Paint on Hood Very Bad, Options?

I just become the newest owner of a 2000 Tacoma Pre-Runner V6 Xtracab. It's in great shape mechanically and the interior is great. The body is in good shape but the paint on the hood is very cloudy and in bad shape. I spent the weekend trying to correct and polish it but no matter how shiny I got it, within an hour or so it went back to being cloudy. I think this means it's kaput.

This is how it looked originally. The rest of the body is free of cloudiness and shined up decently given the age of the vehicle.

I'm trying to think of my options. Getting the hood repainted? It would never match the rest of the vehicle, I don't think, would it?

Maybe covering the hood in some carbon fiber wrap? Ugh, that would probably look silly.

Any other thoughts or comments?

 

Depends on what you want. Body shops can do a pretty good job of matching colors. I’d be looking into top surfaces as they will be next to fade on a 18 year old factory paint.

 

Sure a good shop could match it just fine, but that is dependent on your budget. If you want it done cheap just take the whole hood off and maybe shop smaller independent guys, by just giving them the hood itself then at least you dont have to worry about them causing overspray damage all over the place.

Great looking Tacoma, I think it has 4runner wheels maybe? not sure if you knew that.

 

My hood and roof were bad. Plus some rock chips in the hood that were starting to rust. Took it to Maaco and got the base + clear option for $1850 I believe. Didn't have them fix any dents or anything extra. Was more concerned about just stopping the rust.

Edit : that was for the whole truck. Not just the hood and roof. I figured there was no way it would match without doing the whole thing. And that would bug me.

 

Hard to tell from the pic, but what is the actual condition of the paint on the hood, besides it "looking bad"
Any peeling clear coat, chipping, all the way down to metal?

 

Lol maybe not, I've got a few more questions to see what would be the best route, I worked in a body shop for a few months so I'm pretty much a pro

 

Plastidip or get a respray.

 

Someone backed into my car this year. Never having had to go to a body
shop or deal with insurance quoters, I was confused about everyone talking
about messing with the adjacent panel that was undamaged... the good body
shop man I took it too explained about "blending" to make is so that the
newly painted panel wouldn't stand out. I guess he blended the snot out
of it, because I can't tell the difference...

-Mike "they can make it match pretty well..."

 

Okay, so I used a polisher from Harbor Freight using a orange pad, I think it's for correction. I used Griot's Garage Complete Compound on the entire hood. All of it was cloudy, now after working on it over the weekend some spots remain cloudy. Many of them seemed to clear up but after an hour in the sun driving around went back to cloudy. Some spots such as the front edge of the dash did clean up pretty well. Here's some pictures.

 

Maaco is a franchise, so the service and management can likely vary a lot from one location to the next, but you got to be so careful of overspray with them, they can overspray your entire engine if there are any vents going to it, they can not tape your rubber window seals right and then you have all your nice seals half painted, if you have brand new tires they can overspray them too, its honestly scary sending a nice car to Maaco - but again its a franchise so if you have a good trusted one that painted your truck good then thats great, Maaco usually lays on really nice paint jobs, its just a prep taping issue where corners are sometimes cut - but this will probably depend a lot on each particular franchise location.

 

Did the pad turn red when you were polishing or did it stay orange

 

Nevermind OP just read the bit under your picture, paint is coming off

 

So here's what I suggest, not knowing the depth of the paint since some of the clear is gone, might not be worth it to ask a shop to do it yet. So, take some 1000 grit wetsand sand paper and do a section of the hood, or just a spot to see how it'll look. If it comes out looking good and youre still not into primer you can take it to a shop and have them wetsand and reclear the hood for you, will be much cheaper, and look just as good.

 

Careful going too crazy with the compound. You might go all the way through the paint.

Cloudiness can sometimes mean there’s moisture trapped in the paint or clear coat. Not sure what they were using in 2000 or what type of color you have there - base and clear, or single stage.

Have you tried a heat gun or infra ref light?

 

Edit: that pic of the buffing pad looks like you’ve got either single stage, or the clear is gone, possible that you’ve cut through the clear (if it was there) down to the base, in which case you’ll have to repaint / clear coat it now.

I agree w redmanrocket.

 

Only white and black I believe was single stage so he's already through

 

Bummer. Ah well.

 

That's why I suggested a reclear, we did it plenty of times at the shop I worked at

 

Possible that the hood was previously repainted which might explain why the other panels still look good. Is it the original hood? Do you see factory stickers on the underside?

 

I'm guessing it's just a mixture of engine heat cycles and paint neglect, pretty common