Details for Clear Coat Repair

[ncrowley]

I have areas where the clear coat is coming off. I got a quote for $3K to repair and it is more than I want to spend right now. I would like to try and repair a small area and see how it goes. I have read that others have done this with varying degrees of success.

Questions:

What is the "best" clear coat to get? Should I get a spray or brush on? What exact brand/type do I get?

When you are using sand paper, I assume you go around the edges until you have gotten into a solid area. What type of sand paper? How do you do this so you do not sand off the paint?

How do you clean the area before you put on the clear coat?

Anything else I should know before attempting this?

[rrev]

X2 with Bird Freak. Im a pro too. Pay th
the money

[chili_s_trip]

I repaired a small area mainly to stop it from spreading. First I used a plastic scraper to remove loose clearcote. Then 2000 grit sand paper. Alcohol to clean. Masked off and used clear cotespray can from Walmart. Barely notice able and has lasted 2 years. Less than $10. Good luck.
Jack h.

[Bird_Freak]

I am a professional painter. PAY the MONEY! You don't just sand and spray clearcoat. you will have to respray color also for it to look right.

[YC_1]

I am very happy with my repair. If the area is the top cap that is hard to see go for it. Wet sandpaper of 600-1000 grit will remove the clear coat. Dupli color rattle can paint can be found to match or come close enough in those areas. Or you can get your paint codes and have some exact colors installed in cans. Once you sand and clean use light coats. Experiment on a piece of cardboard to get some practice. Then use the same product in clear coat. If you want an eye popping shine you need to use some 3m products designed for the job.

My favorite paint is PPG. A two part paint and an inexpensive gun works well but you need a compressor that is up to the task. It needs a lot of air.

I painted an airplane in my driveway and garage. It took 4.5 months of sanding, filling, masking, and polishing.

Yeah, it can be done but it takes a lot of elbow work. I'm a rabid do it yourselfer and hate to pay others for things I can learn to do. Or is that just cheap?

[rgatijnet1]

ncrowley wrote:
I have read that others have done this with varying degrees of success.

You sort of answered your own question with this sentence. Have you heard of ANYONE that had complete success? I assume that is what you want instead of something that looks terrible.
A peeling clear coat CANNOT be repaired. The only solution is to remove the bad area and repaint it with a matching base coat and clear coat. Spraying on just another clear coat will look terrible.

[hypoxia]

All of the above posts are mostly spot on. Ignore it for a few years or do the whole part that is peeling. Both ends of the coach will probably need it eventually so it isn't worth messing with without doing the complete job. I sanded & sprayed the front cap above the windshield, 64 square feet. Very labor intensive and couldn't be done without scaffolding. Supplies cost around $200-$250, I didn't have to buy any tools. Now the rear cap needs to be done & I'll have it done by a real painter I know in Mexico. There are too many angles & recessed areas which make it more labor intensive.

[imgoin4it]

Like everyone else so far,pay the money. I had the same problem with the same manufacturer. I started to repair my own. First problem I encountered was that the color paint under the clear was so thin that sanding the edge of the clear coat went right through and took off the color coat. I stopped there. I too had a cost of $3000 to repair. Found that manufacturer had a special cost to do the same for $1200. That was three years ago.I went to Indiana which was about 200 miles from my home town.

[Bikeboy57]

Nancy,

Here is why everyone, including me is saying pay the money.

First, using wet sandpaper you will carefully sand the offending area, being very careful not to go through the color coat. Easy, cost of the different grits of paper needed about 20 bucks.

Second, clean the area with a paint prep. Obtain at the professional auto paint store where you get your paint. 20 bucks

Now mask the entire coach, or you WILL get overspray on it. Figure on 20 bucks of tape and 40 bucks of plastic. Oh yeah, it will take you the better part of a day.

You are through with the cheap and easy part.

Obtain a spray gun. They range from 120 bucks to over a 1000. Oh yeah add a dessicant cannister to dry the air. You will need a medium sized air compressor. You can't use your coach air because you just wrapped the intake in plastic. Count on 500 for a compressor that will be big enough to power the spray gun.

Buy a respirator. 50 bucks. You don't want to paint the inside of your lungs.

Now you need the clear coat. Cheap stuff is 30 bucks a quart, and goes up to over a 100 a quart. You will need some catalyst (hardener) 30 bucks, and some reducer, 30 to 50 bucks.

Now you can paint.

After you paint, you will sand again to get the smooth finish on the clear coat. Now you need a buffer, 150 bucks, and an assortment of buffing pads and compounds, another 200 bucks.

I may be off a little on some of my estimates, but not grossly wrong. I am not a pro painter, but I own all of the stuff above, and have done amateur body painting. It looks amateur.

The prices quoted to paint an RV or repair an RV can seem outrageous to those not aware of what is involved. I took the time to detail the post so that you could see why they are asking what they are asking.

[happy-2]

Do you also do your own dental work,all you need is some jb weld.

[ScottG]

I don't say this lightly but I agree with the others - pay the money.
You are not going to be able to fix this with a little sand paper and a rattle can. This is not a DYI project and all you can do is make it look like junk.
The experts will remove the offending clear coat and put a better coating back on. Your rig will look better than ever and it will be over.
I had a similar situation with the cap on my TT. It was faded and looked awful. I could doctor it up some but it would never look right. I paid the money to have it painted and I'm glad it did because the end result was that it looked better than new.

[DSDP_Don]

If you're not picky about how your RV looks, do it yourself. If you want it to look professional, pay the $3K. I would venture to bet that I'm more handy than most and I tried repainting an area along the roof that couldn't be seen from the ground and later tried the two part clear coat everyone was using to repair an area that was just starting to have issues. After everything was said and done, it still went bad and got worse a couple of years later.

I finally paid to have my entire roofline repainted above the drip rail. Since it's typically dark colors that cause issues, I had them change the roofline to one of the coaches lighter colors (on the lower body) so that it looked like it was just another color change in the scheme.

Since this is an issue with a lot of coaches, many people buying used coaches are savvy enough to check for this problem and could hurt resale in the future.

[azdryheat]

Pay the money.