I got a black 2001 tl, i bought it a lil over a year ago, and the hood has some sun damage, and is starting to turn a slightly different color, almost purpleish in a few splotches..it was like that when i bought it. ive had a few people look at it and tell me to get it fixed before it gets worse. ive called a few body shops, seems to be around $300 to sand and re-paint. Anyone had this problem before?

 

throughout my experience.. i've never really seen any TL's oxidated. I've only seen one.. and that's (SLAKERZ) car.. which is on the roof top area. I think that area is mostly prone to oxidation. But I'm sure if you take care of it (clay bar, wax, park under shade, etc.) , there should be no problems.

 

save yourself some money and go to the junk yard and find a hood for maybe $200. i personally woudnt pay 300 just to paint hood

 

Granted you can find a undammaged Same color hood that matches.

 

^

 

A picture of the damage would really help to see if you have clear coat failure or not. If there is clear coat failure you're going to need to repaint, if not you may be able to correct the oxidization with a good polishing. You'd be surprised how much you can correct a car's clearcoat to reveal a fresh, glossy layer. Did a three stage polish last year on my baby and she looked better than new after.

 

We hired some guy who thought he could polish it off, started to then realized he cant its too worn down or something. If a used hood from a junk yard is 200, id rather pay 300 to repaint mine, so this way its all stock parts not taking different parts of other cars and replacing them. Ive looked a little, and if I could get one for like 150 i would, but if i go to the body shop I could use some leftover paint and do some touchups. Any other advice guys?

 

i say get the stock hood repainted, especially if indeed it is the origional hood with the matching VIN sticker on there for your car (people might question then if the front has ever been in a wreck)

but yeah the paint on our cars does not seem the best though, i also got a couple of spots were it seems like the clearcoat has failed

 

If it's the clear coat, you'll need 2000 grit sand paper in the paint section of your local automotive store. 3m rubbing compound. buffer. buffing sponge type for the buffer

wet sand the section. make sure you do it SUPER GENTLY, DO NOT TAKE PAINT OFF!! you're wet sanding to get the clear coat and oxidation off. shouldn't take long, maybe 1min. then buff it with rubbing compound. That will give it the clear coat back. should look like new after, then you use your wax/polish.

I have some oxidation spots on my car now, just haven't gotten to it yet. waiting for all the pollen to finish falling. I'll post pics.

 

thats not a bad/uncommon price for any walk in customer at most shops