What is heat damage on car paint?
Paint that has blistered, browned or gone dull in a fade across the panel has been cooked. The fade is the clue. Contact damage has a hard edge where the object stopped. Heat damage fades out where the panel stayed cooler, further from the heat.
What kind of repair does it need?
Stripping the damaged area and painting it. Heat damage cannot be polished, because it is inside the paint, not on top. Paint over scorched paint fails again. The strip usually goes wider than the marks look.
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
Before you price the paint, find out what else got that hot. If this came from a fire, an exhaust or anything under the bonnet, the panel only shows part of the damage. Tell the shop what the heat source was so they check behind the panel. If a nearby car caught fire, report it to your insurer.
Sources
- Sherwin-Williams Automotivepaint maker
Remove all cracked paint film and refinish
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