PAINT CRACK

[KANEIT]

Hi chaps and chapesses.
A big crack (ooh err!) has just appeared in my Taimar passenger door.
It runs from the door handle area forwards for about 20cm in a slight arc and the paint has separated by 1mm. Now, the car has been resprayed before i bought it and I can see the blue older paint layer in the crack. There does not seem to be any damage to the fibreglass or gel coat and i have taken off the inner trim panel to see the back of the doorskin which is fine.The car has been parked in my yard in the sun and has not been knocked. Do you think it could be the paint has not coped with expansion/contraction of the fibreglass in the heat? There is a paint crack repair guide on tvr.m-fix.co.uk and I was wondering if this would be a good enough fix to follow or if you have experience of similar situations.
Thanks very much.

[Ren32]

Hi,

Speaking from experience only (I'm no bodywork guru!) it could be one of a couple of things....

I don't know how long it's been since the re-spray but it could be that the paint has been applied a little bit too thick and it could be due to shrinking. Depending on when it was sprayed though, you should have noticed tell-tale signs before now?

Another possible reason was that there was a split/stress-crack in the gelcoat that wasn't repaired prior to spraying and it has come through again, with time, as they tend to.

Or it could be that an excessive force has been applied to the handle recently that could have caused a fracture or stress crack in the fibreglass under the paint, which as mentioned, will eventually surface (and then slowly grow in length!).

Both 2-pack and cellulose will cope with the expansion/ contraction of fibreglass okay as long as the surface is prepped correctly. (I've never had any experience with water-based but guess that would be okay too)

I guess that without taking the paint back in the area of the split, you won't really know whats caused the problem for sure. But if it is due to a stress crack then the procedure mentioned on the m-fix site should be okay.

If you re-post this in the bodywork section you may be able to get some more professional advice.

Good luck,

Darren.

[KANEIT]

Nice one cheers!
I will repost in that section.
The wierd thing is there are other paint cracks on that side of the car just on the rear wing where the body crease line is where the bootlid closes down but nowhere else and the fibreglass seems fine.