What's going on with my tailgate? Peeling?

So I recently debagded the entire truck using nothing more than dental floss. The doors look great with only slight discoloration where the badges used to be but the tailgate is a mess. All around where the tailgate badges used to be is a hard edge. At first I thought it was residue or wax build up be it seems to be a layer of something else.



You can see where the V6 badge was that clay bar removes whatever this layer is but then the problem is just spread out more. Tailgate looks like crap now. I can live with the discolored paint under the badges but this other problem is a real eyesore.

Any help or tips to point me in the right direction of fixing this would be much appreciated.

 

Clearcoat failure.

Fortunately, it is only the tailgate and not the roof.

You need a repaint. Give the truck the best buffing/polishing/waxing you can to get to the more pure current color and have a paint shop repaint the tailgate to match.

Same thing is happening to the spare tire cover on my wife's '04 Rav4. The "Spectra blue mica", under the clearcoat, looks more like the "satin" metallic blue on the '07 Ninja 636.

 

Well crap. Really not trying to get it repainted anytime soon. Tailgate is already bent so a repaint would also call for a replacement. May have to get creative to cover up the damage, maybe slap a decal over it and call it a day. Also completely defeat the purpose of debadging.

 

+1 on clear coat issues, it's actually delamination of the clear coat, you see lots of dodge rams and other Chrysler vehicles doing it... Nothing can fix it other than reprinting.. The more sun and uv rays beat on it the worse it will get...

 

Well then wet sand, buff it and live with it.

 

This.


Automotive paint is usually about 5-7mil thick, and that's primer+color+clear.

You can color sand the clear just until you see the slightest bit of red, that means you're through the clear. You'd only have to do it in the area that's damaged. Just tape off the whole tailgate except for the damaged area and maybe 3 inches beyond it in all directions.

Sand through the clear until you hit color, then respray. I'm sure a body shop could do it for you.