The dreaded Clear Coat deterioration

[gdizzle]

Searched on the forums for awhile, surprised that I didn't find a lot of complaints about this. I am looking for ideas on what to do with my 2005 Vibe, was Red Salsa now 40% of clear coat is gone. Worst areas are the hood, the lift gate, the roof.

I am the original owner, bought it brand new. Love the car. Always parked outdoors in the Souther California sun. Hate that the paint is deteriorating.

Took it to MAACO and the cheapest paint job is about $600, which only warranties the paint for 1 year. Sounds like they will wet sand the affected areas then just shoot the whole thing. Also want more money to clear coat it. For $1400 they will do the full job with a 5 year warranty. Thats probably about half of what the car is presently worth.

Clear coat is flaking real bad. If I wax it, most of it will come off. Then I am afraid of rust setting in. We do have El Nino coming

[cptnsolo77]

I hear ya ! My 03 started fading & peeling on the area just behind the antenna but above the rear hatch glass. Nothing you can do execpt repaint. Im going to give it a try this fall and paint with a spray can. Its mostly on top of the car and cant really be seen so if i mess it upso it wont be sooo bad. The roof is also showing signs of wear as well as the area just below the rear glass too, so that will be next unfortunately. Keep in my our cars are 10-12 years old...its inevitable. Both the states we live in are known for sunny days so that takes a toll. My Vibe has been outdoors during the day for 90% of its life

[trb]

The earlier Vibes tended to have not so good paint. The roof and hood on my 03 GT was pretty bad, down to the primer in parts, so I ended up sanding the roof and painting it with matte black Rustoleum by foam roller just to make it be one color. Not 100% perfect, but better than it was. I plan to find a nicer hood without the chips and hail damage to paint up eventually, probably black also.







If the paint color is still there, I would probably try to just wet sand off the damaged clear coat with like 1200 grit or so and hit it with several coats of clear and see how it turns out. IMO it is not really worth spending a lot on these cars. A friend at a body shop said he would paint a new hood for me for about $350-400, but I hesitate to even spend that much on it. Good luck!

[cptnsolo77]

I think the roof look great To Be honest, who can REALLY see the roof anyway ? The Vibe sits pretty high. Isnt matte black the "style" anyway ???
I may use your idea & do the same when its time ( which will be soon ) to paint the roof. Low cost and effective. I like it.

[jolt]

Another thing you check into would be a car wrap. Do a search for "car body wrap". It would be like a big decal to cover the hood and/or roof. You can get pretty crazy with the design, like snake skin or chrome. You may be able to buy just the wrap and put it on yourself if you wanted to try it. Here is just one link:

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/e ... rWrapping/

[ColonelPanic]

The clear is in serious disrepair on ours. Hood, roof, top of the hatch are all trashed. IMHO the paint on these cars was not that great when new and time has not been friendly...







It's a shame, aside from that the car is in pretty good shape considering it's officially a teenager a couple days from now.

[trb]

Oh, yeah Colonel, that does look pretty bad. Mine was not as bad surface area wise, but was well on it's way. I did paint the hatch part with a rattle can metallic dark blue Duplicolor first to see how it would look, and decided that it would cost way too much to paint the whole roof with it. The Rustoleum was like $9 for a quart, roller and tray was like $4, and I got about 6 coats on the roof with it. So far, it is just pulling up a tiny bit by the antenna. I should have removed it and then painted, but instead I taped the antenna base off and the paint pulled up when I removed the tape.

[cptnsolo77]

How long should clear coat last if well maintained ? my 03 is 12 years old now.

[Guy in PHX]

I have an 03 frosty (white). A long time ago someone on the list stated that white was the only color not clear coated. Does anyone have any information on this?

Thanks