Painting hood and roof

[colinnwn]

The clearcoat on my forest green Pathy is mostly peeled off of my hood, and is starting to fail on my roof, but not bad yet.

 

Does anyone know what my options and approx price is to get a decent job done on hood and maybe roof? I don't want Maaco $100 job, or to spend too much on an old truck with an old paint job.

 

I assume you can't just clearcoat over the current paint and expect it to look ok. Maybe that would be OK on the roof just for protection.

 

This is in Texas if prices vary by region much.

 

Thanks

[CDN_S4]

Paint jobs are generally expensive. If your paint is so rough that the clear coat is gone I can only imagine that there isn't much left on the other parts or at the very least that paint be in such rough shape that it wouldn't look anything close to fresh paint. This would mean if you want it to look good you will need to paint the whole car.

 

I don't get how people let their paint become this bad. Regular waxes still need to be applied after regular washes.

[01Pathmaker]

This issue seems to be less common there farther north you go, but I've seen many vehicles with fading or peeling clearcoat, and not all were neglected. Regular wash/wax will help prevent this, but ultimately the environmental conditions that the vehicle is subject to is a bigger factor. Typically, if a vehicle is in a warm/sunny climate, not garage kept, not parked in shade often, this will speed the degradation of even the best kept finishes. Also, Nissan did have a clearcoat issue in the 2002-2006 timeframe that wasn't properly (in my opinion) dealt with. It seems the "squeaky wheel gets the grease" method was applied to the issue, only the customers that complained to corporate had any sort of resolution.

Edited April 14, 2015 by 01Pathmaker

[colinnwn]

Actually except for the hood and roof, my paint job doesn't look that bad, especially for a 14 year old car. I'm sure fresh paint on the hood will look sort of out of place, though probably better than the clearcoat peeling that looks like a bad sunburn. But there is almost no way I'll want to spend the money to paint the whole car. The 2 tone tan on the fender flares is starting to fade a little too.

 

I live in Dallas and I don't have a garage to park in at home or work, so warm and sunny is a colossal understatement. I regularly see over 120 degrees on my car thermometer in July and August, so I am sure the hood and roof get to 160 degrees or more. I also don't have a choice but to park under trees at home, which the sap is obviously not good for paint either.

 

I keep my cars for a long time, and my last 2 Nissans the paint held up better without maintenance. I ran it through a carwash a couple times a year. I'd never gotten it waxed until I started getting it detailed once a year the last 2 years. I didn't realize that it would make that much of a difference, besides for tree sap. I assumed that the weather in Texas was a far bigger determinate of paint longevity. But for my future cars I do plan to get them detailed including waxed twice a year hoping it will help. I have no patience to wash and wax cars myself.

[Karmann]

Paint jobs are generally expensive. If your paint is so rough that the clear coat is gone I can only imagine that there isn't much left on the other parts or at the very least that paint be in such rough shape that it wouldn't look anything close to fresh paint. This would mean if you want it to look good you will need to paint the whole car.

 

I don't get how people let their paint become this bad. Regular waxes still need to be applied after regular washes.

 

I was a detailer for several years, and continue to detail my own and family's cars. I can tell you, regular waxing will sadly not always prevent clearcoat failure. Clearcoats were in their infancy in the 90s, and especially if a vehicle sits outside, no matter how many times you wax it in a sun-intense area, it could fail. I live on the coast where the temperatures are more moderate, but with high sun exposure and see failing clearcoats all the time. The further inland you go, the more common it becomes.

 

As to the OP's question, depending where you are, I would try and search for a well rated body shop to do it, and tell them your situation. They can easily blend the hood and roof to the rest of the car. Otherwise, if you'd like to try painting it yourself, I've had good luck with http://www.automotivetouchup.com/. Much better than Duplicolor "Color Match" which doesn't match at all.

[colinnwn]

I was looking for another post and came across this. Just for future reference I found a place in South Dallas that did my hood for $250 last year. They did an excellent job. The only mess-up was getting the gasket crooked on the windshield washer nozzle. He offered to do my whole truck for $1,200.

 

Unfortunately 3 months later on the freeway a huge nut flew onto my hood. It put a large dent and 2 big paint chips in it, and then hit my window. Miraculously the window didn't crack.