Clearcoat Removal

[poinzey]

My blazer has the original factory paint on it. My problem is that the clearcoat is seperating from the base and is peeling bad. Is there a way to remove the old clearcoat without harming the base? A friend suggested using Macquire's Scratch Remover and a buffer to get it down to the base, and just being really careful. I'd like to get it off so it doesnt peel anymore and will look halfway decent for a while.
TIA,
Tony

 

[ryoken]

hmmmm, missed this one....

Hate to say it, but your gonna be ch*t outta luck... Sorry...

Couple reasons being.....

"Buffing" thru the clear isn't gonna happen.. your just gonna wreck the base... base is very unforgiving in that regards... I mean you could cut thru it with some super duty compound, but its just gonna do a f*cked up shine job on the base, that'll need to be sanded and recoated anyway.... base is not designed for that.. plus, you'll be buffing your arse off... And more than likely actually going thru the base in areas.. I mean, you could try it, but it'll be a good amount of work and the result are prolly gonna look like ch*t..

your only real option is to sand the clear off, which will sand the topcoat of base... then throw a couple coats of base on to freshen up and reclear...

we did tons of those factory recalls back in the 80's...

maybe start redoing it panel by panel? sand/strip it down, prime.. then move on to the next panel when you have time...

 

[poinzey]

Doh , that's kinda what I was thinking too. I like the one panel at a time suggestion. Since this doesn't have to be a show quality job, it will be the perfect project to get my boys involved with. Give them a lil experience working with paint and spend some quality time together too, lol. I just wish that dumb orange(wheat?) color hadn't grown on me so much, at least it makes it easy finding it in the parking lot!

 

[ryoken]

sure, if you don't mind running around "mid bodywork"... thats what i'm doing... I had my door off doing my battery project, so it was the perfect time to rip it down to bare steel and throw some epoxy primer on it.. trimmed out all the door jams on it in paint, and threw it back on... now i've got a tan door... but its setup for the paint, hard part is done, the jams...

just be sure if you do that, that you don't run around in lacquer primer... you should be able find epoxy primer in rattle cans, enamel at the least... pm me if you have questions...

 

[bigblaza]

yeah but be careful of the "mid-bodywork" joy riding...most primers tend to very porous, so even though it looks like you have "paint" or a protective layer on you car/truck its porous enough to let water vapor and elements get into the metal, unless you use epoxy primer (I believe). Someone back me on this...a few body people told me that...I just went from primer to base immediatly so I have not experience doin the mid bodywork riding

 

[ryoken]

lacquer primer absorbs water...

I'm running around with an epoxy primed door right now...

 

[rjfguitar]

I watched a guy use paint stripper to remove clear, but you'd have to be real good at it and not let the stripper sit on the panels too long.

I'm no paint expert, but I'd think if your clear is in that bad of shape your paint probably isn't much better. Sounds like it's new paint job time.

 

[ryoken]

It's a futile attempt anyway.. Like I mentioned you CANNOT just reshoot clear over existing base... It will need an overcoat of color no matter what.. And at that point, just repaint the truck...