Hazing after tarping the bed

Hey,

This seemed like the closest forum for help. I trapped over my bed for a long trip and I think the rubbing might have damaged my clear coat. I apologize for the bad pictures, it is hard to capture.

It is little haze circles, they go away when I polish the car, I am afraid that this will get worse over time and ruin my paint. Is there anyway to fix it, commercial or otherwise. Am I overreacting?

 

If you don't know yet, the factory paint jobs are very thin and easy to scratch.

If you can minimize the damage by using your favorite was, that's about the best you can do without spending a large amount of money.

 

A cleaner wax with abrasives will improve it drastically. Or a fine polish might even fix it. You could pick up some Meguiars ScratchX and an applicator pad and try to improve it a bit by hand. If not, a pro detailer could buff it out quickly.

 

Thank you, so did I actually mess up the clear coat where it can be fixed or is that area going to oxidize eventually?

 

Depends on how much clear wore off. Only a paint thickness gauge will tell you that. You could stop by a pro detailers place and have him check it with his thickness gauge. He'd probably be happy to do it. Just takes a coupla minutes. Maybe he'd even buff it out for you for $20 if there's enough clear there.

How long were you driving with the tarp? My guess is that it's just hazy from abrasion and probably didn't "thin" very much, if any. But real hard to tell from my couch.

Can you get a better pic?

 

Unless you polished through your clear coat you are fine.

The only time it will get worse is if you keep putting a tarp on your bed.

Paint damage doesn’t get worse by itself.


I guess I’m confused on what your concern is. You got a little hazing by a tarp... then you say you polished it away.
What is the issue?

 

Three hours of drive time, my concern was I didn’t want my truck to get oxidation damaged like you see on some older vehicles. I couldn’t tell if the hazing from the tarp was the start of that or just damage to the finish.

I’ve waxed a few times and it looks good but as the wax wears it comes back.

I wanted to correct anything I might have damaged before it got worse.

I appreciate it, I will look for a promdetailer in Phoenix. Any recommendations? Hopefully the attached is better. If it is abrasion is it easiest enough to correct with the recommended products above by hand or take it in?

 

Yeah I think it's just lightly hazed. Totally "fixable" with a light polish. Personally, I'd go the ScratchX route. Get a foam applicator pad and some ScratchX. Put some muscle into the pad but "palm" the pad. Don't use concentrated pressure with finger tips. You don't want to wear a valley in the clear coat. Even but firm pressure.

If that doesn't get it out and you're not interested in investing in a machine polisher, then go to a pro. He'd have it buffed out in no time at all. Might even do just that one spot for 20 bucks.

When you wax it, the "fillers" (polishing oils/wax) are simply masking the hazing. When the wax or polishing oils wears away, the hazing becomes apparent again.

ScratchX has some polishing oils in it, so even with that, you might see it return. But it also has abrasives. So you'll see a combo of physical correction + masking due to oils. Might take a couple applications to get the job done.

You can mix 1 part isopropyl alcohol (70 or 90%) with 3 parts water to clean the polish off as you work... this will wash off the polishing oils so they don't mask the hazing.

 

Happy to help if you have questions. I know PacCon and Ace are happy to help as well.

 

His worry is that he might have thinned the clear to the point that he might see premature failure. I don't think that's gonna happen, assuming he gets it polished back to shiny and smooth.

 

Unless he used a rotary buffer and a cutting compound, I doubt it.

OP, What method did you use to polish? By hand? Dual Action Polisher? and what product did you use specifically?

Unless you went crazy it's going to be pretty hard to mess up your clear for a single time correction. If you did it by hand as long as you didn't use some epic compound, you aren't going to harm your paint by hand.

Now unfortunately, BBP is experiencing serious paint failures in the 3rd Gens. A lot of people are seeing their paint flake off after 6 months and full blown clear coat failures. Be on the look out for those problems and contact your dealer.

 

The abrasion was from the tarp, I haven’t polished it personally or tried to correct it.

Thank you both for the advice. That makes me more comfortable. Going to see if I can find a good detailer out here to knock this out.

 

I’m confused again. You said:
[QUOTE="Gjr003, post: 18937502, member: 178387”]
It is little haze circles, they go away when I polish the car[/QUOTE]

I’m back to not understanding what your original question is.

 

I should have said wax, I apologize. When I wax the car they go away. I haven’t done any correction to the abrasion from the tarp.

My questions were:

Did I damage it and will it cause oxidation?
If so how badly?
Best way to correct?

Sorry for being confusing using the wrong terms.

 

Yep, Wax is just masking the haze. When the wax wears off, the hazing re-appears.

 

Let us know how you come out with it.

 

As stated the wax just hides the damage.

Its hard to tell from photos but I seriously doubt you caused any irrepairable damage to the clear coat with the tarp. Its probably mostly heavy swirling in that area.

It should come out with a DA polisher and a white pad, which you could probably buy for the same price a detailer may charge to get it out.

Scratches and swirls technically increase oxidation because it increases surface area exposed to UV... but thats going to be negligible and not even worth discussing.
Leaving scratches and swirls alone and not fixing then does not cause oxidation. It just doesn’t look as pretty. But there is no harm to you paint by leaving them there.

 

Got this corrected today for $160 bucks. Polished the whole car and got most of my pinstripes out.

Thank you for the advice.

 

Good to hear.