With cold winter weather come cracked and shattered paint.

[MongooseGA]

Is the Winter weather causing grief for anyone else? This morning I jumped in my 911 to cruise the 15 minutes to the office. It was maybe around 25 degrees out, with rain the night prior.

Come to around 2PM today and I head home early. As soon as I got out of my car I noticed that the paint on entire front end of my car, from the doors forward, has cracked almost like glass would. Frustrated, I jumped back in the car to run a few more errands. When I got home, the cracking was even worse.

Luckily, insurance is going to cover it and now I need to find some good body shops in the area that will "accommodate" me with the claim.


I'm going to try to work a total repaint out of the deal, so I've been spending time cross-shopping vendors for new rubber all around the exterior.


Moral of the story: I miss warm weather, but this may end up OK in the end for me.

[plumb4u2]

Originally Posted by MongooseGA

Is the Winter weather causing grief for anyone else? This morning I jumped in my 911 to cruise the 15 minutes to the office. It was maybe around 25 degrees out, with rain the night prior.

Come to around 2PM today and I head home early. As soon as I got out of my car I noticed that the paint on entire front end of my car, from the doors forward, has cracked almost like glass would. Frustrated, I jumped back in the car to run a few more errands. When I got home, the cracking was even worse.

Luckily, insurance is going to cover it and now I need to find some good body shops in the area that will "accommodate" me with the claim.


I'm going to try to work a total repaint out of the deal, so I've been spending time cross-shopping vendors for new rubber all around the exterior.


Moral of the story: I miss warm weather, but this may end up OK in the end for me.

I have never heard of that happening??
Did your car have a bad respray?

[manbridge 74]

Tough about the cracks.

Doubt it was Glasurit......

[MongooseGA]

Oddly enough, only the old, presumably original paint was damaged. The rear of the car was resprayed (albeit poorly) in the last few years and those panels seem to be fine for the time being.

It's supposed to get colder tonight so I'll see if anything else comes of it.

[boyt911sc]

My '73 VW bug was painted by MAACO in late 80's and the microscopic cracks showed up only after 15 years of street parking and the car was buried under snow the other day. Someone did a lousy paint job on your car.

Tony

[MongooseGA]

Originally Posted by boyt911sc

My '73 VW bug was painted by MAACO in late 80's and the microscopic cracks showed up only after 15 years of street parking and the car was buried under snow the other day. Someone did a lousy paint job on your car.

Tony

The rear of the car was surely a poor job. Unfortunately, I don't know the history of the paint on the front of the car.

It is quite possible it was a shoddy respray from years ago.

[Lapkritis]

Need pics... I've only seen this on enamel like Rustoleum.

[MongooseGA]

I'll try to snag some in the morning if there's sun light when I leave for work.

[ScottT80]

Thats interesting on the cracks. I'm ready for it to warm up again!

[Jerome74911S]

Good paint doesn't crack like that. It was -27.2F here the other day, with a windchill down way, way below that. Paint looks fine in these temps on any car with a proper paint job.

Sorry to hear about this disagreeable problem, and I hope you get a good resolution.

[dshepp806]

Originally Posted by MongooseGA

Is the Winter weather causing grief for anyone else? This morning I jumped in my 911 to cruise the 15 minutes to the office. It was maybe around 25 degrees out, with rain the night prior.

Come to around 2PM today and I head home early. As soon as I got out of my car I noticed that the paint on entire front end of my car, from the doors forward, has cracked almost like glass would. Frustrated, I jumped back in the car to run a few more errands. When I got home, the cracking was even worse.

Luckily, insurance is going to cover it and now I need to find some good body shops in the area that will "accommodate" me with the claim.


I'm going to try to work a total repaint out of the deal, so I've been spending time cross-shopping vendors for new rubber all around the exterior.


Moral of the story: I miss warm weather, but this may end up OK in the end for me.

Without question, contact John Holt at Hot Wheels in Marietta, GA. The best!!!

Doyle

[MongooseGA]

Originally Posted by dshepp806

Without question, contact John Holt at Hot Wheels in Marietta, GA. The best!!!

Doyle

Doyle,

Thanks so much for the suggestion. I will be doing some searching around. There's a bit of a political game that I'm going to play as I want to have the whole car painted at the same time.

I met with the field rep for my insurance company today. Just like I thought, and everyone here agrees, the agent had never heard of cold weather damaging paint like this.

I realized that the front of the car has in fact been resprayed at some point, and the rear of the car was done much more recently. The rear has been fine in the weather but was a generally poor job.

Per the field rep's report, the claim calls for refinishing of the following panels: front bumper, hood, cowl, passenger fender, driver's fender, passenger door, driver's door, both rear bumper extensions, and the fiberglass base for my whale tail.

As promised, some pictures. These were the best I could get to show up on camera.







Is anyone interested in doing an even swap for their fiberglass ducktail and my fiberglass turbo whale tail? The Rubber on mine needs new bracketry installed, but it should be a simple DIY.

[Jerome74911S]

After seeing your pictures, I recall that I had the same thing happen to a high-end bicycle while it was being transported back from a bike show. The bike was outside on a roof rack, and driven a couple hundred miles in very sub-freezing temperatures. It had the factory original finish, and the factory, after analyzing it, concluded that it was the clear coat that had crazed like that. Some sort of temperature shock, they said.

[redridge]

temperature shock at 25deg???... I was out at 2 deg today in NJ.... scary, now I need to check my car out for these cracks.

[Lapkritis]

Looks exactly like I've seen with enamel clears in the past. Same exact effect... have a car here with it now. Not a cheap or easy fix... full strip to get it all off.

[MongooseGA]

I hadn't thought of the paint maybe being enamel. I suppose that may explain this. What's the likeness of being able to properly blend the paint to the areas that haven't cracked? The example, the cowel cracked but is attached to the roof and rear quarters that did not.

[Lapkritis]

A blend is possible... enamel is often less hot so you can lay it on anything. The problem is when you try to paint on top of the enamel... it will often flash and lift.

[MongooseGA]

Originally Posted by Lapkritis

A blend is possible... enamel is often less hot so you can lay it on anything. The problem is when you try to paint on top of the enamel... it will often flash and lift.

Ideally (for me), it cannot be blended. That accomplishes my wish of having the rest of the poorly done paint job redone as well.

[tirwin]

+1 for John Holt

[MongooseGA]

Originally Posted by tirwin

+1 for John Holt

Thanks for the input. Anyone happen to know off-hand if Holt does insurance work? And are they willing to play ball for me?

Don't I owe you a beer some time?

I've got some ignition trouble shooting to do this weekend. You're more than welcome to come supervise.