Has anyone ever encountered this?

[Brenton]

A guy called with a 98 Toyota 4-Runner, White, one owner. It is completely dull, so he took it to a local shine place, and they couldn't get it shiny. Then he took it to the Toyota dealership, and they tried stuff, but no go. They said, "your clear coat has worn off".

What the?

First, I've never heard of clear coat wearing off evenly without flaking or peeling.
Second, there is no detailing damage done in the history of the car.
Third, it can't just be base coat left or there'd be scratches everywhere.

Has anyone heard of this? Fill me in?

It's just a strange week in detail world for me.

[GregCavi]

sounds like oxidation. Got any pics?


Greg

[Brenton]

Originally Posted by GregCavi

sounds like oxidation. Got any pics?


Greg

No pics yet. He's coming by tomorrow.
It does sound like oxidization, but you'd think a pro shine shop would pick that up, or the detailer at least.

[GregCavi]

it doesnt suprise me the least to hear that a dealer would say that. I have heard dealerships say that about cars. They jsut say it needs a good coat of wax haha.

Greg

[Picus]

'98 with no history of damage? Has he had it excessively polished or had any re-paints done? If no, I would say it's not likely his clear is gone. Oxidized? Sure. Gone? No.

Two weekends ago I did my dads van which is a '92, sits outside all day on the sun, snow, whatever. Has 320km, and gets washed with a mitt that looks like a pine-cone, and he still had plenty of clear and the shine came back no problems after a few passes with OCP. It was really badly oxidized so it took some work. I think the truck you're going to look at will be similar.

[Beemerboy]

The clear has not come off...I would get some light cut compound or PB SSR2.5 rub the hood a bit and see what that does....I bet that it will cut threw the oxidization....A good wash, clay, would be good start.....depending on what it looks like after that I would most likely use my rotary with a cutting pad and some light cut product or polish......I'd bet that will take what is on the surface and start to bring back the luster....

[Brenton]

So....
The guy stopped by today.
THE CLEAR HAS NOT COME OFF.
Of course. I was hoping to see something new, but no. I cleaned a small area, clayed it, and used Farecla G6 compound on a small area. The shine for the most part returned.
So the guy left the car. It took about five hours to remove the heavy oxidization, using the Farecla G6 compound and a heavier commercial grade cut polish in a few areas. I had to use 5.5" & 7" foam pads as well as the wool bonnet on the sides. It didn't come 100%, but 98%. I was afraid to go any further or I would have.
I snapped the after pics late in the day, so I'll get better ones tomorrow. It is hard to capture a white film on a white car, but here we go.

Edit: I won't actually post pics until someone can explain to me how to do it without going as huge as my pics are.

[jaybs02]

PEI this is a thread that I posted about picture resizing , then you can either host them from your site or www.photobucket.com , or one of the many other free picture hosting sites

"J"

[Picus]

You need to resize them using some sort of software, like photoshop. Then upload them to some webspace, your own or imageshak or whatever. If that's too much trouble you can email them to me and I will do it for you. kevin@kbhamill.com.

Edit - or what jaybs95 said.

[Beemerboy]

PEI

I suppected that is what was wrong and glad that you could help this guy out and give him some straight answers.......Also can you send me a bag of the PEI black mussels and some malpeck oysters