Crack in clear coat

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 02, 2023 1:46 pm
I have searched everywhere and haven't been able to find an answer. My 2012 corvette got it's door smacked into the side of the garage. There were scratches sideways but those will easily come out. My concern is there appears to be a vertical crack in the clear coat and my nail definitely gets caught in it. I highly doubt it's a scratch just by the nature of it. Is there any way to salvage this without having to bring it to a body/paint shop. I was wondering if wet sanding it would resolve it. Or, if not that maybe wet sanding and then using some clear coat. I've never done the clear coat bit on a car before so not sure how hard that is. Any suggestions would be awesome. In the picture attached you can see the crack where my knuckles are. Thanks!
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 02, 2023 8:47 pm
ouch from what i see in the photo you will need to sand it out and repaire /paint/clear

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PostPosted: Sat Jun 03, 2023 5:41 am
Are you sure that that is a crack? It takes a lot of bending to actually crack modern clears, a lot more than the scratching along the edge of the door would suggest. Possibly not a defect from a previous repair?
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 03, 2023 10:54 am
That Door panel is made from SMC I be-leave? I am not a C6 Guru BUT it appears to be cracked under the Paint sorry to say.
To be cracked their like that I would not be surprised to see the inner structure of the door cracked as well. You may need a whole new door? depending on amount of damage on the inside.

SMC can be repaired, its similar to fiberglass material but is repaired with very different materials than fiberglass. It requires special stuff to repair it. I just ordered a Batch of it to repair a couple small cracks in My C5 before I repaint it.
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:24 pm
So I attempted to wet sand it and see what happens. It actually came out almost complete. You have to look really hard to see anything at all. Unfortunately I do have 1 scratch lower down from the same incident that appears too deep to come out. I wet sanded it and buffed it and it just won't go away and I don't want to take too much clear coat off. Here's the only remaining scratch.
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 03, 2023 9:06 pm
Loved to be proved wrong :goodjob:
Cant help but go for the throat, I never get lucky! Glad you did!
I have a similar spot on my c5 rocker panel but its definitely cracked looks like your's did.
Till you push on it then it opens up.
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Line Maintenance A&P Mechanic and MOC Tech specialist.

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PostPosted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 6:28 am
Love to hear good news stories.

For that scratch that is leftover, try wetting it with some Prepsol (W&G Remover). If it disappears then you'll only have to brush touch some clear into it to make it pretty much disappear. If not then touch up or respray the whole door, depending on the standard you want.
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 05, 2023 8:46 am
NFT5 wrote:Love to hear good news stories.

For that scratch that is leftover, try wetting it with some Prepsol (W&G Remover). If it disappears then you'll only have to brush touch some clear into it to make it pretty much disappear. If not then touch up or respray the whole door, depending on the standard you want.


Thanks for the info. I've gotten pretty good at spot fixing and wet sanding. Wouldn't spraying some oil or water do the same thing? If the scratch goes away then it would just be missing clear coat, right?

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PostPosted: Tue Jun 06, 2023 6:41 am
Water won't "wet" it and oil will soak in, making subsequent painting difficult, if not impossible.

Do it the way I described.
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 09, 2023 8:08 pm
NFT5 wrote:Water won't "wet" it and oil will soak in, making subsequent painting difficult, if not impossible.

Do it the way I described.


Thanks. Where do I find this prepsol? I can find prep all but I don't think that's the same thing.
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