Burned Clear coat?

[liquidred]

 

Damaged Paint

 

 

This is a 2008 Pontiac G8 GT

 

I am a rookie when it comes to machine polishing, done a few cars and overall pretty decent with the results.

 

So today I was using a Flex Polisher along with the 5.5 inch pads and the 2 step correcting polish. All was going well then I noticed one of my pads had a hint of red on it. In certain degrees of light you can see a 2 inch by 1 inch discoloration in the paint. I am totally clueless. I am assuming I burnt through the clear coat? The paint feels the same as the normal paint. Is there anyway to tell? I am open for any suggestions or opinions. 

 

I maybe a rookie, but I did not think I did any polishing wrong? (However I must of)  I did not put any pressure down on the flex, just went back and forth then up and down in the 2 x 2 area. 

 

The picture is really hard to tell, its only visible in certain conditions. Please see the picture below.

 

Damaged Paint

 

 

 

(I think this pictures should work)

Edited September 3, 2017 by liquidred

[liquidred]

[liquidred]

Thanks for the help! Hopefully this is not to bad, fear the worst! 

[Ls1transam]

It's hard to tell from the pic. Does it look fuller than the paint around it?

[mc2hill]

To me it looks like burn through, especially with your mention of the paint color on your pads.

[liquidred]

[liquidred]

It is very hard to tell in certain views. I am assuming I burnt through the clear coat. Sucks... The entire car turned out nearly perfect until the end. 

 

This ever happen to anyone? I am assuming with clear coat or something damaged like this I would have to repaint the entire hood?

 

Thanks for the help with this. 

[joelilton23]

Has the vehicle had any accident damage repaired at all? Possibly a bumper touch up or something? Could be a single stage paint repair causing paint transfer. 

[pirahnah3]

It looks like burn thru, but its in a spot that could be due to several factory. 

 

If you have owned the car since new then you would know of accidents, if not that could be a prime spot for a bad blend from the front bumper or a hood edge repair/repaint. 

 

It could be burn thru as that edge of the hood would see a lot of wear from both elements and being thin to begin with. 

 

It could have also been a bad spot from the factory that didnt get much if any of a coating to begin with. 

[liquidred]

I bought the car brand new, it has never been in an accident. However, when I bought the car it came with a front license plate that I had taken off then the bumper touched up. This part of the hood is the closest part to the bumper. So maybe it is just that? 

 

Thanks for the help and information. Live and learn I guess.

 

Appreciate the help!

[BRZN]

Are you using the backing plate that came with the Flex or have you switched to the smaller diameter one.

 

The 5.5" pads are tough to center where the backing plate won't be exposed. The backing plate may have touched the paint and started the clear removal.

 

The smaller diameter backing plate that allows the 5.5" pads to fit with no backing plate exposure makes the machine more powerful. Adam went to a smaller backing plate on the PC a few years ago to make it more powerful.

[hemi1300]

I did the same on my 14 dodge ram Laramie last year. Was trying to remove etching from bird crap on the hood. Got it just about perfect, went one more pass and now have a 2" circle dead center of my hood that is dull bc I went through clear. Almost cried when it happened. Have just learned to live with it, it's very hard to see anyway.

[liquidred]

Are you using the backing plate that came with the Flex or have you switched to the smaller diameter one.

 

The 5.5" pads are tough to center where the backing plate won't be exposed. The backing plate may have touched the paint and started the clear removal.

 

The smaller diameter backing plate that allows the 5.5" pads to fit with no backing plate exposure makes the machine more powerful. Adam went to a smaller backing plate on the PC a few years ago to make it more powerful.

I am using the same one that came with the flex. They are very difficult to center, but I thought I was close enough. Apparently I was not. I was not aware of the backing plate sizing changing. Thanks for the information.

 

It is a real shame, the 99% of the car turned out perfect. Looked great, until the end. The car has about 65k miles on it and the paint seems kind of fragile on the car. The hood has its fair share of chips on it. I may just see how much it is to get the hood corrected. 

 

Thanks for all the help and information. 

[shane@detailedreflections]

Sorry that happened to you liquidred. If it is burn through (from the pics that's my guess), you'd have to talk to a body shop about new clear coat and your options. I couldn't even venture a guess as to what they'd charge or the process involved with any knowledge.

 

Just as a point for those who correct paint regularly, this is exactly the reason why we use a paint thickness gauge on every job we do. We will take a variety of readings around the vehicle to get a feel if panels have been repainted or if there are thin spots. The gauge we use doesn't differentiate the layers, but we typically measure in a door jamb where there isn't much clear coat to get a feel for the thickness of the clear on the rest of the vehicle (take average measurement and subtract inside the door jamb to get the average thickness of the clear coat). This isn't the most accurate way, but it does the trick pretty well since the gauges that separate layers are a couple of thousand dollars. You can pick up a garage pretty reasonably if you look around fhag would help anyone who does correction regularly.

 

I've seen a couple cases like this posted in spots (here and elsewhere) recently and it's something that may be helpful in preventing in the future.

 

Hope you can get it fixed to your satisfaction liquidred.