Peeling clearcoat fix ?

Search came up a little empty .

I'm picking up a 2001 Ram and the clearcoat is peeling in the usual places , is there a cheap fix for this , I really don't want to get into a repaint of the truck.

Nope. Need to paint it. Scuffing and re-clearing it will look awful. You'd be better off leaving it alone instead of doing that.

Looks like a hot rod black truck is in my future then ?

It's got 326,000 miles on it and painting it is not going to happen ...

thanks

Hot rod black is probably the smart move if A) the peeling clear bothers you, and B) you want it fixed on the cheap.

Sorry for the hijak, but this is why I will never use clear coat again. Single stage only for me. My '92 Dakota and '98 Ram both had bad clear coat failure. Wondering when the '03 Durango and '11 Nitro will start. Is there a prevention measure? I don't have a garage (that can be parked in )

Scott

Chrysler and GM have had significant problems at times with delaminating clear coats, and in some cases, delaminating base coats, but that's a reflection on their paint suppliers and their prep/paint process and equipment, not on base/clear finishes in general.

I'd never spend my time and money painting something single stage unless I was doing an OE resto. Just my $.02.

That would be yes to both , I could even just sand it and single stage it. It's pretty much rust free just a bunch of scratches and dings ... maybe I'll revisit the roll your own paint thread?

Glad to see you finally got a truck, looks real nice in the picture.

Roll-on bedliner for the silver parts, quick fix on the dings, scuff, shoot it hot rod black, and be done with it. Easy.

That's a fact...

Got over 20 years on a B/C spray...

It's doing fine...

flat black would kill any residual value the truck may have IMO. Here's another option for you; my daughter has a 1999 Saturn SC2 which, as you can guess, isn't exactly a high dollar car so repainting it was out of the question.....still, the paint was decent except for some clear that peeled off the decklid and spoiler and a bunch of scratches she put on it with SOS pads trying to remove the stickers....kids.

Anyhow, I took it to a detailer that does work for all the local dealerships and he removed the decals and applied a "Shine-A-Rama" clearcoat....which is some sort of hand applied clear and buffing process. Car looks GREAT. total cost? $574.00

...after seeing the results, one of my trucks (the 2003 Ram) is down getting the same thing done. I'm sure it's "soft" compared to the factory clear but even if I had to do it every 2 or 3 years, it's cheap compared to a $10k+ paintjob.


Cheers,
Dave

one of my friends does the john deere satin black equipment paint---cheaper than the hot rod black and the satin looks better....

drive as is, save the cash

It is a 20 to 50 footer and who is really going to cut you up for owning a truck. The more it peels the less people will park close to you putting in more dents and dings, they will be think this guy is a cowboy and I an not parking next to him. One other way is to wrap the truck. Then you could put a FM3 wrap on your truck with FC7, FJ5 stripes, I like to see you in that Mr. Johnny.

whatever suits your fancy; poor quality materials and marginal prep will result in peeling no matter if you use bc/cc or if you use single stage. Use the same "cheapest available paint that lasts long enough to get out of warranty period" and the same "fastest prep possible...we got 2000 cars to paint today" prep methods, and your coveted single stage will peel too.

I only paid $3500 for it so I'm not to worried about the residual value ;), it's got 325k on it.

I'll look into that, it'll bug me after a while and I don't want to make it look too nice , just all the same shades of color.

I'll have my painter friend look at it and see what he thinks.

I looked in that, it looks like that is something special in your area only ?

I like the color that is on your truck right now, but I am partial to maroon shades. My '64 Polara was close to that from the factory and was repainted with a GM color called "Clementine Metallic" before I bought it.

Anyway, I remember someone telling me years ago "when you buy a new truck the first thing you do is take a fistful of nails in your hand, stick it in the paint and walk all the way around the truck and then you never give the paint another thought". But then, I was born in Montana and there your truck earns it's keep.

Point taken I agree on the prep work for sure, and while I have never painted a car, (rattled canned a couple bikes) I know you get what you pay for in paint. Just seems the factory(s) really dropped the ball there for a while. Hopefully they have found the error of their ways

BTW, Good looking truck, John!

What were the years they switched to water-based paints? I know Neons were painted with this & the stuff was pure garbage. Everything peeled on them after a few years.

Water based paints are perfectly fine. The vast majority of collision repair facilities are using them now, too, not just the OEMs. Any OEM finishes that were peeling were a result of that particular paint supplier, the OEM's prep/refinishing process and equipment, or both. It has nothing to do with base/clear vs. single stage, waterborne vs. solventborne, etc.... GM and Chrysler's delamination issues predate the introduction of waterborne paint by several years.

Based on that picture it looks like half of the truck has already been repainted at some point? I would be careful if you sand off the paint, you might find some old body work you aren't prepared to deal with. I think the same as some others, probably leave it alone and drive it or sell it and find one that's nicer, any difference in cost would likely be less than a new paint job, even if Hotrod black.

.02

The door was swapped, the colors are 98-2000. It's just a motorized wheelbarrow for me and I really doubt I'm going to find another Cummins powered Ram that is 99% rust free for $3500 within a days drive roundtrip that I can actually drive home in.

I'll probably just have the truck buffed and clear over the places that are peeling, or just single stage over the places that are peeled.

I was just curious if there was a quick and easy fix, this is the first Dodge I've owned with peeling clear coat.

Yeah, I realize that value isn't a big concern....still everyone has a comfort level with what their stuff looks like and despite the mileage it looks like a nice truck. If I could "fix" the clear for under $1,000 using the process I'm getting done, I'd be all over it.

This particular "brand name" for the hand applied clear might be a Canadian or even a local thing (I know that it IS a chain of some sort) but there are other products that are similar.

...anyhow, might be worth checking out.

Cheers,
Dave

It's a Diesel Dodge so it's worth spending a few bucks on it, especially if the rest of it looks as good as the pic.

Got any friends in the business? You could do the sanding, prep work and buy the materials and pay or trade to a pro to mask it and paint it.

I'm thinking $1500 or less could turn your $3500 truck into a $7000 truck.

Kevin

Keep in mind that clearcoat & basecoat bond within a certain time frame of each other. Example: basecoat goes on, then you have maybe a few hours to get the clear on so they will fuse together. That's the way it used to be anyway - maybe there's new stuff that you can apply over fully cured paint now, I don't know.

I have a friend in the business and he has a paint booth at home in his back building so we'll see.


Thanks for all the ideas

You know that might be why a hillbilly friend of mine had to paint his car twice , he didn't clear it right after laying down the paint.

Dave the only thing I have found when doing a search , so far , was a shop in the town you have as your location , it would be cheaper for me to paint the truck than take it there ...

I'm all about doing this for a cheap as possible , if it looks good I'll be more apt to treat it better than I did the last one after I crunched the corner of the bad when I caught the tree at the end of my driveway one night.