Paint cracks - what causes them?

[Decius]

While waxing my car yesterday I noticed many tiny cracks in the paint on the hood. These cracks don't appear anywhere else on the car, and they tend to be in clusters as shown below. They are spread out across the surface of the hood, but aren't on the fender panels on either side of the hood. Each crack is about a millimeter or two long at most. Does anyone have an idea what causes these and if there's anything I can do to smooth them out? (I can feel them with my fingers and some of them were catching on the microfiber polishing cloth.)

[bheinz57]

Is this on your 2000?

I have to say I have never come across anything quite like that. Almost looks like trauma of some sort.

Brian

[Decius]

Originally posted by bheinz57
Is this on your 2000?

Yep, that's my baby. I can't think of anything that's happened since I've owned the car. I just don't want to the paint to start chipping off.

[screbr]

Did you ever have anyone detail it for you? I've seen paint get damaged like that from someone mis-using a buffer or similar rotary tool to polish and/or wax. Not exactly sure how, but in the case I saw, they were all over the hood and roof.

[Decius]

Nobody has detailed it since I've owned the car, but I can't say what was done by the previous owner. Fortunately it's only on the hood. I don't want to sound as though the entire hood is covered in these cracks; it's only a few places, but they're scattered all over the hood, not concentrated in one area. From a distance of more than a foot, you probably couldn't even see them unless the light was right. I can feel them, though, and I worry that while applying wax or polishing the surface a few months or years down the road -- so to speak -- that I'll catch the edges of them and pull chips of paint off.

Thanks for the replies, guys.

[OutBack Legolas]

decius. i have the same cracks on my hood. its strange. maybe its a Black Granite pearl thing. =)

[Decius]

Originally posted by OutBack Legolas
decius. i have the same cracks on my hood. its strange. maybe its a Black Granite pearl thing. =)

Or perhaps a Columbus thing. (Or are you in NY? It's not really clear from your location tag.)

[MaverickOutback]

i was going to ask the same thing.. i got those on my front fenders near the light and hood too... all i gotta say is subaru paint sucks... everything else is great! but i have never had a car get so many cracks or chips and when i mean chips i mean down to the metal.

my car is covered over night, in underground parking every day and is waxed at least twice a month.

so yes the paint sucks!

anyone with newer 06's having this problem?

[DAC17]

Looks to me like a case of not caring for the paint from the previous owner. With acid rain, the potential mixing of a hot paint surface (sunshine), and a cool rain that comes through (thundershower), the combination may have toasted portions of the paint. I know that temperature contrasts can cause this over time (which is why we always know not to wash a car when the paint surface is hot).

I think a new paint job may be in order.

[chrisx]

Could be the clear coat has almost gone whether through natural causes or buffer induced. Looks like a repaint may be in order as you can feel the cracks. If you plan to repaint then you could probably try claying the car and then using an abrasive polish and a Random Orbital machine and see if that makes a difference, if it doesn't then it's getting a repaint anyway.