Pay a pro or rattle can my hood?

Hey guys, it's been a bit since I posted.

Wanted to get your opinion on this.

The clear coat on the HOOD of my 2013 MGM DCLB is failing. So I have two choices:

1) I called around, and the best price I found is $750 to have it professionally painted.

2) Rattle can it myself using Duplicolor. Total cost for supplies $200

Truck is in great shape, 60K miles.

 

If it was me, pay a professional

 

Get it done professionally or you'll regret it later. Rattle can is ok for spot touch up kind of stuff, not for an entire body panel. Also, the type of clear coat the pros use is better than what's in a rattle can.

 

I would think if its just the clearcoat, can't they just wetsand it and reclear. Or is the paint badly faded?

 

If you have the space and patience for the prep work id give the rattle can a go. Spray paint has come along way. You might be surprised.

Find some youtube vids and have at it.

 

The paint is only part of the equation. Proper prep is key. Once the clear coat goes on, a wetsand and polish happens. You can easily burn through clear coat if you're not good. It's up to the OP if he wants to experiment, but be prepared to pay up for the body shop to have to fix the mistakes.

 

Not to be “this guy” but it’s an 11yo truck that hasn’t had the paint maintained in the first place. If you’ve owned it since new are you going to reform your habits this late in the game?

Save your money and let it ride!

 

I get what you are saying, but I'm not that guy.

I took care her. Washed and waxed religiously.

Here is a pic for those interested:

 

If you have it repainted by a pro, I would think the freshly painted hood would not match the rest of the truck.

The pattern of the damage seems like it was caused by a DA polisher maybe?

 

Do you take it through an automatic car wash? My 2014 paint still looks really good and it's been parked outside for the last 3 years through snow and summer. Something has been scrubbing away your clear coat.

 

I dont think I have ever taken it through a car wash, ha. Always hand wash.

The clear was perfect while we lived in NY, but since I moved down to NC almost 4 years ago, the clear really started to degrade around a year and half ago.

The truck lives outside and gets beat on with South facing sun all day long.

 

Yea the paint won't match but you're unlikely to notice because its the hood and not a panel side-by-side; ie: a repainted front door but front 1/4 panel and rear door are 20 year old original paint.

 

Pay a pro unless you want to take the time to practice a lot and use an HVLP gun rather than rattle can. Rattle cans do not work all that well for large, flat surfaces as it's just difficult to get a smooth finish with such a small sprayer. If it was something like a mirror cover or grill it'd be much easier but a hood will be tricky.

Additionally, doing it yourself you won't be blending into the adjacent panels - which a body shop would likely be doing - so that could mean a worse color match from panel to panel.

 

$750 seems high for a relatively simple paint job, but who knows these days?
I would do a good sanding and prep job, dust free as possible(dampen floor) and paint away. Rattle cans don't have much hardener, so multiple thin coats, sand between. Takes longer, but saving $750.

 

Do you use a power polisher or anything like that? Soap and wax shouldn't be doing that to your clear coat. In any case, you could try to see if you can repaint the hood, but if you aren't familiar with the process, I strongly suggest a professional. $750 is a good price if the shop is reputable. The other thing to consider is long term goals. How confident are you in the DIY paint to stand up to your environment for the next 10 years?

 

That damage is almost certainly just sun/UV damage. The paint on these trucks is not all that great in terms of durability. Normally, I'd think if it was waxed regularly with good products that this shouldn't have happened but there are a lot of variables here so tough to know for sure.

 

If you do it yourself, you may have to stare at your mistakes every time you get behind the wheel.

 

I appreciate everyone chiming in. I'm going to have the shop paint the roof and hood. I plan on passing the truck down to my older son when he turns of age in a few years. She's treated me well, so Ill do the right thing.

The shop quotes me $1500 for roof and hood. THey would bring down to bare metal, prime , paint and clear.

 

Only thing I ever used was an orbital buffer to remove the wax, though I mostly used hand power.

I do see more cars down south with failing clear. It may just be confirmation bias on my part, but I dont recall seeing as much clear failure up north.

 

What wax were you using?
How often were you applying it?
Are you applying by hand or with a buffer?
What type of compound were you using on the buffer to "remove the wax"?
What type of soap do you use to wash the truck?

Normally you wouldn't need a buffer to remove wax. It degrades on it's own and typically can be pretty easily removed simply by using the correct soap. You could have been unwittingly been removing clear coat with your buffer when you thought you were removing wax. Doing this a few times shouldn't be a problem but if you were doing it every 6 months that could definitely have contributed to the problem.

It's not confirmation bias. Different areas have drastically different environmental conditions which affect our cars. Normally we talk about the rust prone areas but areas like Florida, Arizona, parts of California (and plenty of other areas) not only have intense sun but see more of that sun throughout the year. In my area, the sun is the number one battle to be fought. It wreaks havoc on paint, trim, rubber, headlights... pretty much everything. The switch to water borne paints (and specifically the 1st generations of this type of paint) is also a huge contributing factor. Older, oil based paints did a much better job standing up to UV rays.