I was waxing my truck today and I noticed that the hood has all these white crystal looking spots all over. They are real small and cover most the hood. If you run your hand over it it feals kinda rough. I put on SCRATCH-X and waxed over that and the "crystals" cant be seen. I am wondering if my hood is shooting off its clearcoat?

 

Sounds to me like you're the victim of some type of industrial fallout.

I don't know if you noticed or not but, is this 'rough feel' on your truck simply on the hood and roof? Does it appear to be 'all-over' the truck? I would suspect that it's simply on the hood and roof (areas most susceptiable to fallout).

I saw a similar case on my father's 99 Lariat.

Of course, not having seen your paint and looked at it myself, I'm not 110% sure what the best remedy would be but, here's what I would try if it is a surficial type of fallout.

CLAY

Claying a vehicle is SUPER SIMPLE and SUPER EFFECTIVE against removing stubborn fallout or overspray. The idea behind clay is to move an object across the surface and have that object remove a 'stuck on' piece of contamination and embed it in itself

Find your local autobody supply house and purchase some clay along with a bottle of MEGUIARS FINAL INSPECTION, MEGUIARS QUICK DETAILER, or similar product.

Allow the clay to sit somewhere where it will become slightly warm and thus allow it to be a little more pliable (just a little tip from someone who loves the results of clay).

Spray the quick detailer/final insp. on the areas that are not smooth as glass. Using the clay bar with only the weight and pressure of your hand, move the clay back and forth over the paint. Once you've done a small area, knead the clay to make another flat surface. Repeat until your hood/roof/other contaminated surfaces, are smooth as a baby's butt or feel like glass - whichever comes first. Don't worry if you get a little 'smearing' with the clay bar. It wipes off with little or no effort later.

I would recommed that you go back through and RE-WAX the areas that you clay because by removing the surface contamination, you are also removing the wax that covered those surficial contaminants and thus, some areas have better protection from the elements than others.

**Note: If you drop the clay bar on the ground, it is TRASH. DO NOT attempt to re-use it. One tiny grain of sand, put into the right position in the clay bar, will RUIN/SCRATCH your paint (and you'll hate yourself for ever trying this suggestion). I recommend using about half of a bar when working on your vehicle and thus, if you drop it, you're not out the $10-$20 that you spent for the darn thing.

There are several brands of clay available out there. I've heard that CLAY MAGIC (available at AUTOZONE) is a good product however, I've never tried it. I use Meguiars Professional Over-Spray Clay Bars and have had NOTHING BUT SUCCESS with them.

http://www.meguiars.com/product_show...ne=CP&SrcCat=2

At the bottom of that page, Meguiars sells a product called QUICK CLAY which I've used and is pretty good. It comes WITH a bottle quick detailer and the clay bar for $10 (+S&H)

A bunch of us on this forum are using clay and thus, if you have any questions, feel free to post.

GOOD LUCK!

RP

 

yes its only on the hood, I havent looked at the roof, but who looks there anyway. thanks I will try your recommendations.