Need help.. Bought a 2008 on Saturday...noticed this today
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lightfreak
New member
Looks like the clear coat is damaged by some chemical.
Any other cars in the neighbourhood with similar damage?
Any other cars in the neighbourhood with similar damage?
Anonymous4Runner
New member
I cannot be too certain as I do not have first-hand experience with vandalism incidents like this but I have heard of car paint being ruined by certain products because of its chemical properties.
Can anyone verify if this damage was caused by something similar to an airplane paint stripper product? I google image'd an example of airplane paint stripper and pictures show severe peeling of paint - I imagine there is a product similar to this but far less effective.
Hope you figure out what happened here, OP. I would call the police and ask if there were any similar local reports in the neighborhood. Otherwise you may have pissed someone off to an extent where they knew where you lived and came back at night to vandalize which i hope is not the case here.
edit: it's a long shot here - but if nothing pans out with law enforcement, you can try go back to your dealership and talk to them about the paint job. ask to meet with the sales agent that handled your transaction and the service director with the G.M as a last resort. remind them you could have spent your money elsewhere but you put your trust and faith into the one you purchased the 4R from. they might be willing to fix it for you free of charge or offer a deeply discounted rate if they care about customer service, especially when the customer just purchased the 4R less than a week ago.
Can anyone verify if this damage was caused by something similar to an airplane paint stripper product? I google image'd an example of airplane paint stripper and pictures show severe peeling of paint - I imagine there is a product similar to this but far less effective.
Hope you figure out what happened here, OP. I would call the police and ask if there were any similar local reports in the neighborhood. Otherwise you may have pissed someone off to an extent where they knew where you lived and came back at night to vandalize which i hope is not the case here.
edit: it's a long shot here - but if nothing pans out with law enforcement, you can try go back to your dealership and talk to them about the paint job. ask to meet with the sales agent that handled your transaction and the service director with the G.M as a last resort. remind them you could have spent your money elsewhere but you put your trust and faith into the one you purchased the 4R from. they might be willing to fix it for you free of charge or offer a deeply discounted rate if they care about customer service, especially when the customer just purchased the 4R less than a week ago.
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Its not vandalism. My wife parks right next to me and her car is fine. The paint isn't peeling, its almost like some kind of chemical was splashed on there. I honestly cant make sense of it.
Billynath1988
Senior Member
does it feel any different to the touch? does it react to water?
Only consolation is that it may be possible to buff out (cheaply).
If you splash water on it, does it look "fine" for a brief second?
If so, probably can buff it out.
My wife's red car had some hard water deposits dropping down her rear view side mirror, looked like shit. 30 seconds with a microfiber pad, dual-action polisher and polishing compound and it was good as new.
Maybe the waterspot stain on grey looks like bad clearcoat?
If you splash water on it, does it look "fine" for a brief second?
If so, probably can buff it out.
My wife's red car had some hard water deposits dropping down her rear view side mirror, looked like shit. 30 seconds with a microfiber pad, dual-action polisher and polishing compound and it was good as new.
Maybe the waterspot stain on grey looks like bad clearcoat?
See if it feels different than the surrounding healthy paint when you run your fingers over it. If the surface of the clear coat is damaged, you may be able to use a product like Scratch-X to take off that top layer and improve this. My Dad had a similar looking discoloration on the front bumper of his 350Z and nothing worked until I hit it with some 3000 grit sandpaper, then 5000 grit sandpaper, and then Scratch-X to bring back the shine. This is safe on your clear coat (assuming you wet sand and don't sand for too long). The discoloration was still there but it was barely noticeable. Hope you get it figured out!
It doesnt react to water. It doesnt feel any different than the rest of the panel. Its smooth as everything else.
It doesnt feel any different at all.
Nashvillerunner
New member
It doesn't look like clear coat failure. What I would do is wash your vehicle then clay it and see if that removes it. If not maybe get some compound/polish with a da polisher and see if that takes care of it.
Nashvillerunner
New member
You could also maybe try some Citrol or other bug/tar remover and see if that takes care of it?
LTDSC
New member
its etched. Polishing wont help, that panel is done.
Definitely looks like something was splashed onto the paint that etched it.
I had this on an old car of mine that was black, if I polished it, it would look good for a few days but then come right back. Dealer might not of known any better as most used cars are detailed when being sold, maybe they thought they fixed the problem
I had this on an old car of mine that was black, if I polished it, it would look good for a few days but then come right back. Dealer might not of known any better as most used cars are detailed when being sold, maybe they thought they fixed the problem
I took it to a local auto body shop and they couldn't say what it was caused from but it does indeed look to below the clear coat. If you look at the running boards it seems like the white dripped down like something came off from the rain but I don't know what could do that. I called the dealership and they don't know anything about it. The salesman said he will talk to his boss about it. I've only had the car for 3 days.
theoutbackdream
New member
Might be a REALLY big stretch, but maybe there was some liquid wax from when they waxed the car, left in the side mirror, and the rain drained it out and got onto the panel....????
Either way... good luck.
Either way... good luck.
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Chewbaccam
New member
Looks like some chemical etching- I had some "water" splash over the hood of my other car, which turned out to be some sort of chemical washoff from the nearby construction and it was on there for a couple of days (I was on the way to the airport at the time so I couldn't wipe it off) and now there's some light etching that I have to wet sand and level off. Your etching looks rather massive and deep however, I'm not sure if you can repair that with wet sanding or if you'd need to repaint it entirely. At minimum, clean it off with something like Dawn to wash off any wax and see what damage you're working with and go from there (clay bar/wet sanding/polishes/etc).
