[a_moderate_mistake]

I had ceramic coat done on my '05 Arnage about a month ago. I noticed recently what I thought was water spots on the car (sometimes when I wash I don't dry because I'm lazy). My roommate washed the car a couple of days ago and pointed out that you can feel the spots with your fingernail. Looked closer, it's definitely the clearcoat coming off. The only plausible explanation I can think of is that the paint correction was too aggressive but you couldn't see it immediately after due to the car being shined with super-wax and it took a couple of washes for edges to peel up.

So, couple of questions. First, can you guys think of any explanation for this other than an overly aggressive paint correction? Second, has anyone had this happen before? What's my recourse? The shop is adamant that they only polished and didn't use compound, but I can't see any other possible cause.

 

[alabbasi]

Very odd, maybe the ceramic coat itself was incorrectly applied and is coming off? Take it to another paint correction place and ask them what they think could have happened. The guys you're dealing with now may be defensive, but I expect that if it's happened to you, it's something that someone in that profession would have seen before.

 

[Wraithman]

You can measure paint thickness. From what I see it is a lack of clearcoat. Polish is abrasive by design and they may have been too aggressive or had someone on the job that is not familiar with paint correction. Wax or ceramic coatings would not cause this.
This job should have started with a clay bar, micro polish, and then a ceramic coating.
Note: If your car is garaged and regularly washed and waxed, I do not see a need for ceramic coatings. Many of these new ideas (coatings) were from other fields, such as aviation and marine and the auto enthusiasts have figured "you need this" and now have something else to sell you.

 

[guyslp]

If you are someone who waxes regularly, then ceramic coating is probably overkill (and fairly useless when applied on top of wax - which does slowly wear).

But if you're someone who hates waxing (waves hand) then ceramic coating can be your very best friend. I'll never go back to paste wax again. The ceramic coating I've used is just so much easier to apply and holds up much longer than wax typically does.

 

[a_moderate_mistake]

So, brought it by the ceramic coating shop. Gotta say, excellent customer service. When we were all looking at first everyone agreed it had to be clear until the tech noticed something similar on the cowl. They brought it inside and took a buffer to one portion and fortunately it came off! We then noticed that if you looked very closely the discoloration was the inverse of what you would expect of clear coat coming off. The gradient went inside to out, versus outside to in.

The theory is I have very hard water at my house, car got hit by the sprinklers and the extreme heat (multiple days over 100 here in Denver) baked in the calcium. Messed up thing is it could only have gotten hit by the sprinklers one or two times while my girlfriend's car was occupying my garage due to a broken window regulator and waiting on parts. They're giving me a discount on buffing everything out and re-doing the ceramic.

 

[Wraithman]

The water droplets also act as magnifiers and together with hard water is hard on finishes.