How To Repair Ford Clear Coat Crows Feet

Henderson Hancy1944 · 05-25-2012,03:33 PM

05-25-2012,03:33 PM #1

Mike Phillips is offline

Member Mike Phillips's Avatar

Crows Feet - Lacquer Cracking - Paint Checking

Crows Feet - Lacquer Nifty - Paint Checking
Hither are pictures of Crows Feet and/or Lacquer Checking

Crows Anxiety in modern basecoat/clearcoat paint

This is a cropped out section of the original picture above to better testify the cracks.

Crows Feet in modern basecoat/clearcoat paint

Crows Anxiety in modern basecoat/clearcoat paint

Crows Feet in original unmarried stage piant

[/B]
1970 Mustang Mach ane Detailing Clinic at AutogeekOnline.internet

Frequently Asked Questions

1: What causes crows feet or lacquer checking?
Ane cause is the repeated expansion and contraction of the underlying console. Crows feet and lacquer checking is common on the hoods of cars. 1 reason for this is due to the heat generated by the engine. The engine heat transfers up to the underneath of the hood and causes the console to expand. Exposure to sunlight also heats the hood panel and expands the panel and thus the paint. When the hood cools off the panel contracts. To some degree, paint is formulated to be a flexible membrane merely there'due south a limit to how much a layer of pigment can expand and contract. Over time and exposure to heat, both engine estrus and sunlight rut, paint can become more brittle and less able to flex, when this happens, instead of expanding it cracks.
Old school solvent-evaporation paints like lacquers and enamels are more porous than modern clearcoats and dry out over time which causes them to go more than brittle. This is why you can often detect lacquer cracking on old unmarried stage paints on other panels besides the hood.

ii: Tin can crows feet or lacquer checking be fixed?
No. The cracks go through or into the pigment. Compound, polishing and even wetsanding will remove perfectly expert paint surrounding these cracks without removing them.
3: How can crows feet or lacquer checking exist stock-still?
The only way to gear up crows feet or lacquer checking is to repaint the affected area or repaint the panel.
4: How come the crows feet or lacquer checking showed up afterward polishing?
When you run a polisher over paint that has crows feed or lacquer checking with a chemical compound, polish or AIO, these product gild or embed into the cracks making them visible.
v: How can I become the compound, polish or wax reside out of the crows feet or lacquer checking cracks?
Y'all tin can try washing with soap and water. Another option that is risky is to try force per unit area washing the area, the idea being to blast the balance out of the cracks with pressurized h2o. The risk with this approach is it'due south possible to become water Nether the paint via the cracks and the blast paint off your car. This in essence turns a Mole Hill into a Mountain, every bit the expression goes.
6: Is there any manner to reduce the visibility of the crows feet or lacquer checking?
Some people have had proficient luck using a colored or pigmented wax.
Paint Checking

The below info and prototype are from an article on HOTROD Network
Help With Troubleshooting Paint Bug � The Causes And Curses
Paint Checking, sometimes referred to as crow�s feet, are cracks of diverse lengths and widths that bear witness up in a topcoat (if you�ve ever been to El Mirage or any other dry lake bed, you�ll recognize checking right off the bat).

This is i problem that has a number of possible causes. The most mutual causes are excessive film thickness, also short of a flash time betwixt coats, force-drying your undercoat (like using the blowgun to dry primer), and sometimes by using too much hardener or catalyst in the primer or paint.

The only mode to ready checking is to strip all crazed and croaky paint film and practise the whole job over. You can usually save yourself a whole lot of work by preventing the trouble by actually reading and post-obit all label instructions, past removing checked surfaces completely before you spray over �em in the first identify, and by making sure your material, both undercoats and topcoats, are thoroughly mixed before spraying.

Pigment Checking

My annotate....
The image higher up showing paint checking visually shows yous why you cannot fix any of these types of defects, Crows Feet, Lacquer Corking or Paint Checking by abrading the surface. Abrading the surface simply uncovers MORE of the cracks in the pigment. If the cracks are very shallow, then information technology may be possible to remove or at least improve the appearance of this blazon of defect by my experience is trying to moisture sand or compound pigment with this type of defect never removes it and results in thinner paint in the area.

The merely truthful set up is to repaint the area. Your other selection would be to larn to live with it.

05-26-2012,07:33 AM #2

BillE is offline

Super Member

Re: Crows Feet or Lacquer Checking

This is a single stage paint problem only or CC too?
Anyway to correct it?

Thanks...

Bill

05-28-2012,03:nineteen PM #3

Mike Phillips is offline

Member Mike Phillips's Avatar

Re: Crows Feet or Lacquer Checking

Originally Posted by BillE

This is a unmarried stage paint problem only or CC also?

Anyway to correct it?

Cheers...

Bill

It's actually a problem related to singel stage paints, both lacquer and enamel.
In that location's no style to fix it considering the cracks become "into" the paint and y'all hazard exposing primer if you try to remove 100%.

What I do is just maximize gloss and clarity and tell the possessor to either live with it or consider a new paint task. It'southward never fun to tell someone this merely that'south the facts Jack equally Bill Murry would say...

05-28-2012,03:21 PM #4

Re: Crows Anxiety or Lacquer Checking

Originally Posted by Mike.Phillips@Autogeek

There's no way to gear up it because the cracks go "into" the paint and yous risk exposing primer if you endeavor to remove 100%.

So a glaze is the way to get? (Other than a paint job)

05-28-2012,03:21 PM #5

Harleyguy is offline

Super Fellow member Harleyguy's Avatar

Re: Crows Feet or Lacquer Checking

Wow that looks similar it could use an extreme makeover .

05-28-2012,03:27 PM #vi

Mike Phillips is offline

Fellow member Mike Phillips's Avatar

Re: Crows Feet or Lacquer Checking

Originally Posted by bmwgalore

So a coat is the way to become? (Other than a paint task)

Compound, polish and seal.
Lacquer checking doesn't mean the paint is thin, merely croaky. I've buffed out lots of cars with lacquer checking over the years.

Unmarried phase lacquers and enamels are real pigment and they vitrify like it.

05-28-2012,03:27 PM #7

Mike Phillips is offline

Member Mike Phillips's Avatar

Re: Crows Anxiety or Lacquer Checking

Originally Posted by Harleyguy

Wow that looks similar it could employ an extreme makeover .

It's this car and information technology's coming up...

05-29-2012,07:38 AM #8

BillE is offline

Super Member

Re: Crows Feet or Lacquer Checking

Thanx for the answer Mike.
I've seen 'that' on what they call antiquarian Fine Article of furniture, but never on a automobile.

Looking forward to seeing that Ford...

Nib

05-29-2012,12:07 PM #9

BillyJack is offline

Super Member BillyJack's Avatar

Re: Crows Anxiety or Lacquer Checking

The hood of my El Camino looks almost the aforementioned (1987 original lacquer).
The old guys used to tell me that generating enough heat with a rotary volition melt the paint film back together, merely I recollect information technology'south a bodyman's myth, every bit no i has e'er been willing to endeavor and in my tests heat seems to open up the defects up wider.
My routines are:1) Proceed information technology fed with enough of Meguiars' #7. ii) If polishing is needed, utilise an oil-rich product such equally M03 or M80 and keep the speed slow, pressure light.
I've got mine shining plenty that the checking isn't very noticeable until you get your nose up close to the paint.
Maintaining a "survivor" is no picnic, then I'thou all ears if the "Primary Mike P" has some even so undisclosed tricks.
Beak

05-29-2012,12:28 PM #ten

Mike Phillips is offline

Member Mike Phillips's Avatar

Re: Crows Feet or Lacquer Checking

Originally Posted past BillyJack

The hood of my El Camino looks about the same (1987 original lacquer).

The old guys used to tell me that generating enough heat with a rotary volition melt the pigment picture show back together, but I think it'south a bodyman's myth, equally no one has ever been willing to endeavour and in my tests rut seems to open the defects upward wider.

I've heard that type of statement all my life but never met anyone that can show information technology.

Originally Posted by BillyJack

My routines are:i) Continue it fed with enough of Meguiars' #7. 2) If polishing is needed, use an oil-rich product such as M03 or M80 and keep the speed slow, force per unit area low-cal.
I've got mine shining enough that the checking isn't very noticeable until you become your olfactory organ upward close to the paint.

Maintaining a "survivor" is no picnic, so I'm all ears if the "Primary Mike P" has some yet undisclosed tricks.

Bill

Naught that yous're not already doing, the key is regular polishing with a time-proven product for unmarried stage paints. Both #7 and #3 fit the bill.