db: MA and NH
Certainly explains how you can get away with never washing and waxing your cars, yet the paint is still good after several years
A colleague of mine was complaining that the clearcoat on his 10 year old car is starting to come off. He can’t park it in his 1-car garage, but he washes and waxes his car very frequently. In fact, I don’t know anybody who kept his cars looking as impecabble as he did. And his clearcoat is STILL coming off, in spite of it all
He is quite upset about it, and I can’t blame him.
I suspect it would have fared better in your neck of the woods
Ok, a little off topic, but ok for a little humor on Friday I think. Re BR living in MA, on the radio the hosts of the program talked about Google, which published which words were most often looked up, by state. If you lived in MA, the word most often looked up for correct spelling was “Massachusetts” … lol …
Db, I’d guess that your friend has a car the manufacturer of which was one that had/has process problems. If you get a poor paintjob from the manufacturer, there’s no way to prevent it from failing.
I don’t blame him for being upset either, or for the failing paint. It shouldn’t be happening.
I can’t spell it myself, without some thought or lookup.
Clear coat doesn’t last forever, examples of clear coat failure can be found by all manufactures in the sun belt. This is not a defect however some manufactures have a shorter life span than others.
Most testimonials for car wax and paint longevity seem to come from the Northeast and Midwest, not really a testbed for automotive paint.
I think the issue is with the aftermarket paint protectant, ’ Motor One’. I have an 2006 mustang that has spent its entire life outdoors in the Florida sun. Clearcoatt is as shiny as the day it was delivered.
All it gets is automatic car wash and a rare hand wax by me.
I live in the mountains in Mexico, a bit under 6,000 feet. So, sun damage would be expected to be worse.
Older GM cars delaminate at a very high rate. When I brought my 2002 Sienna here in 2005, a cousin recommended a sun port because he said the paint will fall off. I answered, “Toyota!”
I didn’t bother with a sun port for quite a few years, and to the day I took it back due to Mexican law changes, it had no delam at all. Some fading on the front.
However, I cheated. This may sound gross, but I live in a quarry town and the cars get covered with marble dust. So, I don’t wash it, and I get the impression that the dust actually protects the paint
the alert reader will not that having good paint probably doesn’t accomplish much if you can’t see the paint. Heh, heh. Still, when you do wash it, it looks pretty good.
There are two paint problems being discussed, paint delamination and clear coat fogging/peeling.
Paint delamination (color coat) is due to an adhesion problem, not sun exposure.
Clear coat failure is caused by sun exposure, light colored vehicles can last twice as long as dark colored in a harsh environment.
My colleague probably washed and waxed his car every month, if not earlier
Like I said, I don’t know anybody who constantly kept his car looking as meticulous as he did
His clearcoat is coming off, after barely 10 years
His car is light gray, for what it’s worth
Quite disappointing, when you consider there are SOME guys here who have cars even older, don’t take care of the paint at all, and the clearcoat is NOT fading. And they don’t park it in the garage, either
So maybe my colleague’s clearcoat was inferior to begin with . . . ?
Here’s a little story for amusement … A couple of years ago I told a friend of mine who was having problems with his car paint about my idea, that when you wax, don’t buff off the wax. Instead let it stay on for a couple of weeks before buffing. My theory is that this allows the wax to penetrate the surface better.
So last week I’m getting gas, and this car comes in, looks like it is covered in bird droppings. I mean lots of bird droppings. Turns out it is my friend, he had waxed his car a few days earlier … lol … He said he’d been trying out my idea and thought it was doing some good.
There seems to be a small indication the more you wash and wax your car the greater the likelyhood of issues? correct me if my recap is wrong.
I walked into a store the other evening and there was a roughly 5 or 6 year old Nissan Altima sitting outside. The car was black in color; or at least the sides were.
Most of the hood, roof, and trunk had already turned blotchy white.
The sun has a lot to do with it. I’ve seen cars that were 10 years old and immaculate but had been garaged most of their life.
Once resold and left outdoors the paint starts to peel and around here anyway, it seems that the worst areas are the ones most prone to direct sunlight.
The clear coat on dark colored Nissans and Mitsubishis will peel in 6 years, I have seen plenty.
What can I say? I’ve got a 20 year old black Oldsmobile sitting in the driveway waiting for me to get the nerve up to call the junk yard. It looks great though. Nice and shinny. No delamination of the clear coat. It always been waxed and washed regularly. Also sat out in the parking lot during school hours. Ten years ago, the trunk was getting dull but a little time with rubbing compound and a buffer brought the shine back again. Baked on wax though that’s been sitting in the sun for a while is not easy to get off.
I stopped washing cars 20+ years ago. No time for it and frankly, it hasn’t made much difference for me anyway. They seem to do just fine with the occasional rain shower or slush bath in the winter. The only cars in the garage are a few collectors (those are pampered). All the daily drivers and spare rides sit outside 24/7 and I never wash or wax them. I’ve never had one develop any of the problems being discussed. In fact, they don’t look much different than the vast majority of cars on the road. I used to be quite fanatical about my cars back in the day. Once you learn to stop, it can be very liberating 