Clear Coat Problem
 

So last week when I washed my car I noticed this area just behind the passenger door that was collecting bubbles as I was rinsing the car. Upon further inspection, it appears that my clear coat is flaking off. The area is about as long as my pinky finger (I'll pause a moment to let everyone look at their pinky finger).

http://www.7thgencivic.com/memberrid...0/DSC00001.JPG

Is this a common 7thgen problem? Does anyone else have problems with the clear coat flaking off? I know this is my negligence from not waxing - bad Bob! I was starting to research the shampoos and waxes to start treating my car's finish nice. I guess too little too late.

So now what should I do? If I take it to a body shop, should I just have the general area recoated or should I get the entire car recoated?

A body shop would just reclear that one panel and it would be fine then. It is not from not waxing your car. Probably started as a small rock chip or something that just kept peeling.

What concerns me is that it appears there is another small area of clear coat above this area that looks like it is delaminating from the paint. When a panel is recoated, is the panel stripped or is the clear coat just applied over the existing clear coat? I would think the flaking area would probably be sanded down to get rid of the ridges and get back to bonded coating, in the least.

You would probably get an answer much faster by just calling a body shop in your area. I'm sure they all do it different so just call em' up and ask.