Surprised to find black paint discolored

[Dave311]

I have a company car so I cover my Honda Accord coupe during the week. I recently pulled my car cover off and found a football-sized area of oily/cloudy discolored area. The car was recently color corrected so to much wax and or ceramic coating wouldnt seem to be the issue I see in the forums. Any ideas how to treat this? Any ideas how to avoid this?

[tlbullet]

Odd....any chance there was something on the inside of the cover?

[Norton]

22 hours ago, Dave311 said:

I have a company car so I cover my Honda Accord coupe during the week. I recently pulled my car cover off and found a football-sized area of oily/cloudy discolored area. The car was recently color corrected so to much wax and or ceramic coating wouldnt seem to be the issue I see in the forums. Any ideas how to treat this? Any ideas how to avoid this?

 

What, exactly, is the "color correction" to which you refer? Did it involve any type of coating? 

 

Is the car covered indoors or outdoors? Are you in a dry or moist climate? I've seen that effect previously on a car that was covered outdoors in a moist climate. IIRC, it appeared in areas where the cover became damp and laid directly on the paint for an extened period. Treatability depends on how deep the effect is... I'd try polishing it. If that doesn't work, I'd move to compound. If that doesn't work, you may be looking at repainting the area.

[Dave311]

Checked the cover nothing visible.....took some fine cut compound and tried buffing it out. The bad news, it didn’t change anything other than improving the shine and depth of the discoloration 

[Dave311]

Regarding the color correction. Clay bar and water then Mequire’s cleaner-fine cut compound. 

[Norton]

2 hours ago, Dave311 said:

Checked the cover nothing visible.....took some fine cut compound and tried buffing it out. The bad news, it didn’t change anything other than improving the shine and depth of the discoloration 

I was afraid that might be the case. I'm sure others will chime-in if they have other ideas, but I'm not aware of anything besides polishing/compounding or repainting to fix the issue.

 

2 hours ago, Dave311 said:

Regarding the color correction. Clay bar and water then Mequire’s cleaner-fine cut compound. 

I hadn't heard it called "color correction" previously but, aside from the use of water rather than Detail Spray, that's a pretty typical paint correction.The biggest negative side-effect might have been marring from the clay bar, since water probably didn't lubricate it sufficiently. That would have been obvious while you were using the clay, and polishing should have removed the marring.

[Dave311]

Dear Norton,

 

So this morning in better light the polishing compound did seem to have reduced the discoloration where I spent the most time.

I'll hit it again tonight with a heavier compound. Saw a youtube using a heat gun (Seems a bit risky). So, thoughts on using the cover?

I'm thinking I could attach pool noodles to the cover that would rest on the glass to provide a little more air under the cover.

Obviously I will keep a much closer on whats going on under the cover and remove it immediately after a rain but this was kind

of why I get the cover...go figure. Thanks for your input.

 

ddw

Edited September 17, 2019 by Dave311
grammar

[Norton]

Happy to TRY to help.  Be careful as you escalate the aggressiveness of your tools - you don't want to make a bad situation worse!  (Toward that end, I'd avoid the heat gun.)

 

I cover my Shelby throughout the winter months, but it's tucked safely in the garage and the climate here is very dry, so I've never had a problem.  If your car is stored outside, you definitely need to give things a chance to air-dry without being sandwiched against the paint.  Your pool noodle plan might work but, another consideration when using a cover outside is wind.  Over time the action of the wind moving the cover will cause marring/scratching on the paint.  As if that's not bad enough, there's no way to keep a certain amount of dust/dirt from making its way under the cover (especially as water makes its way through) where it will increase the probability of paint damage.  I'm not sure what kind of cover you have but, if covering the car outside is your only option, make sure it's a quality one designed for outdoor inclement weather use and that both the car and cover are clean every time you put it on.

[Dave311]

All good stuff, Unfortunately its a daily driver so outside is the only option (hence the cover). To conservative to go with the heat gun. It occurred to me I had a similar problem years ago when I lived in the south (1985 Toyota 4runner) in the 80's when Le bra's first became popular. Think I'll just go at it slowly with the polishing compound so I can see how things progress. I didn't skimp on the cover which is waterproof (Perhaps only resistant) designed to breath. I'm actually hoping the problem will sort itself out when our weather once we're into fall with less direct sun.  

 

Thanks, Dave311

PS: Nice car!