Whats up everyone.

So We had a lot of rain a few weeks ago here in Dallas. I had a bunch of tiny little surface scratches around my car. With all this rain and me not driving it got through the scratches and sat between my clear coat and the paint. I now have all of these bubbles in my clear coat. Of course insurance wont cover it.

Wanted to see if anyone has ever had this issue and how they fixed it. I am considering taking my car to Maaco because I am broke right now. Wasn't sure if they can just strip off the clear coat or if I am going to have to get the whole car repainted

 

Wow that sucks. Sorry for your luck.

Looks like a repaint on the damaged panels is needed for sure

 

Repaint is the only way you'll solve that problem.

 

Just the panels or for matching purposes should I do the whole car?

 

whole car.

if you paint just the panels, the rest of the car will appear "pink" depending on if its OE paint or not.

 

dam that looks nasty. unfortunately they will have to repaint the whole hood, trunk, and panel. my clear is pealing on my trunk as well

 

I'd say the whole car but I'd ask the shop. Some are amazing at color matching and can do great work just doing individual panels.

 

If it's only on a few panels which it looks like it is (roof & trunk?), there's no need to get the whole car repainted. The color match won't be exact with any shop due to the age of the factory paint but it will be close enough where only you might notice the difference.

The cost of repainting the whole car instead of a few panels wouldn't be close to worth it IMO.

 

Saw an ad for Maaco like half off paint jobs for black Friday.. might look into it.. i have heard really mixed reviews about them though .. any thoughts?

 

Keep it out of the rain as much as you can Matt! I have heard these older Honda/ Acura's are notorious for having paint issues

 

front bumper, hood, trunk, and rear bumper are definitely the worst but I have little small parts here and there that are showing up now that it is sunny and is drying out the water and chipping the clear coat

 

My trunk is starting to peel too =( bought it before it started though its too bad the paint on these cars do this.

 

My clear had several issues when I bought it. I assumed it was from bird droppings or acid rain. My car spent its first 9 years in the Houston before moving to Florida for six months. (Where I bought it.) Repaint is only thing do do. I would recommend waiting until you can afford a higher quality paint job than maaco will do, unless your planning to sell right away. Otherwise you will probably be disappointed down the road

 

Yea at this point I am not trying to sell it so I am just dealing with it until I can afford a decent paint job.. its just cosmetic.. but looks like crap

Did you end up repainting? If so about how much did it run you?

When I bought the car a few years ago it had spent its life in NC and from what it looks like it had been parked under a tree and the sap had gotten on the paint and eaten through some of the coat a little. I knew I would have a problem eventually but never thought it would get this bad.

 

that's not the rains fault.
that's the owners fault.

clear coat has to be maintained and protected. if its not protected the UV rays will eat it.

a couple of ways to protect it:
-keep it out of the sun.
-use a wax or a sealant to protect the paint from UV rays.


remember, its from the Sun and not the rain.

 

this is why its important to wash your car, WEEKLY!
and to keep it protected by using a wax or sealant.

 

Yea, unfortunately I learned that the hard way. I have been washing and waxing it on a weekly basis for the last 2 years. I moved to a new apartment a few months ago and it doesn't have a place to hook up a hose. So I have been slacking on washing it thinking I will get to it sooner rather than later.

I know its my fault for not keeping up with it, that paired with the sun that cause this. The water was just able to get under it and bring everything up.

 

Car is ready to go to paint. Waiting on Body shop owner to get with me, so we will be on the same page. I'm pretty anal about paint jobs, so I'm having this place do it because their painter is really good and they get the body really straight. They did a car for me in 2000, and still have the same painter. A bid from a couple of years ago was around $4000. This included removing all the glass and a few other things. Since then, I've come up with some extra things for them to do, and decided not to do some of the other. I'm guessing my body shop bill will be $4-5K.

 

I think in the 7 years I've owned this car the longest I've ever gone without washing my car was like 3 weeks (usually because of winter)






....






Which reminds me..

 

My buddy had his car painted at Maaco and there were drips and orange peel (texture) all over his car. After seeing that, it made me not ever want to take my car there. I guess it really matters on who is doing the work though so perhaps they will do a nice job?

 

it's all in the prep work.
you need a detailed orientated painter and or laborers.
all the old paint needs to be stripped and things like rubber seals and head lights need to be removed. this is the biggest job out of everything. it needs to be clean and prepped correctly in order for the new paint to adhere.

if not properly prepped, new paint will not adhere to surface of car. and then you get drips, orange peel and other paint defects........


so, the only way to get a beautiful paint job is to spend an UNGODLY amount of money.... in the tune of $5-7k...
show cars get painted for much much more than that. we're talking up to $20,000 for a show car quality paint

 

so, you can see why a thousand dollar maaco job wont hold up....because there wasnt any labor or love put into it.

 

I don't have a firm price, but the high quality paint job I expect will probably run me between 4 and 5k (Bid was 4K 2 1/2 years ago). And that doesn't include all the new parts I'm installing (or having installed). I had a $800 maaco paint job years ago, and it started peeling around the edges 6 months later.

 

^yeah, if i were to repaint mine....I would find a painter that does it in that range, $4k-5k.

 

my CL-S is 15 years old and the paint is nothing like that but then again once a year

clay bar
polish
clean
wax

then every 2 months new layer of wax

use microfiber towels only to wash and dry

 

It's all in the prep, AND in the finish. Anyone can spray paint, and anyone can sand paint. Removing the scratches from the paint and making it look like glass is the part you pay big money for.

 

I waxed, cleaned, claybarred my car regularly for years and it now has major clearcoat failure on the roof near the back window. It is protected from weather at home too. I'm in TX and it's anthracite. I assume it's the TX sun and heat, but I've never had clearcoat erode and turn white.
I love my CLS but no way I'd pay more than it's worth to repaint a 13 yr old car....

 

Yea I am on the same page as you.. As much as I love my car, I just cant justify that.. now my uncle has a few sanders and a spray gun, so in the next month or so we are going to play around with the bumper (Replaceable lol ) and see if we can lightly wet sand the clear coat off and then re spray it.

We will see if that works.

 

My understanding is with a BC/CC system, the base coat and clear coat catalyze and chemically bond to each other. You can definitely sand all the clear coat off, but the base coat is so thin, you'll like go thru it as well, plus it would now have a dull appearance due to the sanding unless you polished it, which removes even more paint.

You'd be much better served by getting a cheap paint job. I just got my car painted for a very reasonable price. Most of your cheaper places will just mask everything to save labor so I did it all myself. I removed every part I could so things could be sprayed without masking.

I'm also doing the wetsanding and buffing myself. There was more orangepeel in the finish than I wanted. Plus, now I can say I contributed to making my car look better.

Here's a before pic:





And after sanding with 2000, 3000, 5000 and compounding and polishing:

 

Holy crap!

 

FYI

There are many reasons for paint to peel. It could just of been defective from the factory. Such as a bad batch of paint, the car sat too long between BC & CC, the sealer dry too fast, etc.

There were/are a lot of problems when the paint material changed from single stage lacquer base, to catalysed reducer enamel, and now to catalyzed water base enamel paint. Water base paints is just simply not as durable yet.

For whatever reason the color red does not hold up well when left in the sun, maybe 7/8 years with water base.

BC/CC

There is no catalyst in the base coat. The catalyst is only added to the clear coat.

Paint Peeling, has to be strip down to a solid substrate. Any paint applied on top of the peeling paint will continue to peel. No matter how good you sand it.

OP

It is a lot fast to strip the paint and repaint it than it is to try and spot sand and paint.

Strip the paint does not necessary mean strip to bare metal or to raw plastic (bumper). All that means is strip down to a solid substrate, a solid foundation. However, if in doubt take it all off and start over.

It is ok to get a cheap paint job, long as you don't expect it to last a long time and know that it will peel at the masked edges.

LOL, rain does not cause paint to peel. Your car was either defective from the factory or someone put an el-cheapo paint job on it.

 

I am not saying that the main reason for the peel is from the rain. I understand that this is an effect from the sun.. Whomever had the car before me likely parked under a tree and never cleaned the sap off. When I bought the car it looked like there were tiny spots where the clear coat had deteriorated.. Which was fine I washed and waxed it once a week and never had an issue. Until I moved and just didnt have the time to wash it like I used to.

Because of that there was nothing keeping it sealed. With all the rain we got, it got into all of the tiny holes and spread out and essentially lifted the clear coat up in more places then before.