Help! My paint is cracked!

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cruiser

cruiser

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Hi All: I could use some help in the paint department if you wouldn't mind. My 74 Duster came from the factory with JY9 Tahitian Gold paint, and was repainted once in 1988 in the same color. I've noticed some odd cracking on my trunk lid and hood - see photo. The rest of the paint is just fine. I've seen products advertised to make these cracks go away, usually a fluid that you rub into the crack. I don't want to repaint these areas, just looking for a cheap fix. Has anyone ever used a product that makes these cracks go away, something that you've used and can recommend? Thanks!

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There isn't a magic cure for this. There is an application or product failure that will just continue. You could attempt to touch it up but it will look like crap.
 
67Dart440GT said:
There isn't a magic cure for this. There is an application or product failure that will just continue. You could attempt to touch it up but it will look like crap.
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Is too is too. It's called a new paint job. lol
 
It depends on how good you want it to look. That area could be touched up with some good matching paint CAREFULLY applied and some clear applied only to the cracked area. Even if the paint was a near perfect match, the repair would not be invisible. You need to have the areas repaired and professionally painted / blended to make it look good.
 
well i've used color crayons and then a good wax job to shine her back up . don't use a wax or polish that dries white , get a carnuba wax . there nothing in those to dry white .
 
well lacquer cracking or checking . that paint never really dries completely . and if you use sealing waxes and or polishes . the paint can't breath , so it splits to breath . also sun light and its heat of the day is bad for lacquer paint jobs . i have been paint'n from the early 70's on . and my first racing helmet is just like it was back in the 70's . because i never use a wax that seals , carnuba wax is the reason . now it has not been waxed or polished in mure than many years , but here ios some pics of my bell star 90 . yes 90deg view , its a 70 issue bell star . well it was just to dusty in the first two pics . so i wiped it off for better pics of my old helmet , my race bike was painted the same . it still looks good nicks n all .
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Those cracks aren't all that bad, but it is the White Wax that is stuck in them that makes it stick out like a sore thumb.

Take a soft toothbrush and some dawn dishsoap and water and see if you can get that wax out of there.

If it is tuff coming out, might have to let it soak for a bit with a damp wrag. Can help it along with a wooden toothpick that you have chewed on for 5 seconds to help work it out.

McGuiar's has some paint polish Products to use as a final polish that don't turn white, but still seal the paint.

McGuiarsdirect.com

Can try some of this to help clean out the wax and polish the deck lid.

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Here is a video too:

 
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pomonamissel said:
well lacquer cracking or checking . that paint never really dries completely . and if you use sealing waxes and or polishes . the paint can't breath , so it splits to breath . also sun light and its heat of the day is bad for lacquer paint jobs . i have been paint'n from the early 70's on . and my first racing helmet is just like it was back in the 70's . because i never use a wax that seals , carnuba wax is the reason . now it has not been waxed or polished in mure than many years , but here ios some pics of my bell star 90 . yes 90deg view , its a 70 issue bell star . well it was just to dusty in the first two pics . so i wiped it off for better pics of my old helmet , my race bike was painted the same . it still looks good nicks n all .View attachment 1715923558 View attachment 1715923559 View attachment 1715923560 View attachment 1715923561 View attachment 1715923562
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Or the fact that it hasn't sat in the sun for 40 years.
 
The Fishers will soon make a masterpiece
 
Wow, taking another look at this.

This doesn't look like the paint failed at all, it looks like a Human Being picked up a suitcase that was sitting on a gravel driveway and threw it up on the trunk lid and scratched it up.

Those white marks are scratches in the paint that are man made on top of the nice paint job. Same with the marks in your hood. Someone has been setting things on the flat surfaces of your trunk lid and hood, like it is a work bench or table top.

You know, like UPS cardboard delivery boxes, ice coolers, laundry baskets, cardboard box your new kitchen faucet came in.

The patterns of those scratches look like someone picked up some gravel with a box and then slid it around back and forth on the trunk lid.

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My Opinion . . . Paint failures don't have definite start and stop points.

Some of those scratches may buff out of there with some rubbing compound, depending on how much clear came to the top of your single stage paint when it was painted many years ago.

If it is single stage paint you have to be real careful when buffing so you don't get down into the metal flake and create that mottling look.

If you were lucky enough that it was repainted with Basecoat/Clearcoat then it will be much more forgiving to work with.

☆☆☆☆☆
 
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I agree, looks more like a scratch than checking/cracking. Do you have kids?
 
I still think you'd see something like that on a cave wall
cruiser said:
Hi All: I could use some help in the paint department if you wouldn't mind. My 74 Duster came from the factory with JY9 Tahitian Gold paint, and was repainted once in 1988 in the same color. I've noticed some odd cracking on my trunk lid and hood - see photo. The rest of the paint is just fine. I've seen products advertised to make these cracks go away, usually a fluid that you rub into the crack. I don't want to repaint these areas, just looking for a cheap fix. Has anyone ever used a product that makes these cracks go away, something that you've used and can recommend? Thanks!

View attachment 1715923497
Click to expand...
Where are the other pictures? Is there a similarity in the "cracking?
 
A56 said:
I still think you'd see something like that on a cave wall

Where are the other pictures? Is there a similarity in the "cracking?
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There's only one other spot like this, and its on the trunk lid. Looks just like this, too.
 
MoparMike1974 said:
I agree, looks more like a scratch than checking/cracking. Do you have kids?
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I don't think it's scratching from kids because it was like this when I bought the car in 2019. Many good suggestions here. I think I'll just get one of those chipped wooden furniture touch-up crayons and try that. It's not a show car and the rest of the car does have a certain amount of patina. Of course, I love a perfect paint job, but this one will have to be a "ten foot" repair. True, I'm too cheap to get it professionally repainted - it's only a Duster after all. The whole purpose of the car is to remind me of it being my first car back in the day. I didn't have much money back then. We've all been there and cut whatever corners we had to to keep our cars working. We'd all prefer to take our girlfriends out Saturday night instead of putting whatever money we had into our cars. So I'm going to repair it in this spirit, and yeah it won't look that great. But it will remind me of what its all about. Again many thanks to the Mopar faithful for the excellent ideas!
 
PROBLEM SOLVED: I got a kid's brown color crayon close to the color of my car and went over the scratches with it. After buffing it with a cloth, the scratches are nearly invisible. Didn't cost me a penny, and from two feet away you'd never notice it. Actually looks pretty darn good, and I'm fussy about my paint and my car's appearance. It'll probably come off after several washings, but I'll just "crayon" it again. Again, thanks for all the suggestions!
 
Go Mango said:
Need before and after pics! I'd love to see how it turned out!
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Sure, here are the "before" and "after" photos. This was the worst area of cracking on my car, and was located on the trunk lid as mentioned earlier. I shot the "after" photo close up from a range of about three inches. From two feet away, its nearly invisible.

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