Camry clear coat failure

[Geo-TH,In]

My son bought a Honda pickup and left his Camry outside. Now the clear coat is bubbling off because of UV.

How much fun is sanding off the clear coat and repainting the car?

He's thinking it will cost him big bucks and he wants to attempt to do this job himself.

How much, a ball park figure, does a body shop charge to repaint a car?

 

[Krapie]

Maaco would likely be less than $1k.

 

[Stephen Newell]

Don't you just love environmental paint.

The cost to refinish the car largely depends on how good a paint job you want. You can't just sand the clear off, you would sand to bare metal in most places. Then it would need to be primed and painted again. To do it right by someone that knows what they are doing would cost in the two grand neighborhood.

If your son is handy with a sprayer and if he is patient and determined should be able to paint the car. It's more grunt work than anything. He might join a forum https://www.autobody101.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=16 for more technical advice.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

I would encourage him to take a night class at a local vocational college.
Plus they have a paint booth.

 

[Johnhof]

I second the Maaco. Price your paints and supplies he might see your wasting your time trying a DYI. I think they make most of their money on body work, kind of an upsell. I would do minor body work or other prep then take it to them to paint. Even cheaper was Earl Scheib? but they are mostly gone.

 

[Stephen Newell]

Unless the clear is failing all over the car I would just refinish the affected areas. Lot easier to refinish just the hood than the whole car. Having a paint booth isn't critical unless you are in California. The paint dries so fast it can be done outdoors on a day when the wind is still.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Maaco prices are $1.5 to $2K
My boy is going to get an estimate.
2 Maacos in Indy.
I think materials would be about 50% the
estimate.

 

[glennster]

what year and what color? single stage, base clear,3 stage, or 4 stage? at my shop just out of the gate, 5k. . we shoot ppg envirobase. that is for a factory finish, no body work.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

If I used a CBS paint booth, What about insects?

 

[DoubleO7]

Just the hood, trunk lid and roof?

Or all over?

 

[circus]

Before going bonkers with a sander first flake off as much of the rotten clear coat with a razor blade. Good clear doesn't need to be removed before painting or, if your lucky, even repainted. Just fine sand any exposed base coat, more of a cleaning and leveling any scratches.
A photo of the extend of the damage would help.

[/img]

This post was edited by circus on 09/03/2023 at 03:51 pm.

 

[Duner Wi]

If you use a Razor blade dull the sharp edge corners so it does not "dig in".

 

[JD Dave]

As is usually the case, preparation is key. The old rule in refinishing is to get the existing finish down to good, solid paint that will accept a new paint job without another fail. Get onto it with some sandpaper in a small section and see how it works out and how much effort is involved. You could prep the whole car and have another guy shoot it for less money.

 

[Stephen Newell]

I don't know, I live in a very buggy place and don't get bugs in the finish. If I use enamel that dries slow I sometimes get bugs in the finish but have never gotten any in lacquer or automotive urethane.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

I haven't seen the car.
He told me after I posted this he also has hail
damage.

 

[glennster]

what year is it and how many miles on it? with the delam and hail damage the cost to repair is probably greater than the value of the car. drive it as is.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

I tried to explain it to my boy, the cost to repair exceeds the value of the car.

My boy bought the car new. He's taken good care of it and wants to keep it on the road.

He lives in an upscale neighborhood on the west side of Plainfield, In

He wants his car to look nice.

He has 3 cars and a 3 car garage. Only problem, one space is taken up with the wood tools I gave him and his mower. The clear coat went bad sitting outside and recently hail damage. He needs new shingles too.

 

[dhermesc]

Any cheap fix is going to be very temporary and leaving it outside again after the fix is going to result in similar issues again. Except for the very best paint work - most repaints are of much lower quality than the original paint job. You can only get that factory finish once with all the metal in pristine condition and the perfect environment to apply the paint. A decent paint job kept under a roof will last many years longer than a vehicle left outside.

He's looking at $3000 for an entire paint job at minimum with any quality. Macco can probably do it cheaper - but the best Macco results are with the owner doing a lot of prep work that Macco won't do. Or he could spend about $600 and a get a good enough paint repair to sell the vehicle and make it someone else's problem.


If the paint issues are limited to the hood, trunk and top of the car - start looking on Ebay or salvage yards for a Camry of the same year and paint code. Replace the hood and trunk and then you only have the top to fix. Most likely the fade difference will be minimal since they are the same year and you fixed the hail issue too. Usually doing a painstakingly long polishing of the car will minimize the fade differences.

I have done this with several of my cars and with our trucks at work. The trucks at work are usually Ford's fleet white paint and finding replacement fenders, doors, hoods and tailgates has been fairly easy and cheap compared to body shop fees.

 

[DoubleO7]

He should have just handed it down to his son as a first vehicle.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

If he's not a professional and he's willing to paint it himself, what does he care if a bug gets in the finish? It's not going to come out perfect by any stretch of the imagination. A bug spot in the finish is going to be the least of his worries.