clearcoat/paint

[dave]

It is with a heavy heart that i tell all black marauders owners the time has come...... the clearcoat is fading away. Can this be fixed easily or must I now consider a complete new paint job?

[GordonB]

Need the body shop and paint experts to check in on this one.

Might come down to 'how far gone is gone'?

GordonB

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Probably looking at a repaint. If the clear is failing, it is also probably failing to protect the base coat underneath it. Actually a lot of the time clear coat appears to fail because the substrate underneath is failing, not the clear itself.

Especially if you can't be sure what caused the failure, you're playing russian roulette if you don't strip the car back far enough.

[bobsawyer7]

There are a lot of threads about paint, especially 2003 Black problems. The cancerous spotting which seems common. From what I can determine nothing short of a repaint solves it in a permanent way.
I just got an estimate for the upper surfaces (roof,trunk,hood) which is to strip, re-etch and re-do.
The sides surfaces are pretty good and can probably use a wet sand and new clear to make them better again.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

I forgot to lend my example. My 300A was repainted before it was ever even sold, 37 miles on the OASIS reports, due to clear coat blistering of the factory paint. They did a scuff and shoot, definitely not stripped back past the failing OE clear. It has held up mostly well but you can see a few little blisters here and there up close, coming through the refinish clear. Probably only I notice it right now but if I had paid to have the repaint done and it started doing this I would be pissed.

Do it right once or you'll end up doing it twice!

[Rocknthehawk]

it needs to be stripped.

it is not fun.

[juno]

I need a repaint also. I don't know whether to paint it or sell it.

[Ms. Denmark]

Just got an estimate to have the hood painted and touch ups on some minor road rash issues. Going to run $1000 and be in the shop a week. Looking to have it done for Indy if possible. They penciled me in for mid Sept.

[Rocknthehawk]

Just got an estimate to have the hood painted and touch ups on some minor road rash issues. Going to run $1000 and be in the shop a week. Looking to have it done for Indy if possible. They penciled me in for mid Sept.

a hood is very minor compared to doing the roof on a Marauder....

to do it correctly, it involves removing the glass.


the cars with the lifting issues....the paint is rediculously thick. I know, I've stripped/painted one. I'll never do it again.

[Egon Spengler]

That is what I was thinking for mine!

I need a repaint also. I don't know whether to paint it or sell it.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Heh yeah a really truly well done repaint is going to cost money, there are no ifs ands or buts about it. The cost of materials and the cost for someones time to do it RIGHT is gonna be high because there is a ton of time involved in properly prepping a car for paint. A good all over, stripped to metal repaint with high end finish products is going to be somewhere between 30%-50% the fair market value of these cars now!! But a really well done repaint, sanded and buffed will be far better quality than the factory paint on these cars, and the clear will be a lot thicker too to afford the ability to do paint correction far into the future. At least if you have your personal car repainted and done right, you will know what products are on your car. If you sell your car and try to buy one that appears to be in better condition you don't know as much about the finish and how good it will look in a couple years.

[gmtech]

I need a repaint also. I don't know whether to paint it or sell it.

Sell it, a good paint job exceeds the bluebook for most MM's

[Ms. Denmark]

Sell it, a good paint job exceeds the bluebook for most MM's

The paint guy at my Ford Dealer quoted bet. $3500-5000 for a complete job.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

A dealer is the last place I would have a car painted. I have had several dealer repaints done and none of them were done to a high level of quality. They were all good enough tha tmost people would think the car looked nice and not bring it back (not me). Especially if its a volume shop, their priority is getting cars turned around fast, at a level of quality that the average non paint/detailing oriented enthusiast won't object to. Just a general rule, I'm sure there are occasional dealer shops that do really good work.

[juno]

Sell it, a good paint job exceeds the bluebook for most MM's

My mods exceed the blue book for all MM's.