Painting truck with peeling clear coat?

They hold up great, as long as you take care of it.

Red sucks though. I've had a few single stage red cars and you really have to keep up on them. Oxidation seems to happen overnight on the red ones.

 

It holds up well- as long as you keep up with it.
Wax every couple of months- should not have a problem.

 

I painted cars in restoration shops for 10 years a very long time ago. Paint hasn't changed to this day and the quality has only gone down depending on the state you live in while the price has gone way up. It costs about $1000 just for the paint to paint a car these days. If your doing the whole thing, and that doesn't include primer, masking tape and paper along with everything else including "environmental fees". Read that as VOC's also known as "volatile organic chemicals". They are the solvents released into the atmosphere as the paint cures and are the reason many paints are now "high solids" which reduces the amount of VOC's. High solids paint puts down a thicker coat and requires less paint to do the job.

Back in the 70's and earlier we used lacquer, then came enamel, then there was catalyzed enamel, then there were urethane's and polyurethanes such as Imron and Ditzler's Durathane which was used on aircraft back then and then came the base/clear systems used by everyone these days with the UV blockers.

Lacquer required many, many coats and sanding and polishing in between them. Maybe about 20 by the time the paint looked like the mirror you wanted it to look like. Uncatalyzed enamels took a year at least to dry through (if they ever did) all the way and catalyzed enamels weren't much better but you could get away with 3 coats. Unless you were going to sand and buff which was tricky with enamels back then. I used to apply 4 or 5 with the catalyzed enamels and then wait a week or two to sand and buff. If it was nice and hot outside. Urethane's came along and if you were going to color sand and buff 4 coats would do the job then high solids came along and 3 coats would do the job even if you were going to sand and buff. I always put on 4 coats of the high solids though if I was going to sand and buff and 4 or 5 of the urethane. It would take me about a year to do a paint job back then or 6 months if I didn't have more than two vehicles I was working on. Why? Dry time but I don't have the time to get into that.

I didn't work at stealerships. I did custom work on Rolls Royce's, Ferrari's, Porsches, lots and lots of Jags, Vette's and a few muscle cars here and there. I even painted a "Warwick" once of which there was only about 2 left in existence if I remember correctly. They were fiberglass just like the 'Vette's.

In a nutshell peeling paint from the factory is caused by ultraviolet rays because they tried to save a dime on paint and, therefore, didn't apply enough of it. The reason why has to do with environmental issues and cost. Ultraviolet rays actually go right through the paint film, hit the metal or whatever substrate is underneath then bounce back up through the painted surface and cause what amounts to a "molecular earthquake" resulting in peeling and oxidized paint. This is the same reason why some of the real old 'Vette's that were sitting around in the sun way back when had fiberglass that was coming apart. It just takes a lot longer to happen than a paint film.

Any color with yellow in it costs FAR more because yellow has, or did have, cadmium in it but then, so does $100 an ounce chocolate. Reds are pricey because they have lots of yellow in them. Almost every color has some yellow to a certain extent. When I left the business 1 qt of yellow toner cost $140. Just for trivia. You want to make a white whiter? Add one or two drops of black to a gallon of it.

A standard factory paint job back when I was painting was about 1.5- 2 millionths of an inch thick. The aftermarket paint jobs I put on were about 9 mils thick but there was the primer underneath to take out the "waves" in the older cars. With a Rolls Royce? The paint and primer was about 1/8" thick back then right from the factory. All paint is clear coated these days and that started way back in the 80's. Even the Whites.

The newer clear coats have UV blockers in them to prevent peeling and oxidation. That started back in the late 80's. White will always last the longest. Silvers will fade out sooner than anything else. The only way to repair a peeling paint job is to strip it down to bare metal or at least to the e-coat primer they put on them these days. Big $$$$$ or hundreds of hours if you do it yourself the right way. You can get away with just sanding off the clear but if the clear is peeling then the base coat is also damaged.

Quality paint work is VERY pricey which is why the mere mortal can't afford it and why I got out of the business 30 years ago. We were charging $10,000 back then to disassemble the car, strip, repair the dents and rust and repaint the car to a glass like finish and I was starving. At $20,000 I might have been able to make a very lower class living. I spent 400 hours on my own '73 Caddy I owned for 18 years and the materials alone cost me almost $2000 by the time I was done. It sure did look good though!

My 2004 Taco is white and the day the paint starts going south I'll just have it wrapped which costs about as much as a paint job did 30 years ago.

One last trivial point. The "shine" of paint is measured by "DOI" which stands for "Distinctness of Image". A panel covered in water has a "DOI" of 100. Back in the late 80's and early 90's they were hitting about 95-97. From what I see going down the road these days? I'd say many manufacturers are right at 100 DOI from the factory.

 

The clear coat is just peeling on my truck, if I was to sand it down to the paint or to the filler and then paint it in a single stage white; would it work well?

 

Yes, that would get you by for some time to come. However, you do need to apply a catalyzed sealer to it before you apply the paint. Sealer is mandatory. If you do go single stage instead of base/clear make sure it is at least a urethane or a polyurethane and you'll be good to go. I wouldn't be surprised if by this time no one even makes a single stage paint but I very well might be wrong. You will also have to have access to a spray booth or it'll come out looking like sand paper with all the dust and crap that lands on the paint.

 

I know this thread is a little old, but...

The clear coat on the roof of my 05 red Taco is peeling badly. The paint seems OK. I’m not very particular about the final product since the sides are covered in Oregon Pinstriping
Is there any easy way to restore failingcear coat? I’m OK with Plasti-dip, but am just wondering what the prep would be.

 

How cheep is maco? My paint is pealing how much would it cost for a respray?

 

I was quoted $1,500 including some body work for a whole body respray. This is using their higher end paint package.

 

Blame the EPA. It was around that time they forced everybody to use water-based paints.

 

As opposed to lead based paints? Lol

 

Nothing wrong with lead paint until you stick it in your mouth. Conspiracy theorists will say you can inhale it and it seeps through the skin, that's just the man trying to control your mind!!

But seriously, I've heard that Maaco sucks. Look at them in the BBB. It's probably fine *if* you know what you're getting into. Be prepared to clean up a lot of overspray, don't leave any valuables in the car, that kind of thing. Unfortunately it's your roof, otherwise I'd suggest taking the panel off and taking it to them. That'd probably be just fine.

 

Paint...

Well if it's just clearcoat and this ain't your baby, as in your invested in keeping it a stock kind of vehicle vs. a looks good from 10 feet and is a super solid truck (my style) then you can check this out:

 

Buy a same year junk yard hood or fender and take yourself to school. You'll have a few beans involved in tools, but they can always be sold or traded or pawned. A good winter practice project,,for the full repaint/reclear in the spring/summer. It gives you a much better perspective into that process when it's hands on. It's what I did,,for what it's worth.

The clears are/can be finicky to temp and paint. Read up,,,but don't be scared. It's a good feeling when it lays on there and sets up the way it should look, or the way you want it to look.

 

I finally got tired of my clear coat flaking off so I'm in the process of Raptor lining the whole truck with the red-tinted liner to match the old color. I'm by far not a body and paint guy but learning along the way.

 

Some time involved just in a scuff and shoot. It's a good feeling when the paper and tape comes off and it's sitting there gleaming back at you.

Option 2 is to give the whole truck a vigorous ScotchBright pad hand wash using prep solvent. Let dry, then shoot the whole truck with John Deere Black. Touch up's blend right in with rattle can JD black. Alaska paint job Baby! Done in a day,,,or a few beers. Well,, a true Alasky paint job is wiping the truck down with white gas then use boat paint and a roller with no scuff. Been there,,done that,,sad to say. lol. Had the kids out there with paint brushes, helping along. It was so fun. The paint is still stuck quite well to that old 4x4 chevy up there,,15 years later.

 

If you're clear coat is peeling the only right way to fix it is to strip to bare metal and repaint. Yes, there are cheaper ways but they won't last.

 

Don't waste your money at Maaco. Without going into 3 long paragraphs of what it was I can say that about 20 years ago I had an idea for prepping a car for paint, provided it had a solid paint job on it to begin with and VERY little body work that I went to a patent attorney to see about getting a patent on. Never did that because it was already being, or had already been done. In any case, I took that attorney a copy of Maco's warranty and after reading it he said, "I'd love to sue these guys but I guess no one would pay me $700 an hour to sue over a $150.00 paint job. In the warranty way back then it said that if you used more than 25 psi of water pressure to wash the car the warranty would be voided. The average garden hose puts out 30-35 psi. I have no idea what their warranty says now.

Maaco, or any of the other cheapies is just a waste of money and only good for a car you want to sell. Or, if you just don't care about your vehicle and it's a beater or something.