The clear coat is coming off in enough places to consider a re-paint. I'm going to go with a color coat and no clearcoat, for reasons of economy?

Local shop with good reputation said he could feather the clearcoat, and spray the car with a primer that would seal the clearcoat and color coat.

Does this sound plausible?
Or would I be better off finding somebody who would strip to bare metal?

Thanks

Hi Cyclops,

Choose a reputable paint shop. I've sent my car for a full body repaint in March recently. Yeay!! When the job was finished I was so happy with the look of new car till I forgot to inspect the car carefully. Turned out the left side view mirror (mine a right hand drive) was cracked but I didn't see it at the shop as the shop owner gave me a full tour of what he did. I only realised it at home. Turned out he had dismantled both side mirrors out to paint the door. One of the torx screws holding the mirror was missing. I had to order a new mirror. He had dismantled all rear brake lights too but luckily nothing was broken.

I even had the slightest wishful thinking that this paint job going to make my car look new and wholesome again. But now I realised I'm stuck with an old car with a "new" look (paid much $$ for a life lesson).

Anyway I'm still happy what I've planned to do for so long somewhat a success!





Regards,
Amarin.

Whatever choice you make, a great shop, using excellent materials can do a great job.

In 2002 I purchased a '96 855R in fire red from my dealer. The car was still owned by Volvo and had been leased for 3 years twice.

I owned the car for 11 years and waxed it twice a year - until the last couple of years.

When I went to sell it, I polished it - at that time, I found that the hood, front fenders, front bumper and the right side of the car was clear coated an no red came off - the roof, rear, and left side of the car was the original finish, red came off the panels!

for 11 years, I never saw the difference!

BTW - I still miss that rocket!

How do the sides of your car look?

I just sold a maroon '90 745 with bad clear coat on top - If I was going to keep it, I was going to paint the top surfaces a beige or gold, parting it around 2 inches below the place where the panels go from horizontal to vertical, separating the colors with a red stripe. I have seen two toned 740s and they look pretty sharp

OK, 2 local paint shops pointed out that the factory clear coat will continue to separate under the "sealer/primer", lifting the new paint off the car.

I thought it sounded too good to be true

Thanks to Spook for the zinc coating tip

Dear Cyclops,

Hope you're well. Clear coat failure seems to occur most often on cars with a maroon/plum color paint. I'm not sure why this is so.

Once the clear coat starts to fail, it will need to be entirely removed by careful sanding. The reason: a chemical breakdown of the bond between clear coat and the color coats. I doubt this breakdown can be stopped.

Then, once the failed clear coat has been removed, a color coat or two can be applied, followed by a clear coat.

There likely are color coats that do not require a clear coat. If so, that will save some money.

Hope this helps.

Yours faithfully,

Spook

Dear cyclops,

Hope you're well. A "primer" paint is that put on an underlying surface, e.g., directly onto wood or metal, to seal the underlying surface and to provide a base to which further coatings can bond. Thus, atop a "primer" are put coatings that provide color and protection to the underlying surface. A "clear coat" may go atop the colored coatings, to seal the colored coatings.

Thus, if the clear coat is peeling, a skilled painter can remove the failed clearcoat - by careful sanding - apply coatings to refresh the color, and then top-off with a clear-coat. This is time- and labor-intensive so not cheap. But it will do as much as can be done to restore the factory-original coatings.

Sanding down to bare metal should be avoided. The steel used in 940s is heavily-coated with zinc, which inhibits rust. Sanding to bare metal will remove that protective zinc coating.

Hope this helps.

Yours faithfully,

Spook

He said he would feather the edges of the existing clearcoat, then spray a paint that would seal the factory color coat and the clearcoat, then spray a new color coat. I asked him not to apply a new clearcoat over the new color coat.

I can't find any info about this sealer/primer spray.