Top of fender clearcoat deterioration /fade

I'm wondering if anyone has successfully dealt with this on their own? Megathread seems to indicate it's not the best idea....better to take to a paint and body shop.

 

There’s no easy way if that’s what you’re asking. It’s take it down to primer or metal, prime, blend paint, 2k clear. There are a million videos on YouTube, and it can be done rattle can.

 

Not much you can do, but @FiatRunner may have some tips and can show you some good before/after of a "best case" scenario.

Really, you have four viable options:

• Try to perfectly sand down to the base coat, then re-clear
• Sand down, re-basecoat, re-clear
• Replace the fender with a parts truck fender in same color that doesn't have the same neglect damage
• Have a shop respray the fender to match the faded paint (it'll need to be a shop with a proper paint scope to get a perfect match on the faded OEM paint)

@FiatRunner opted for, I believe, the 2nd of those bullets, and his turned out better than I'd have expected, and probably better than I could've done.

 

Yeah, I went with option 2 when dealing with large surface rust spots on my truck. I didn’t tape anything off, just feathered the paint and clear back onto the original paint. This is NOT what’s recommended by professionals and this method definitely has it’s pros and cons.

The whole process is shown HERE and HERE

@bing5 you could do something similar to your truck, my only concern is that if one spot has clearcoat failure, other spots are not far behind. Not to mention that the entire truck may be slightly faded, and the newly painted fender will stick out like a sore thumb.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Think I'll try @shifty` 's option 1. The base coat looks to still be in decent shape, though obviously faded. I'm not looking for perfection. Rather, just want to head off any further deterioration. Any clearcoat product in a can that you guys recommend?

 

Leave it. It's earned that patina.

 

Freiburger does a "Comet wash" to free up the loose bits and exaggerate the patina. Vice Grip Garage markets "Shine Juice" (which I suspect is noting more than boiled linseed oil) to seal it up afterward and to preserve/enhance said patina. These treatments cater to the "rat rod" crowd

 

Be forewarned: It's pretty difficult to do without burning thru the basecoat when it's pocketed like this. Be sure to use a longer sanding block or something that's going to spread out the load, so you're not digging into the basecoat while attempting to sand down the clear. Make sure you feather the edge of the clear as linear as possible so there's no obvious ridge where you stopped sanding. There's a video I've posted on here before, someone doing similar in a similar spot on a black car, I can dig it up again if it'll help.

There's still some adherence of the basecoat to the panel, but once the clear is gone, you're going to need to wetsand it and the adacent clear that may have overlap, at a very fine* grit.

 

Just noticed similar clear coat damage beginning on my roof. I came across this thread while looking for remedies. not worried about it looking perfect given not many people will be seeing my roof. So what's the fix when aesthetics aren't priority? Would just like to stop it from getting worse if possible. My totally uneducated guess is a light sand and rattle can some clear coats.

I think I'll wax all my vehicles soon...

 

Wax is the preventative to keep you from getting to this point.

Everywhere you see hazy gray, your clearcoat has physically detached from the basecoat. It's an adhesion failure, mechanical failure, I'm not a paint guy, so I dunno if there's any way to truly re-adhere the clearcoat to the base color again.

I did see 10-12 years ago, there was one process out there which claimed to liquefy/soften/re-level the clear, but I dunno if it was a gimmick or not, and I can't seem to find it, everything I'm Googling is giving me "reflow" info.

The "typical" fix would be sanding to basecoat to remove the hazy/detached portions where your clearcoat has failed, and laying down new clear with a 2K clear product. Just be aware, for your health, you really need to use proper respirator PPE gear when using 2K products. They'll wreck your lungs.

 

2k clear is new to me, thanks for suggestion. Did a quick search and looks like a good option. I have a respirator from previous painting projects, will be sure to wear.
So sand down the faded clear, feather it out. Clean and degrease well. Then spray the 2k clear.
Not looking for professional results, just hoping to repair and prevent further damage as much as possible.
wax job will be happening this spring on all my cars as well.

 

That's ultimately what to do. You'll find videos covering the process with various methods on YouTube. Look up 2K clear coat repair. This is one of the videos I typically link when I get involved with people asking, and I may be wrong, but I believe this is ballpark the process @FiatRunner used on his truck. Avoid the gimmicky "wipe on clearcoat" fixes, like what Poppy sells. It's garbage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj9VqSnT-bs​

 

This clearcoat haze happened to the roof of my green Tundra a few years ago. I tried sanding gently with the plan to re-clear, but it immediately took the green off to a gray primer. I ended up taking it to a local budget shop for new basecoat and clearcoat for about $1k.

I think I'll get out there and wax her today.

 

Very helpful. Thanks.

If me or OP does this method soon we'll have to report back on results. Luckily mine is mostly out of sight so it's pretty low risk to try. Maybe I'll vinyl wrap the roof as backup plan.

 

$1k to just fix the bad spot? Or paint the whole roof? How'd it turn out?

 

Yeah, the whole roof. I might've let it go for a while after my first attempt failed. Oh, and I'm in $eattle, so "budget shop" has a slightly different meaning to other places.

p.s. It looks great!

 

My timberland is doing the same but I can see primer through mine it’s so rough it catches the towel when drying. I have the paint just haven’t had the time to do it yet