My 2015 STI was the same, if you looked at it hard it would chip.

My front bar had damage from hitting bugs on the highway.

"Apparently" its the new environmentally friendly water based paint, it is really soft.

But, using a compound to do it was like using a scouring pad to clean your face, way to harsh for a new coating.

I had a in depth conversation with some detailers about it.

Always use a good wash products, foam and gernie first, change or rinse your wash cloth per panel, change the water/wash mix regularly and don't press down hard, and keep the wax up.

For drying never use a chamois, blot, don't rub, use micro fiber towels.

If you get bird or bug shit on the paint clean it straight off, bird shit will eat through the clear coat, quickly.

I live in a pretty dry dusty environment, I wash my car in the garage, or undercover, but never on windy dry days.

I also wax monthly.

I would take it to the dealer, paint defects are covered under warranty.

It could be a newer, thin paint, but I doubt it is that bad. The cars would need a respray after a few years if that was the case.

I have a 13', and I have machine polished (with a random orbital polisher), waxed (by hand and with the orbital polisher) and buffed the car (by hand or with a orbital buffer) dozens of times without issue. I have also polished out trouble spots like after doing debadging, and again, no issues. I don't know if the OP pressed too hard, heated the metal too much, compounded the panel in the sun or outside where there paint was soft, or just had a thin patch from the factory.

so go down to the plastic in a square, mask, primer, light sand, remove the mask and move it out a bit, 2 coat the wrb, sand, remove the mask, feather in the clear coat, high grit polish, medium grit polish, antiswirl, wax. ive done it 3 times on my car so far

As mentioned in another thread, it was bee poop. It has stained my paint as well. Why Subaru? Why must your paint be so terrible?

The same thing is said on other forums about newer cars from nearly every brand out there... it’s likely due to the eco friendly paint. The paint on my BRZ is holding up just fine so far though.

I also have a WRB. I found a "spot" behind the driver door. So I thought I could buff it out myself. Big mistake. Ended up with a quarter sized haze spot that looked worst than yours. I had to take my car to the Subaru body shop to have them repair a scratch that they put on my car. While there the manager noticed the haze spot. They took my car in and brought it back a half hour later with both the scratch and the haze spot 98% gone. I think a very careful and knowledgeable tech can make that disappear to your satisification. Probably very inexpensive or free.

If you polish by hand, you will have Haze.
You need to polish with a random orbital to get glass gloss.

So in my case, it was confirmed that I went through the clearcoat. So @cliff unfortunately I don't think there is much to do other than a refinish for the panel and blending into adjacent panels. I am slapping on a sticker on there for now and will be getting it redone in a few months (after a long road trip and cross country move).

If the base coat and the primer are both still there, there is no worry of rusting, yes?

If you noticed all the people commenting that they can't detail their cars joined in Jan 2018- Aug 2018 or sooner :bonk: Lack of experience is the issue here :lol:

Find subaru or other approved auto body shops to do it


Also FYI you have to be careful with the ultimate compound, honestly your first step should've been clay bar to see if you could've gotten the spot out, then ultimate compound if it still didn't come out. At the first sign of the spot being gone and haze appearing you should've hit it with the meguiars polish.

I've done this tons of times to my 2015 FR-S with 0 issues, I've even taken out clearcoat scratches on the trunk with the 1000-2000 grit wet sand method without cutting too deep into the clear.

the newer "eco friendly" paint does not translate to the clear coat, clearcoat is still solvent based. this should not have happened id take it to the dealer and show them, i wouldnt mention you did anything id just say it has this weird spot and see where you get. all new cars should have enough clear coat that you can sand and buff them, something is wrong with your car id take that and a paint meter and check your quarter panel against another new car.

Thanks for the advice. I think I will take it to a dealer (I traveled out of state for this car so I can't go back to the dealer I bought the car from.) I don't think I am comfortable pretending that I never buff'ed it, mainly because they would certainly ask why I took delivery of the car at its current state.

I would probably tell them that I polished by hand and a new clearcoat should not be this thin and have them check the unpolished area with a paint thickness gauge.

You admit you used an abrasive compound and they will say there is absolutely nothing they can do and you just wasted your time.

ultimate compound is a pretty aggressive product, plus applying by hand with a lot of pressure... sorry to OP, that sucks but hopefully others can learn from your mistakes. Use the least aggressive product that works. A DA polisher and good pads is safer than hand polishing too in my experience.

For people who want to polish you should start with something very mild like M205 and go UP from there if that doesn't work. Don't go stronger->weaker after you found you rubbed your clearcoat off.