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You guys have always had great advice so wanted to see if anyone has any suggestions for two streaks of clear coat on my car that appears to be dull.
I took it a detail shop and the person said it was a little risky since the top is fiberglass for her to polish it. Is this true? What I am looking for specifically is what you guys would recommend, go and have it polished, repaint just the top part of the car or try and do it myself (I saw some youtube videos).
1. Get advice from an expert (looks like your doing that)
2. If you can't live with it have someone attempt to buff it out knowing
that you may go through the clear.
3. Have the top repainted and pay the $ to have a good job.
Like a dummy I left the hood up on my 1960 Vette at a car show last year on a sunny day. It's true you will blister your paint if the sun is at the right angle and reflects off the air cleaner. I was heart broken and spent the next day driving around to the guys in my area that are experts. After a few opinions and there were a few I picked a body shop in my area. I was told by some they suck and others that they were good. I made sure that the owner himself was gonna do the work and not one of his workers. It cost me $600 cash, but even the people that told me not to got there were impressed.
Thanks for the message. I am thinking of having someone carefully buff it out then having my car vinyl wrapped. I thinking of going down this route to continue protecting my original paint and also enjoying the car with a slightly different color, I am thinking of Red. I know a few people on here have done vinyl, I would like to hear people's thoughts that have done it or know of others who have.
Originally Posted by jasonsamara
Well I'm no expert, but I would use this logic:
1. Get advice from an expert (looks like your doing that)
2. If you can't live with it have someone attempt to buff it out knowing
that you may go through the clear.
3. Have the top repainted and pay the $ to have a good job.
Like a dummy I left the hood up on my 1960 Vette at a car show last year on a sunny day. It's true you will blister your paint if the sun is at the right angle and reflects off the air cleaner. I was heart broken and spent the next day driving around to the guys in my area that are experts. After a few opinions and there were a few I picked a body shop in my area. I was told by some they suck and others that they were good. I made sure that the owner himself was gonna do the work and not one of his workers. It cost me $600 cash, but even the people that told me not to got there were impressed.
I have no experience with clear coat doing this but based on the paint I had on my old C-3 a good detailer should be able to fix this. I would check around some more before looking to paint it.
Paint is your best option to actually fix it. I hid my bad spots for quite awhile with a product from purple slice called wet wet. But it only hides the fading clear coat for a few days. I eventually had a body shop paint the panels that were effected.
Last edited by doneworking; Jun 26, 2015 at 05:37 PM.
Do you think it is smart to paint just part of the car? I think I want to get Vinyl Wrap but I would like to correct the paint as much as possible so it will be preserved as best as possible.
Originally Posted by doneworking
Paint is your best option to actually fix it. I hid my bad spots for quite awhile with a product from purple slice called wet wet. But it only hides the fading clear coat for a few days. I eventually had a body shop paint the panels that were effected.
That is exactly what my roof is starting to look like. Pretty certain you've got clear coat failure. Only fix is a repaint or hide it with a vinyl wrap. Unfortunately my car is parked outside year round so I am saddened but not surprised this has happened to my car.
The body shop actually did a really good job repairing the spots I had. I had them do the hood, both front fenders, one rear quarter and the front bumper. It turned out pretty good abd I can't tell where they started and stopped. Paint was a dead ringer for a match. I'm going to have the roof and the trunk lid done next. I wish I could have afforded to do the whole car but oh well. My car is out side all the time too, so I cover it as much as possible.
Did the body shop repaint your spots or how were they able to treat it? Right now I am trying to go to a few different places just to get all my options well understood and figure out what is best for me. Right now I leaning towards trying to find a way to fix it with a reasonable amount so if I do ever decide to sell the car, I can do it the right way and tell a potential buyer that under the vinyl wrap, the paint is in good condition.
Originally Posted by doneworking
The body shop actually did a really good job repairing the spots I had. I had them do the hood, both front fenders, one rear quarter and the front bumper. It turned out pretty good abd I can't tell where they started and stopped. Paint was a dead ringer for a match. I'm going to have the roof and the trunk lid done next. I wish I could have afforded to do the whole car but oh well. My car is out side all the time too, so I cover it as much as possible.
If you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost you? I know it would be different for me given it's different size and location but just curious. And did you do a whole panel or just the actual spot?
Seems to me it was about $1000 to do the whole hood, the whole frontbumper which they removed to do a crack repair, the front fenders they painted the top half with good overlap and the same on the rear fender. I also had a couple other things done but I think that was aboutwhat paint costs were. My car is the electron blue and I was sceptical that they would match and it wouldn't show the starts and stops but I was impressed for a body shop. The paint is holding up fairly well at about a year and half old now, few new rock chips on the front end and most people think the car is new since I keep it detailed.
I'm a former auto painter by profession. I also taught it at the local trade school. I can't tell what your problem is from your picture because of the angle of the photo and the glare, but there are three alternatives.
The first and best choice that's been mentioned--elbow grease and various polishing (compounds)/liquids. That (liquids) should be your first option because it's the cheapest and least damaging treatment; compounds are a more "abrasive" alternative. Secondly, just clear. Third is a "paint job"--paint applied before clearcoating.
If you can handle a paint gun properly, you could attempt to remedy the problem yourself without paint and see if the existing clear coat can be saved just by applying enough clear over it to rejuvenate it. That is to say, if the clear truly isn't broken through, clearing over it could solve your problem--if you can apply the clear properly.
Mind you, handling a paint gun isn't the easiest thing to do--your arm must move uniformly across the top from left to right and right to left as if it was robotic; you also have to insure that you cover the middle of the roof as evenly as the pass/driver side, and the vertical surfaces must get the same treatment. You MUST keep the gun at the same distance from your work surface, and move at a consistent speed. Imagine applying Thompson's Water Seal to a fence painted in glossy paint--in order to keep the coating the same thickness, your hand must hold the brush at the same distance from your fence while overlapping each stroke uniformly at the same speed left to right AND right to left, and in your case, the hose you're attached to must stay draped over your shoulder--if it falls off the shoulder, you might dip it into the wet clear--no fun. All this while the shiny clearcoat application reflects back at you--this may give you visual problems because clear isn't as easy to see as it goes on wet as a color would be to find--say, in an example of painting gray primer with its' first coat of gloss black. Clear won't look like that; depending on your lighting environment and technique, you may have a hard time seeing where you're applying the coating.
The way to find out if you can handle a paint gun properly is to go to a body shop and ask them to give you a totaled piece--a door, hood, or deck lid (trunk lid), fender, anything that has a flat surface as wide and long as your top. (If you tell them that you want the panel so you can practice painting [as if for a trade school class... cough, cough] they might be willing to help you instead of charge you $$ or even flat out deny you scrounging their scrap metal.) Mount your panel on a platform at the same horizontal height of your car, scuff-sand it lightly with 400 grit wet sandpaper (ALWAYS let the paper do the cutting--don't press down) just enough to create a surface that the clearcoat will adhere to, and see how well your spraying technique can lay an even coat on this surface. Lightly wipe the applied clear between tacky-dried coats with a tack rag to remove dust, and recoat with clear maybe 3-4x. (How do you know the clear is dry enough to apply another coat? Lightly check the "dried" clear with the back of your finger--you'll have much better control of your sense of touch with the back of your finger.. If it doesn't feel "wet" [a little tacky is okay--very slightly not DRY], spray it again.) Let the resulting finish sit for 2-3 days and buff it to see how your work comes out. For refinishing brands, I like and prefer (Ditzler) PPG.
The top is not hard to treat; there's no reason to "blend" the clear--mask off the top from edge to edge (a.k.a., body line to body line) and shoot the entire top. Wet sand it for adhesion as described above and shoot it. After it's dried for a couple days (or ideally a couple weeks), wet-sand it with 2000 grit just to knock off some orange peel and any lint and buff it out.
If you like the results, you're done. If not, take it to a pro. Don't worry about color matching. Today, colors are matched by computer, and they're quite good. A very good painter can still tell the difference if there's a difference, but most lay people can't. If the flaws on your top are where I think they are in your photo (near the edge of the driver's drip rail and color is needed,) the color coat will be blended easily across about half the top, and just to the driver's vertical surface, and then the "whole" top will be cleared. The illusion will be that the whole top is painted and cleared. If there's a discrepancy, you as a lay person will probably not be able to tell unless you see your car from a balcony's height. (At least, anyone worth his/her salt who'd classify themselves as a 'journeyman' painter should be able to match colors at least that well; not to mention, 'blend' that well.)
Oxidized clearcoat
