Clearcoat failure - now what do I do?

Hey All, my brother has been posted to the other side of the country to work and I`d like to detail his car while he`s away. I`ve got a big job ahead of me because he works 80+ hours a week and barely has time to fuel it.

The Problem:

It`s a red 1990(?) VN commodore pickup and the clearcoat has failed on the bonnet and roof. The doors and tray side are unaffected.

Do I:

a) Wet sand the last isolated patches of clearcoat off and revitalise the bare paint from there - mind you, very carefully because the paint would be insanely thin.

b) Try to just compound as if the clearcoat hadn`t failed and see where that goes

c) I know it should be resprayed, but I don`t have the budget, I`m just doing a brotherly favor.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

P.S. I`ll try to put up a pic on Thurs if I can.

Sorry you can`t really do anything with it....if you buff off the rest of the clearcoat and shine up the base-coat it will fade faster and then just disappear to bare metal...at least now there is something protecting the metal from rusting...he`ll have to re-spray when he can:(

Yes, unfortunately you can`t do anything about CC failures. On a single stage paint job the top coat is meant to shine on its own but on a vehicle with a clear coat the base coat will appear very dull.

What the heck - give it a shot. You won`t be out anything and I am certain it will look better than it does now. At least the sealer will protect the base coat and it will shine after polishing.

Where is your brother going? To WA?

My dad`s clearcoat faded on his last car, 1984 Lebaron with 43,000 miles. the rest of the car looked brand new the hood looked like crap. Only thing to do is get it repainted as far as I know.

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Originally posted by freedre
What the heck - give it a shot. You won`t be out anything and I am certain it will look better than it does now. At least the sealer will protect the base coat and it will shine after polishing.

Where is your brother going? To WA?

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Yeah he`s been posted to North West WA, some big mining setup. I can`t even pronounce the name of the company that owns him - opps, I mean he works for ;).

Is it even worth hitting it with a polish and sealant at all or just too risky?

I can`t see any downside, except for the time. Before two stage paint came along, I achieved some pretty impressive shines on singe stage paints using rubbing compound.

Give it a shot and see how it looks.

The car`s probably worth less than my shirt so I might have a gentle go at it - it needs a respray anyway...

freedre..base coat is not the same as single stage...


EZ if you doing , do it by hand...but if you go down to the primer or metal and the car is that pathetic, then buy some canned primer and give the metal a little protection until the repaint or junking.

The only thing I might spend time doing is AIO or PwC and then top.
That might add a bit of shine and protection but other than that you are wasting your time.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Poorboy
freedre..base coat is not the same as single stage...

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OOOOHHH!!

Now that I didn`t know. I thought the base coat was regular paint with clear coat applied over it. See what happens when I run my mouth off. I`ll never learn.


So what`s the difference?

Quote:

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Originally posted by kimwallace
The only thing I might spend time doing is AIO or PwC and then top.
That might add a bit of shine and protection but other than that you are wasting your time.

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I have PwC lined up in my head for this job.

freedre..there are many differences.., but basically the base coat is a very thin coating and usually has no shine of its own...it also does not contain the UV protectors that would be in a single stage, (not meant to stand alone) , and I`m sure there are other chemical differences.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Poorboy
freedre..there are many differences.., but basically the base coat is a very thin coating and usually has no shine of its own...it also does not contain the UV protectors that would be in a single stage, (not meant to stand alone) , and I`m sure there are other chemical differences.

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Thanks Poorboy.

Another arrow to add to my quiver of knowledge.