On the bottom back corner of the left quarter panel where it meets the bumper the clear coat from the edge has lifted and broke off about 1/8 of an inch wide and about 1/2 in long. I took it to the GM body shop and they said they could reapply some clear coat on oit and blend it but I would be able to see it. He suggested reapplying the clear coat on the whole quarter panel. The Dealership is paying for it as I noticed it when I bought it last week. Anyone have any thoughts on this or experienced anything like this? Should I let them redo the whole clearcoat on quarter panel?

Thx inadvance for your input.

 

haven't done any painting for sometime now, but i would think a good paint man can blend in the clear. there are (or used to be) products specifically for blending clear, but the average-run-of-the-mill shop dosen't use them. i guess its a $$$ thing or a labor thing - ya know, get you in, get you out, and make as much $$$ as they can in the shortest amount of time possible. re-shooting the whole panel is the quick and dirty way out. i would not let them re-clear the whole panel for such a small area.

for blending, basically, one needs to lightly (wet) sand the clearcoat w/about 800+ paper to an area about 10-12 inches beyond the effected area, and shoot & blend in the clear - probably half the sanded area. where the new clear meets the old clear should have applied the blending agent. after that, the repair area can be lightly sanded into the factory clear and buffed. this should all be done with a quality hvlp touchup gun. anytime the clear is breached, re-applying clear will not cosmetically fix the problem area. there's this thing about feathering the edge of the clear into the basecoat - any sanding will effect the base coat. i'm guessing that the repaired area will stick out like a sore thumb (and might even look worse). for a touch-up repair, ideally, the effected area should be re-shot with the base coat, and recleared. each layer of paint/clear, should expand out a little more. your are going to find very few shops that have the skill, knowledge, or want to invest the time to do a touchup repair correctly. it's going to be even more of a problem if you have one of those "extra cost" colors - magnetic red, millemium yellow, le mans blue, etc..

on the plus side, the area where your clear is lifting, and the size is small enough, that i would try a bottle of touchup clear and a small artist brush. carefully layer and fill-in the missing clear. after that, you can lightly sand, buff, and polish. just think of it as a big stone chip. remember, and this is JMHO, but most people just don't care about quality work, you get what you pay for (in your case, it's a no cost, to you, repair - so you know what you'll get), and i'm a firm believer in if you want anything done right, do it yourself!

Joe C -

 

I'm sure someone who knows what they are doing can repair that without too much trouble. I have heard of this occuring only on the Quick Silver cars - I was told that was the reason that paint color was discontinued. My concern would be that it would occur on another area of the vehicle, which is why I quit looking at Quick Silver when I bought mine in Feb of 2003.

 

I had that done on one of my cars and couldn't see it after the job was done. They spot repaired a section with color (silver car) and then re-cleared the entire quarter panel. I have a great eye and I couldn't tell. I think that the only time that you can really tell is when the color doesn't match up, but when they are reapplying clear, you don't run into color matching issues.

 

Have the dealer wet sand the quarter panel and reclear--make sure he does a pro job on all the edges around panel--this is where one can tell paint work

 

i think it would stick out more if they did just the one area. after its done that area will be super smooth with the rest of the car having the orange-peel. i think black sticks out the most as after a good wax/polish when you try and read things in the reflection they get distorted with the orange-peel. i wish my paint would come through like glass and be super smooth and shine like a mirror.

 

Maybe you can get the dealer to wet sand and polish (or pay for) the whole car, so there isn't any orange peel. A friend of mine just had it done and his car looks great! It cost him $1,600 though. It's all labor intensive. 2 guys worked on it for three days and went through half a trash barrel of sanding blocks and a quarts of polishing compound.

 

I think I would be hard pressed to get them to pay for the whole car to be done. Do they need to sand the whole 1/4 panel before they respray clear? I can't imagine it sticking out more then the other panels if they just clean it up and respray the whole panel so as to just show no blending area.

 

Yes, the entire panel is sanded before the clearcoat. GM states for the warranty process in repairing a panel the entire panel must be cleared with no blends. This means if you ding a quarter panel on say a 98 Monte Carlo, you must also clearcoat the roof and left qtr. panel. That is how it must be done. Let them clear the entire panel, and if the guys good he will also match your texture (amount of orange peel) so you dont have to scuff and buff the whole car. Hope that helps, Doug PPG Gold Certified