I have a black Chevy Blazer and the clearcoat is peeling off the hood above where the engine is. This would probably cost ~$500 to fix at a Paint and Body Shop, $500 which I’d rather not part with. Is there any way I can repaint/re-clearcoat (or at least protect) my hood?
Yeah, but unless your really really good at painting in general it will look “like you painted it”.
First make sure that it isn’t cover under warranty. Paint has extra long warranties compared to other parts. If it’s under warranty take it back to the dealership.
If it isn’t covered you can get clear coat patch. This can be purchased either on line, or at an auto supply store.
I wouldn’t spray paint it, as no matter how hard you try, it’s gonna look horrible.
Sand it all down to the metal, since the paint/bonding is whats causing your peeling problem. Then get some really good (quality) spray paint and give er.
Prime it again first of course. You may want to wet sand between applications of paint to get the smoothest look.
You can always spray clear coat over the hood when your done.
I would like to qualify my response with this,
Take into consideration the rest of the paint job, and how easy it would be to match the paint. You should be able to get the original paint from the dealer in a spray can.
I like what Light Strand said too, if you can patch the clear without making a mess of the job then go for it.
Though, sometimes starting over is the easiest/best approach.
Too add to the confusion
A lot of factors can go into a decision whether to pursue a proper professional paint job or not. Principally your decision should rest on whether the $500.00 you would spend would enhance the present value of your vehicle as much or not .
If not, then I would suggest the cheapest route that would at least protect the surface from further deterioration.
That could be lightly sand the exposed surfaces and feather back the edges of the clear coat with fine sand paper taking care to not go through the colour. Its assumed the debonding occurs at the base coat/clear coat interface.
apply cheap clear coat in spray bomb first as a mist then come back with a full wet look over the affected area.
Come back a few minutes later with a CO[sub]2[/sub] spray bomb in which you placed a solvent listed on the spray bomb of the clear coat you used.You use this to make the “halo” around the paint repair disappear.
come back several days later and polish with light cutting compound if neccessary
I’ve done many paint repairs, but very little experience with paint bombs because I have spray equipment. But if I didn’t have the spray equipment and faced with the need for a quick and cheap maintenance issue, that’s what I would do.
Btw, make sure your hood is insulated
I had a friend who painted his car with spray paint. He didn’t do any treatment to it and after a year or so it started peeling off (literally) in sheets, and looked horrible. Even before it started peeling it looked really bad (of course that may be because he used flat black Barbecue paint…but the parts he used red spray paint on were equally awful. If it was my car and it wasn’t covered by warranty I would seriously look at the clearcoat patches that light strand mentioned.
Hell you can get decent full car paint jobs for that. Shop around a bit and I bet you coud find someone who can repaint and re-clearcoat your hood for about $100. The shops will most likely be familiar with if not stock common colors/coatings for major brands of vehicles and can match it.
My dad had the same problem w/ a black 86 S10 Blazer, and IIRC, it was a recall point, b/c I don’t remember him being charged for a repaint.
My dad painted an '87 Camaro with spray paint in two shades of grey (a pewtery color on the body and a lighter silver on the top). Now, in theory this would’ve looked beautiful, and the colors themselves had a nice effect, but there’s one problem with spraypaint - it does NOT look like the real auto finish. He used the automotive spray paint from a car parts store - the touch-up stuff - and while that stuff looks just fine when used to touch up small areas, when you apply it to the entire car it very obviously lacks the sheen and depth of most “real” automotive paint finishes.
So yes, it can be done, but it might not look like you really wanted.
Regarding spray bomb paint. fI assume that is what everyone is talking about when they say "spray paint’
All paints require proper surface preparation prior to application. I’ve seen the most expensive marine top coat finish (Awlgrip) peal of due to improper surface prep. Abrasion is crucial as well, but can be avoided by applying coats within a specified time from previous coats and by ensuring compatibility between coating systems.
I’ve seen amateur spray bomb touch ups and in the vast majority of cases, its clear the “painter” isn’t aware of the most important requirement of of spray paint application. The amateur all too often applies light mist coats until he gets full coverage. That is wrong. Other than the initial coat, all subsequent coats should be applied until they look absolutely wet or soaked. To build depth, one should wait between coats until solvents evaporate One should be careful however and not go overboard durin each coat resulting in sags, or “waves” from air pressure or solvent pops.
The OPs problem is one of a localized debonding of a clear coat due to engine heat. Even if the OP screws up, he won’t have lost much time or money.
" Can I repaint my car with spraypaint?"
I asked the woman at the hardware store this once & she said yes.
If you really want to be cheap you could apply duct tape to the areas where the clear coat has not quite come off yet and then pull the remaining clear coat off with the tape. After you’ve got all the clear coat off that will come off you then do a nice wax job on the (black) color coat. It won’t look as nice as when it had a clear coat but will look a whole lot better than any paint job you can do yourself. If you aren’t happy with the results of doing this you can then try something else!
I’ve seen one case before where I know a car had been repainted with Krylon and it didn’t look too bad, although the paint was unusually flat looking. One key to getting the paint to stay on is good surface preparation. You will want to sand all the peeling clearcoat off before you try adding paint, or the clearcoat will go right on peeling and take your new paint with it.
Check out this link. This shows the kind of finish a very determined finisher can get with spray paint using top-notch surface prep and sanding. It is possible to get a mirror - like shine out of a rattle can if you try hard enough.