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Paint Failure?

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Absparky

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Location
West Palm Beaqch
Cars
Lucid Air Touring, Q5
I find this stunning, but in a bad way. This is damage caused via a chip in the paint, about 2 weeks ago. How it could progress from a minor chip to this, i can't fathom. Is this possibly paint failure? It on the hood of my 23 Air Touring. It is fugly.
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Former paint guy here

Are you the original owner? That doesn’t look like factory paint. Or maybe a prior repair? It’s really odd paint texture.
It kinda doesn’t look like paint failure, it looks like something huge whacked the area and caused the paint around it to wrinkle. Do you know what hit it?
 
Absparky said:
I find this stunning, but in a bad way. This is damage caused via a chip in the paint, about 2 weeks ago. How it could progress from a minor chip to this, i can't fathom. Is this possibly paint failure? It on the hood of my 23 Air Touring. It is fugly.
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I don't know the relevance, but I had 70's era Porsche do the same thing.

What started as a very minor chip just expanded outward over months spiraling to be an area much larger than a basketball, so it is possible and potentially could continue.
 
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I am the original owner & have kept the car detailed well. I had it ceramic coated twice during the 3 years I've owned it. I didn't do the detailing myself, can't speak to the quality of the products used.
 
My detailer offered to me that the chip- probably caused by a rock, compromised the coating and water might have gotten under it?? Is this even plausible?
 
Absparky said:
My detailer offered to me that the chip- probably caused by a rock, compromised the coating and water might have gotten under it?? Is this even plausible?
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Something hit it hard and yes they is possible. Lucid paint os pretty high quality too.
 
Absparky said:
My detailer offered to me that the chip- probably caused by a rock, compromised the coating and water might have gotten under it?? Is this even plausible?
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Makes sense…rather paint ceramic coating, better to get a full body clear wrap. That’s what I got. Ceramic doesn’t protect paint. Waste of money.
 
I had the same issue on my Zenith Red car. Seemed like water got under the clear and it started peeling. Never seen anything like that before from a rock chip.
 
gaskiller said:
Makes sense…rather paint ceramic coating, better to get a full body clear wrap. That’s what I got. Ceramic doesn’t protect paint. Waste of money.
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You have no idea how many people don’t understand this. They think “ceramic” like strong and tough. Like a toilet. But it’s usually just silicone wax.
 
Eagleye said:
I had the same issue on my Zenith Red car. Seemed like water got under the clear and it started peeling. Never seen anything like that before from a rock chip.
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Same color as mine. How'd you resolve it? This isn't a paint pen fix for sure. With that coating, I think I better sit down and get the smelling salts...
 
"I'm Earl Scheib and I'll paint any car, any color for just $99.95, no ups and no extras" Looks like the OP has the infamous Diamond Gloss paint.
 
socktucker said:
Former paint guy here

Are you the original owner? That doesn’t look like factory paint. Or maybe a prior repair? It’s really odd paint texture.
It kinda doesn’t look like paint failure, it looks like something huge whacked the area and caused the paint around it to wrinkle. Do you know what hit it?
Click to expand...
Zenith red has a tinted clear applied in the factory, which looks a bit different when it flakes (on top of it being a 3-stage pearl color). A mil gauge reading will tell the truth if that panel was ever re-sprayed. In the collision repair world, we do not tint the clear when we apply it, we can duplicate the color effect with the approved paint lines that Lucid allows.
 
Andrew@CCRC said:
Zenith red has a tinted clear applied in the factory, which looks a bit different when it flakes (on top of it being a 3-stage pearl color). A mil gauge reading will tell the truth if that panel was ever re-sprayed. In the collision repair world, we do not tint the clear when we apply it, we can duplicate the color effect with the approved paint lines that Lucid allows.
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Interesting. I remember Acura used to do that on the Integras. It’s a gorgeous red topical you blend something like that without the clear?
 
Absparky said:
Same color as mine. How'd you resolve it? This isn't a paint pen fix for sure. With that coating, I think I better sit down and get the smelling salts...
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I “resolved” it by applying touch up paint to keep the clear from continuing to peel and ate the charge for “non-professional paint repair” when I returned the lease.

It seemed to me it was either that or a hood respray, which….yeah, not a chance.
 
socktucker said:
Interesting. I remember Acura used to do that on the Integras. It’s a gorgeous red topical you blend something like that without the clear?
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In most of the country, body shops are required to use a waterborne basecoat and a solvent based clearcoat. Since this is a pearl effect color, it has a layer of red base, followed by multiple coats of pearl to acheive the desired color. After that, 2-3 coats of clearcoat are applied to lock everything in and give the UV protection.

The type of damage on the OP's car can likely only be repaired with paint work. I have seen this type of damage from a rock chip and then if the car is pressure washed, it can accelerate the delamination of the clear.
 
Andrew@CCRC said:
In most of the country, body shops are required to use a waterborne basecoat and a solvent based clearcoat. Since this is a pearl effect color, it has a layer of red base, followed by multiple coats of pearl to acheive the desired color. After that, 2-3 coats of clearcoat are applied to lock everything in and give the UV protection.

The type of damage on the OP's car can likely only be repaired with paint work. I have seen this type of damage from a rock chip and then if the car is pressure washed, it can accelerate the delamination of the clear.
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Thanks for the easy to understand forensics Andrew! Its just plain unfortunate for me. I'm using this as a educational opportunity. Would you be kind enough to weigh in, with your expertise, on the merit - if any- of ceramic coating or as others have said 'clear coating' , post purchase - as part of a cars maintenance?? Or better off staying with a quality wax?
 
Absparky said:
Thanks for the easy to understand forensics Andrew! Its just plain unfortunate for me. I'm using this as a educational opportunity. Would you be kind enough to weigh in, with your expertise, on the merit - if any- of ceramic coating or as others have said 'clear coating' , post purchase - as part of a cars maintenance?? Or better off staying with a quality wax?
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Completely understand! Ceramic coatings are great to help provide UV protection and aid in the cleaning/maintenance of the paint, but to ultimately stop rock chipping, paint protection film (PPF) is the best solution on the market at this point. Ceramic coating is not thick enough to stop chipping.

One of the challenges in placing PPF or (even vinyl wrapping) on a Lucid is with the cameras, LiDAR, short range radar, and long-range radar sensors, any film material placed over areas of the vehicle where these sensors live, could result in diminished performance of those systems.
 
Andrew@CCRC said:
One of the challenges in placing PPF or (even vinyl wrapping) on a Lucid is with the cameras, LiDAR, short range radar, and long-range radar sensors, any film material placed over areas of the vehicle where these sensors live, could result in diminished performance of those systems.
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Just so nobody is confused: you just cut out the spots in the PPF around the sensors. It’s time-consuming, but doesn’t result in diminished performance at all, if you do that.

Just didn’t want anyone misreading it.
 
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