Can paintwork be damaged by rain

[Tyrone]

I was caught in a huge rainstorm yesterday coming back from Oulton. This morning I noticed lots of tiny paint chips on the top of the bonnet and nose, not on the usual places you would expect stone chips. Can rain cause such paint damage?

 

My RIF aeroscreen is also mark with white blooms even though there was no water standing on it this morning. White spirit and back to black?

 

NE Area Rep

Mass genocide is the most exhausting activity one can engage in, outside of soccer.

[Jason Plato]

probably grit within the road spray from other cars. The milky carbon sounds like moisture has got through the laquer or the carbon is porous.

 

go for a good blat and get it all doirty, she will be fine then

 

here is my Duratec R .... C7 TOP

Taffia joint AO with Al

 

[duffym]

it wasnt raining that hard was it?

 

think dave is right

[I.Mupferit]

I had the milky appearance on the carbon wings of my car after a particularly heavy rainstorm. I tried many things to get rid of it without success until I used black T Cut. After a bit of elbow grease, the white marks eventually disappeared and although from certain angles I could just make out where they had been, most people would never have known it was marked.

 

Once I had got rid of the marks, I put plenty of wax polish on the carbon to seal the surface and prevent it happening in future.

 

The odd thing was that the car had been rained on many times before, often heavily, without any similar problems so I don't know what suddenly caused it to happen this time.

 

 

[tweeky]

Rif`s own polish Here

 

Tweeky

 

In a purple haze

[Myles]

 

Sort of 😬

 

          🙆🏻 🙆🏻 🙆🏻 🙆🏻 🙆🏻

Alcester Racing

7s Ecosse™

^🙆🏻 🙆🏻 _🙆🏻 🙆🏻 ^🙆🏻

 

Alcester-Racing-Sevens.com

---

[Mickrick]

Maybe there where some hailstones in witrh the rain??

 

CC Carbon gets watermarks, but it disapears when the sun gets on it, and seems to dry the humidity out of it. (You'll be scuppered over there then!) Can't believe it's so expensive, and so crap! 😔

[Tyrone]

I'm not so bothered about the carbon, but it's the flat surfaces of the bonnet and nose which are damaged so I don't see how it could be grit and I'm pretty sure there was no hail in the rain, but it was hammering down. The whole bonnet and nose are covered in the chips. I'm not precious about the car but it does look 🙆🏻.

 

NE Area Rep

Mass genocide is the most exhausting activity one can engage in, outside of soccer.

[Dickie Normuss]

I went to look at a 7 a few years ago with a view to buying it. It had been caught in a severe hail storm and the bonnet and scuttle were covered in dents

[Mickrick]

Happens lots over here.

No kidding, some of the hailstones are the size of golf balls!

Dents the roofs, and bonnets of tintops.

I've been lucky so far, considering I park my truck in the street.

[jonboylaw]

When I lived in Nice we used to get some torrential rainstorm and after the water had dried up there was masses of orange duct/ sand about. Apparently the clouds pick up a lot of sand from the Sahara and dump it in the rain, or so the locals told me (Gullible Brit?)

 

Jon

 

 

 

-----------------------------------

She is back in my garage, ready for a re-build.

1992 LA, Xflow, Ford axle

[brianmurray325hotmail.com]

Depends Brian,

if it was frozen rain the size of golf balls like encountered at Lake Maggiore, Italy 6 weeks ago it can. Its cost me a new bonnet and scuttle.................anybody want a cheap but planished bonnet in titanium silver (sv)

 

 

[Mickrick]

Jon, it's true. We get "red rain" here. Sometimes there's so much sand in it, it's more like mud, than rain!

Bit of a bugger when it happens an hour before my Boss turns up to use his shiney white 27 meter gin palace!

[jonboylaw]

Mickrick,

He is probably used to all the sand about, make him feel at home 😬

 

Jon

[RiF]

Sorry to hear about your problems Brian, thought this should be posted re the carbon side to help anyone reading this thread. It is becoming far more common over the past 2 years.

 

It is Alkaline rain that damages unprotected carbon.

 

Frequently polished carbon, with the correct non water-base polish, will help protect.

 

Polishes like Mer Bumper polish accelerate the problem in alkaline rain.

 

Once damaged it can be improved but never properly removed.

 

Alkaline rain eats into the resin surface and added with UV the resin is just destroyed.

 

We have done extensive testing and have seen this on all cabon composites tested.

 

RiF Building a real super SUPER 7 with a V6 😬 😬 😬.For Build Pictures and LOTS of Carbon or try CA07BON for Henrietta's 7

[Alex Wong1697456877]

Thanks RiF - was wondering what was giving my carbon a sort of reverse fresian look - will try black polishes but if no joy, maybe time to get them painted.

[RiF]

Additional word of warning.

Some but not all polishes that you can buy (well the ones you would choose off the shelf) can remove a layer of resin as the solvents attack the surface, on a surface that has gone white. This has the effect of taking any gloss off and leaves a matt patch. Always try a small corner first.

I know I damaged some of my own car from some of these polishes

 

RiF Building a real super SUPER 7 with a V6 😬 😬 😬.For Build Pictures and LOTS of Carbon or try CA07BON for Henrietta's 7

[Mickrick]

I think the problem with the carbon is the fact that epoxy resin is not resistent to UV. A clear coat would give it some UV protection.

We have the same problem with epoxy resins on boats. We clear coat with varnish, to protect the epoxy.

[Tyrone]

Richard, my aero has been on the car for at least 3 years. I always seem to miss it out when polishing the car and it gets a rub over with the cloth I have polished with. There has never been any bloom on it in all that time. Last week I got the bloom on the cycle wings after I put the car away wet ( ), but I pretty much managed to get rid with white spirit and a back to black (Car Plan IIRC). After Monday, the wings are sound but the aero is as Alex says looking like a negative Fresian. Do you advocate the white spirit approach, do the solvents in the polish work that quickly to remove the resin?

 

NE Area Rep

Mass genocide is the most exhausting activity one can engage in, outside of soccer.

[Wil Akroyd]

i had the same problem on my nose cone and wings, tried everything. The only solution was so use a G3 compound and elbow grease. This removed the milky stain. Then I had the parts lacquered and they look great and twelve months on still look great. I would look to have them armourfended soon to prevent chipping the lacquer, not needed on the aero tho. But a cheap and permanent solution 😬

 

C7 WEA 1.6K DVA Power

[RiF]

white spirit and back to black

No way would I ever use these on a shiny carbon surface.

 

*eek*Rubbing compound removes a layer of resin leaving it even more exposed, mat and fibres near or on the surface

 

Lacquer looks great *thumbup*and does the job until it gets a stone chip, then water gets underneath and it blisters off .

 

 

RiF Building a real super SUPER 7 with a V6 😬 😬 😬.For Build Pictures and LOTS of Carbon or try CA07BON for Henrietta's 7

[RiF]

Mick is right but it is not just the UV but the alkaline rain too. We had samples around the world when we tested some resin system and our Easi-shine polish.

 

In places like Dubia with 16 hours of sun but little rain were far less agressive to the carbon surface than say Northern France, although I think the UV levels when sunny are actually higher in France. As soon as water was added to our tests, especially alkaline the problems were nearly instant.

 

 

PS Brian, solvents in polishes are instant in some cases, others take additional weathering with UV and water to accelerate them.

 

RiF Building a real super SUPER 7 with a V6 😬 😬 😬.For Build Pictures and LOTS of Carbon or try CA07BON for Henrietta's 7