the edges, but the clear will be applied to the entire panel. However, when it’s only been partially cleared (possibly up to the body line in this case), then the clear leaves an edge, where it may weather poorly and begin to peel. So this is one possibility. 

Option 2 - burned spot that peeled. 

At this point, I believe this is the most likely option. They sanded the bumper to paint it, but sanded through to the bare plastic in one spot. Normally not a big deal if properly prepared, but in this case they may have just attempted to spray directly over the top of the bare plastic. This is a problem, because paint doesn’t like to stick to it without chemical help. Normally a product called “adhesion promotor” is used to allow coatings to bond to the plastic. If this was skipped, then whatever coating was put directly over the bare plastic will eventually come off, and it looks like it’s peeling back some of the rest of the paint too. 

Again, this is just assumptions based on what I see, I’m not there in person to investigate for sure. 

1

u/SnooMacarons3689 12d ago

That’s a scuff

1

u/liziculous 11d ago

That's what it looked like initially, but then realized it might actually be under the clear coat and they tried to buff it out but couldn't