What is crazing on car paint?
Also calledAlligatoring, Checking, Crocodiling, Splitting
Crazing is a dense network of very fine cracks. From a few steps back it just looks dull. Up close, the shine is broken into tiny pieces. There are two kinds of cause. The first is how the paint was applied: too thick, poorly mixed, the wrong thinner, or coats laid before the one below was dry. The second is long exposure to sun, moisture and temperature swings.
What kind of repair does it need?
Painting, after taking it back to a sound layer. All the cracked paint must be removed first. Paint over cracks shows every crack again. That preparation is why this costs more per panel than a normal repair.
Cracked or failed paint cannot be painted over. Every crack shows through the new paint again. So it is stripped back first, which is what makes this more than a normal panel job.
What to do next
First, work out if the panel has been painted before. If it was resprayed recently, crazing can be an application fault, and the shop that did it should hear about it. If it is old factory paint that has lived in the sun, check the other flat panels too. Polishes and glazes only fill the cracks for a short time.
Sources
- Sherwin-Williams Automotivepaint maker
(F) Breakdown of finish due to prolonged exposure to sunlight, moisture, and extreme…
- PPG GBpaint maker
Appears to the naked eye as a loss of gloss, close examination under low magnification reveals a large number of minute cracks
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