Paintwork Abnormality
 

Hi
My 75 is finished in Starlight Silver and on the horizontal panels, bonnet, roof and boot lid, as developed what looks like hundreds of tiny scratches and is slowly getting worse. It looks awful when the sun catches it at the right angle. No scratch remover produce or nano clothes have any effect, in fact you cant even feel what looks like the scratches with a finger nail, it's as if the colour or clear coat is breaking down under the surface.
As anyone else experienced this with their paintwork and possibly found at least a method of masking it.

My roof is exactly the same:o No amount of polishing, or compounding makes it any better. I'm thinking a respray is the only option.:shrug:

Have you ever discovered the cause? Its all a bit soul destroying when you go out your way to maintain the rest of the car in tip top condition.

it sounds like the lacquer is breaking down. The various reds seem to suffer from it the most or earlier than other colours.

unfortunately if it is, I believe it needs to be rubbed down and painted with top and clear coats.

There are posts regarding it.

and THIS video found HERE

Sun/UV, cheap/old materials, poor preparation, thin coats, general scratching allowing weathering into it, are what I have read.

I remember reading an article whereby a certain motor manufacturer painted the basecoat in one room and the lacquer in another. A difference in temperature on the bodywork on the journey from one room to the next caused a "bloom" on the basecoat which reduced the bonding of the basecoat to lacquer. It only happened in certain weather conditions, on certain days, so was not constant through the same models over the years of production. I seem to remember that it was a Ford problem but something similar may have happened at MG Rover? Perhaps some of the old staff may remember what happened at MGR?:shrug:
Crazing?

because of union involvement and bad management, in the 70's BL would move some cars to different site, even body in white! They came painted with rust!

If it's concerning you then it's going to need painting .
It's called crazing and it's caused by a new base coat and top coat not really gelling .over time contracting and shrinking causes this .
But ? You are then relying on a good colour match .
This could be more of an issue than the crazing.
The car will probably have had paintwork at some point as if it was from the factory the whole car would be affected
And the fact it's across a panel suggests it's been blown in to match the pannel

I have a similar problem with my solar red ZT, quite a few paint defects are now popping up, seems to be getting worst each year.

The bonnet has lots of tiny pimples which actually looks like chickenpox, the spots are raised and can be felt if you rub your hand over the bonnet. :eek:

The N/S front and rear doors has several circular areas of crazing, small circular raised crack lines.

Plus the roof and boot has faded, seems to notice in certain sunlight, quite strange really.

The old girl really does need a respray. :duh:

Sounds like it's had some paintwork in the past . many good paint refinishers are often working in conditions where 1 car in 1 car out between prepping and sometimes exposed to the different elements and temperature.
If you have the to paintwork re finished then it will be have to be sanded back to the original layer or it will just come back.
I have painted in excess of 200 full resprays plus individual panels blending preparation ect in excess of 800 different vehicles. Worked for different organizations and fairly much seen it all