Faulty paint

Maybe you can try getting just the clear coat painted on again? Seems like it's a clear coat problem

 

I have actually used rubbing compound, then a wax. Lots of work, but it restores the paint and the wax protects for a little longer.

 

I'd agree looks like a clear coat failure.
Calif...regulations now require water based paint.

I am not sure if just sanding the clear is possible; maybe a co-member/ professional painter can add some insights.

So why the failure?
I guess first step is to measure the paint's mil thickness to see if it was every repainted.
If OEM Toyota, year 2008, I'd imagine you are not the only one with this issue.

Either way...that s**ks.

Thinking outside the box, how about a DIY two tone paint job?
For example, sand the damaged area and re-paint flat black in your home garage.

That's my two cents.
Good luck.

 

Just to cover all the possibilities: could the car have had a previous repaint? This can even happen with a "new" car, before it's first sold; cars can be damaged in shipping, get a quicky repaint. We once bought a new car that had sideswiped something, coming off the ship I believe. One side was quickly filled, sanded, reprimed and repainted, and within months it was peeling.

Off-topic, but worth noting: in BC the standard new car contract, as printed, notes that the car can have up to 20% of it's retail value in repairs, before they need to disclose it. You're fully within your rights to cross this out, amend it to a lower value, say $500 maximum, IF the dealership will sign off on the revision. The 20% damage clause is just written by mortals, not dictated by God and chiselled in stone.

 

wow, never seen anything like that, even in our harsh climate. my daughters '08 looks like brand new, light green though. vinyl wrap?

 

I wouldn't use rubbing compound (until after the clear-coat was removed, and then only as required) or sand it. The best way I've found is to use a ceramic cooktop scraper with a fresh blade in it and be very careful with the blade angle as complacency will get a nick the underlying paint work (nothing touch up paint won't make look better, but avoid at all costs. Don't ask me how I know). Only attempt to remove the loose flakey CC which will result in a two-tone look, but over time the remaining CC will become loose. It is quite an easy job on large flat(ish) panels, extreme patience and care is required on curves and angles.

The most problems I have seen with a repaint is where they mask around the fittings, rather than remove them. It seems that unless the clear-coat goes right around to the back of the panel and the the fitting goes back on over it, the weather gets in at where is was masked and peels from there.

Once you have removed the clear coat, you can restore the underlying paint with rubbing compound (sparingly) and then wax it. It won't be as shiny as a good clear-coat, but it will look a whole lot better.

My $0.02 worth.

 

This happens on a lot of cars in CA. I'd say a good number of cars this old have this kind of paint damage parked outside. My Corolla has it on the hood and trunk as well. My 2006 Civic was developing it and it was parked in the garage for a couple of years. All it takes is the first scratch to expose a little and the sun will take its toll.

I'd use vinyl wrap. Saw aged vinyl wrap peeling on the roof of my neighbor's Civic and noticed its paint was peeling. He must park under a magnifying glass.

 

That paint is far too gone to do anything with - Once the clear coat starts to flake, its gone forever. Roofs are always the most neglected and punished parts of a car. The flatter the surface, the more industrial fallout, acid, sap, grit, poop, etc settles on it. The more that stuff settles, the more it etches and eats into the clearcoat. Once the clearcoat starts to fog, the end is near unless an aggressive cleaning/compounding is done. Once the clearcoat starts to flake off, exposing the base coat to the elements, the panel is lost and must be repainted.

That kind of paint damage is not unreasonable to expect if your car is parked outside in the sun most of the time, or sits under trees, or has had bird poop left on it for an extended period of time. Not waxing every few months will also lead to this kind of clearcoat failure.

 

@kdewester : Did you wax it?

 

hoods are bad too. Dark colors appear to look worse, likely due to absorbing more heat. Cars here in Virginia have that clearcoat problem too.

 

not sure how i ended up here, but as a former paint/body guy now working as a graphics/vinyl installer, this is right up my alley!

you can't repaint multi-stage paint in its individual stages. you'll have to respray the entire panel again, the shop was right. on the other hand, painting the roof shouldn't be very expensive as you wouldn't need to blend any of the other panels. just strip the old paint off and reshoot. unless there's been some crazy advance in paint technology that absolves all possible liability of your shop's work (clear coat) bonding both physically (old to new) and chemically (water based to solvent and/or between different brands). yeah...

rubbing compound will .. compound (*snicker) his problem. but in all seriousness, compounding a panel that looks like that will just take off the rest of your paint.

not sure what the suggestion is here? wrapping a roof panel that looks like that will only mean you're paying to postpone your solution. as soon as you take off the vinyl, your paint will go with it (best case scenario) or you'll have vinyl that wont stick to flaking CC + patches of flakes visible through the vinyl. vinyl doesn't hide anything, it just changes the color

ding ding ding! you can't say that X car that was parked in exactly the same conditions as Y car wasn't exhibiting the same symptoms, because said X car actually wasn't parked in the exact same conditions... unless X car = Y car and are one and the same. you could've driven that car anywhere where the roof (horizontal surfaces are most prone) was exposed to any industrial chemical. can you tell me with absolute certainty that the bird that pooped in car Y also pooped on car X? didn't think so.

edit: to be of some help, what i would do is:
- if on budget, use a large block and sand with 1000+ grit paper to take off the loose chunks of CC and feather whatevers left, then spray cheap spray-can CC to salvage whatever the undercoat looks like
- spend $300 or so and just have the shop do it correctly

 

2010 and the paint has been failing for 2 yrs. Toyota Escondido says there is no recall or fix available. Been a Toyota customer all my life. Time to rethink my next purchase if they don't Step up. t step up.

 

Terrible. Bubbling up too, beyond the bare zone. And they charged extra for that colour.