Clearcoat failure advice please

[Kevin509]

Hopefully this is in the right section..

My 2006 Mustang GT was in a fender bender before I bought it on the front right corner area. It appears the fender was repainted during the repair and whatever body shop did the work cleared over a vinyl stripe on the side, and around the antenna without removing the antenna or something.

Now I'm noticing that around the antenna, and in a couple spots over the vinyl stripe the clear is peeling. I know that the only real way to fix this evolves wet sanding and respraying the clear. I had the detailer we use at work take a look at it and he said that around the antenna would be pretty straight forward to fix but he's never dealt with clear over vinyl and was unsure of how to best handle that situation.

I'm looking for some expert advice both on how this problem should be fixed, and what I should expect to pay to get it fixed...





Thanks!

[tguil]

Had that happen to me once. The fix was more than you really want to hear. The body shop ended up removing the stripe and because of the mess that resulted ended up sanding the panel, repainted the base coat, sprayed on clear and then applied a new stripe.

Because it was their error, I didn't have any expense. I fear that you are going to be out some $$$ for a proper fix.

Tom

[glen e]

There is no fix for clear coat failure except a repaint. Try to reduce the UV on the car in the future.

[RoadRageDetail]

Ouch. Gotta love shortcuts.

What will have to happen is a paint shop will "cut" the clear around the stripes so they can be lifted off. That will create a situation where the panel will have to be sanded down and repainted and cleared. Once the paint has baked they can re-apply a new vinyl section, or remove the remaining vinyl on the car to match if you decided to have that done.

[Kevin509]

So then the base color itself will have to be repainted as well? It seems I'm getting conflicting opinions on that part. Some people are saying that after wet sanding only the clear will need to be re applied?

[glen e]

So then the base color itself will have to be repainted as well? It seems I'm getting conflicting opinions on that part. Some people are saying that after wet sanding only the clear will need to be re applied?

It depends what it takes to get the clear off. I have seen both. Did a spoiler that got wet sanded and base left intact with just new clear, and others parts where base gets nicked and then it needs both.

[RoadRageDetail]

There's only one way to do it right at this point. Start fresh. I'm sure you'd hate for more issues to arise down the road due to other unforeseen shortcuts that were taken during the initial repair. It won't add much to the job for the panel to be taken down a little further than the clear and repainted. It could have only been a blended panel and they decided to go cheap on the prep work but I wouldn't leave it to chance.

[BobbyG]

Kevin,

Unfortunately, this is what I'd deem; do it right the second time...

This is poor workmanship at it's finest.

1. Poor surface decontamination
2. Poor sanding
3. Non removal of key elements
4. Poor perpetration period

Shortcuts like this are very common because the dealers goal is to stuff as much of your hard earned cash in their pockets and they care little....let me rephrase that..they don't give a rats ass about passing on quality to their customer or doing anything correctly.

Painted stripes are cleared over, vinyl stripes are not...

Sand and refinish the entire fender including color coat and strip....

[Mike Phillips]

So then the base color itself will have to be repainted as well? It seems I'm getting conflicting opinions on that part.

Some people are saying that after wet sanding only the clear will need to be re applied?

The problem is, getting the clear off the black stripe without affecting the "appearance" of the stripe in a negative way.

Point being, you want it to look good right?

Assuming you want it to LOOK GOOD, that means some person is going to have to somehow remove the clear off the black stripe in a way that does not affect the good looking appearance of the black stripe.

Make sense?

Think about it, if you start sanding on the clear layer of paint at some point you will sand off all the clear and now your sandpaper will start sanding the black stripe. What kind of skill level will it require to ONLY sand the clear, and not "move" the sand paper over the black stripe?

There in lies the problem. I think Tom is correct with what he posted...

Had that happen to me once.

The fix was more than you really want to hear.

The body shop ended up removing the stripe and because of the mess that resulted ended up sanding the panel, repainted the base coat, sprayed on clear and then applied a new stripe.

Because it was their error, I didn't have any expense. I fear that you are going to be out some $$$ for a proper fix.

Tom

I think Tom is right, a correct fix is more than what you want to hear. To do it right means sanding the panel down to the basecoat and starting over, that is if you want it to,

• Look right
• Last a long time and look right