Clear coat failure

I need some help figuring out what to do about replacing my clear coat or the next best thing. I saw the forum and it said that my truck normally wouldn't have a clear coat so do I even need one?

 

I took a couple more photos if more is needed

 

Best results are going to be a repaint, and alot of prep work.

 

Repaint in places and shoot a coat or two of clear over the entire truck.

 

Yea I feel like its gonna be tedious asf. But better than the cheapest paint job which is 5000

 

My fantasy pickup truck (before I bought a Tundra) is a F150, painted in flat black primer (the bumpers removed and replaced by sections of railroad track...just in case someone cuts me off).

You have an opportunity here to do something unique! I've seen several Tundras painted with bed liner...black, lima bean green, and orange! An of course plenty of camo motifs to consider. I only suggest this because flat and textured finishes are a lot more forgiving of surface imperfections, which you seem to have in ample supply.

 

It looks like some dumbass probably got talked into shooting a clearcoat over the original paint because it was chalked, and here you are. All it needed was polishing, but I’m guessing it got shot with clear instead.

Your truck shouldn’t have clearcoat for white for metal panels, only the plastics. It should be single stage white, no clear. Repaint is your option. But for now you need to treat all the rust spots. Hit with a few rounds of Naval Jelly, and top with a white self-etch primer until you get it fixed.

 

That is gonna suuuuuckkkkk

gonna need some Costco size bundle of sand paper lol

 

Would it be a bad idea to go ahead and remove most of the clear coat now or just wait until I can repaint? I don't have a garage to do the painting yet I'll be moving in January.

 

You can always start sanding in small sections, then apply boiled linseed oil or tung oil to seal/protect what you've done. When you're ready to paint you can sand it back, then use an alkyd based primer (or paint). Linseed is often used as a component in Alkyd paints. Nitro based paint works too, albeit a bit archaic. Check for adhesion before you apply a modern "poly" based paints...some can be applied over any substrate, others not so much. You may even like the "rat rod" look and decide to keep it.

https://bangshift.com/general-news/...w-to-use-linseed-oil-to-bring-out-some-gleam/

Edit: Dissimilar materials (base coat/clear coat) and/or poor prep might explain why your clear coat is shedding

 

That’s rough. So far only my hood has had paint issues from 2006. They get old and need that loving!

 

@w666 I like this idea. that's why Ive been thinking about getting a kit from poppys patina and just doing a wipe on clear coat. I gotta be honest here this clear coat is coming off way to easy I feel like I could get a silicon spatula from the kitchen and scoop it off

 

I mean, if I were you, what I'd be doing is testing my theory above. Take a decent buffing compound, like No.7 which is sold at my local Ace Hardware. Put half-a-pea sized dollop on your finger tip. On an area with no clearcoat, rub it into the paint in a quarter-sized circle with medium pressure for about 15-20 seconds. Stop, and wipe/buff the residual away with a clean terrycloth or microfiber cloth (or any clean shop towel). Does it shine up? Check again in 2-3 weeks. Still shiny? Check again in 2-3 months. Still shiny?

If yes, I'm probaby right, someone shot clearcoat over the factory single stage. I'd do my best to peel away the clear, get a good random DA/random-orbit handheld with 6" hook-and-loop base, get a 6" Griot's orange cutting pad, some Meguair's Ultimate polish, and clean up the paint. I mean, there's more to it than that, happy to elaborate, but that's the basics of what you need.

 

Okay what other factors will have to take in when and if this is the fix. I'll probably go and try the buffing compound today. In three months I'll have a garage but it will also be winter by then would I have to wait for it to heat up outside?

 

It doesn't need to be hot to polish a truck. Actually, a little cold is better than a little hot.

"Other factors" not sure what you mean.

You just need a decent random-orbit polisher (I'm using a damn random-orbit DA sander Ridgid makes!), a good cutting pad which you never, ever let touch the ground to avoid sand getting in the pad and fucking your paint and rinse out thoroughly after the job is done, and use a good polish with "medium" pressure, i.e. you're not bogging down your decent-quality polisher more than halfway. Move slowly across your panels in sections, like you're mowing a yard or painting a panel, i.e, make one row pass going top to btt, then skip to the next row with a little overlap on the rest, and continue to the bottom of the panel. Then repeat, but going up and down in rows, left to right. When I polish, I usually try to do everything I can in one square not much larger than 3ft x 3ft, and repeat the back/forth + up/down process 2-3 times, then move to the next section. BE METHODICAL.

You can get hand pads to do the tight/weird areas, like the cab corners, A- and B- pillars, etc.

Meguair's has some great videos online showing how-to on polishing. I recommend watching. They're not perfect but they're pretty good.

 

I used this for the test and it definitely looks more like a glaze than a shine. I know its in the name lol. Will this work or should I go to ace?

 

That's not a good example. That's sealant, it appears. You need compound, to physically cut the paint.

 

This ? There is this and polishing compound.

 

YES! That's the stuff. But at the store it may be in a white plastic shorty tube with a green plastic lid. That's the good stuff.

Wife tapped the garage door today on her way in. Had to use it today to buff out a hell of a lot of paint and get shit shiny agani. Shoulda taken pics.

 

Here you go. These are your friends. Chances are the can they have at Ace is the right can, but you can literally buy the shit all over the place. Auto parts stores, hardware stores, Amazon. Just make sure it is the RUBBING compound, not polishing compound, or any other compound. Stuff if the best compound I’ve ever used. Best mix of aggressive and smooth.

 

I had to get from Amazon non of the stores around me had it. It should be coming in today.

 

A little goes a long way. Find an inconspicuous spot. When I was getting a gauge on my truck, trying to figure out how much improvement I could expect from polishing, I did a little 2" x 3" spot just above the passenger door handle with No.7 (see red circle below) and it turned out awesome, so I did one entire bedside next with a polish. My paint was fully chalked as you can clearly see here, note the difference beetween the bed, the circled spot, and the rest. Almost looks like like someone sprayed base coat, but never sprayed clear over it.

To that point, need to make something clear. There are two common styles of painting used on our trucks: Two stange and single stange.

Two stage: You shoot a base color coat on (stage 1), then top it with clearcoat (stage 2)
Single stage: Clearcoat and base are mixed into one, and shot on (stage 1)​

Single stage paint will always chalk out if not kept up with on wax and sealer. Multi-stage paint (2-stage, 3-stage) has the clearcoat to act as a hardshell, and as long as you maintain it with UV protection and wax it once a year, it'll usually stay intact for decades in "normal" environments.

Why am I telling you this? I don't want to get your hopes up. It's well known Toyota used single-stage paint on their white and red (non-metallic) vehicles for decades, and was still using single stage on white vehicles through the 2010s, your truck should have come from the factory with single stage paint. Because this is established fact, with white trucks specifically, I'm assuming your previous owner's truck wasn't well taken care of, and it was as chalky as mine below, and he went to a paint/body shop, and/or they were paint-ignorant and decided they'd be smart and shoot clear over single-stage and it'd be shiny, but without proper prep, clear wouldn't stick, and you'd end up with what you show above: Gross failure of the clearcoat in a major way.

**IF** I'm right, it means you have good single stage paint under that clear, and if you can remove the clear, you should be able to buff out the paint like I did with mine. If I'm wrong, and ... at some point, your truck was sanded and repainted two-stage, either because of sales lot or shipping damage, or because of an accident, then the chalky paint under your clear is basecoat, and the polish **WILL** technically make the basecoat shiny, but it won't stay shiny for more than 2-3 months without new clear over it to keep it that way.

That's a long way of saying: I'm only suggesting you to do this, testing the No.7 on an inconspicuous spot like I'm showing in this red circle below, so we can see if it shines up, and is still shiny in 2-3 months. If so, I'd be pretty confident I'm right. And if not, No.7 is friggin awesome for all kinds of stuff, including getting headlights crystal clear again.

​

 

Heck yea this explains everything really well! I’m pretty sure this vehicle was reconstructed so it definitely could have been repainted. I think this is a good way to find out.

 

Apparently this stuff is hard to come by the closest store that has it is 45 minutes away and Amazon said it should’ve arrived today but now says it’s hasn’t even shipped yet. So I got the turtle wax brand it looks like the same stuff

 

Either the turtle wax is trash or I’m doing something but it doesn’t look very shiny if at all a week later.

 

Wax won't do shit. You need to at least use a very aggressive polish, or at best use a medium buffing compound like No.7

 

^^ This is what I was able to get my hands on ima try and get the number 7. I tried Amazon but it kept getting delayed.

 

I have that Turtle product. It's really not that great. It should work within reason, but it takes 4x as long for me.

With that No.7 you should be able to put a dab on your finger the size of half a pea and rub in a circular are about as big as a nickel or quearter for 15-20 sec with medium pressure, then buff it away with a clean towel, and the paint should be shiny if it's single stage under.

If it doesn't, then it's actually basecoat under the clear, and someone, at some point, probably repainted that truck.

 

@sANDI_tOES here is a real world comparison of these two products. Same exact method used.

I have this bin outside my house for 3-4 years. Single stage paint. Sun has beat it down. On the right, I’ve done a circle as I recommend above, but maybe a bit larger, 1.25” and 1.5” with the Turtle.

Clearly, the No.7 was able to cut down to the original pigment, through the layers of oxidation, and expose the original color underneath. Turtle wax got it mostly shiny, but couldn’t get down to good, unoxidized/unfaded paint.

Again. Same method. Same pressure. Same panel. Different product. Turtle wax really errs on the side of caution, nerfing their product so people don’t cut thru their clearcoat. It’s closer in abrasiveness to Meguair’s Ultimate Polish (which is a polishing compound, not a buffing compound, there’s a difference). Turtle Wax shouldn’t be calling it “buffing compound”, it’s only as effective as a polishing compound.

To that point, what we are trying to achieve here is NOT for us to use the No.7 to buff out your truck. No.7 is a bit aggressive for that, you DO NOT need something that cuts this hard to do that job, it’s not a good product for a newbie to use their 1st time. You should use polishing compound for that. But No.7 IS a great product to test, in under 60 seconds, what a GOOD polishing compound will do for your paint. And that’s what we are trying to do here: Confirm if some fucking idiot sprayed clear coat over your single stage paint, and that’s why it’s peeling so aggressively. If they did, there’s a solid chance we can resolve a good chunk of your paint. It won’t be a show queen, but it won’t look like ass either.

 

Okay thank you for all of the good info I put in another order for the number 7. Side note some old fella backed in to my rear passenger side today