Two upper door panels on my car have lost lacquer and are very faded. They are easy to isolate for spraying. My question is do I have to use a primer before the topcoat or can I just sand them down? I assume they have a primer underneath, plus If I take just a thin layer of paint off there will probably still be some left? Can I just blow over the top of this? I want a good job but it does not need to be perfect. I am using a matching can spray.

Also, is isopropyl alcohol/water mix suitable for prepping the surface before spraying?

thanks…

YouTube it.

Is it metallic? If its metallic you may need a specific colour primer to get a colour match.

I’d scotch it back and panel wipe it. And try it.

Bear in mind it may look worse……

It’s incredibly difficult. Especially with metallic paint.

If they have lost the lacquer I would try just spraying lacquer back on. You may find it works well enough and would be a lot easier than putting more paint on.

Oooh cool thread. I just bought a car that looked like it was in excellent condition but during a deep clean I found some problems on the lower half of the doors. It’s got 5 or 6 little spots smaller than a penny where the paint has lifted in a little bubble. I’m assuming there’s rust underneath and if there isn’t yet, there will be when the bubble breaks.

So I’m in the same boat. Do I hand it over to a body shop and take the hit, or try and learn a new DIY skill? Flat red paint here thankfully. No metallics.

Spraying a whole car with a new colour- not that hard, but time consuming

Spray a single panel so that it matches the rest of the car- sometimes extremely damn hard.

Taking a panel that looks like shit because it’s faded or peeling, and making it look really good with new paint, but still having the car look worse overall because now it’s obvious someone’s tried really hard to improve it and failed- surprisingly easy.

Mine needs a dent repair and a panel done, I’ve done about as much spraying as any diy’er and I’m good at it, but I’m not going to touch it with a 10 foot pole because it’ll come out perfectly colourmatched assuming the paint company did their job right, professionally finished, dirt and defect free… and it’ll still look weird or catch the light wrong or otherwise piss me off.

I’ve had a go spraying a panel on the car with a rattle can. The result was better than what was there, but it was way short of a body shop repair.

I think one thing to consider is the paint and lacquer you’re using. From what I’ve read, 2k paint gives a better result. It is harder to get hold of (prob need to get a body shop to make up, rather than just buying from Halfords), and you also need to get a proper mask and work in a ventilated space, as the fumes are more noxious.

Post some pics up dogmatix so we can see what we are dealing with.
It’s not as easy as you think and lots of things to buy and skills to learn.

I’ve tried with lacquer peel.

2010 focus st in orange. They all peel in that colour, badly. The roof started going.
Sanded edges. Lacquered up. Lasted about 4 weeks before more lacquer around it fell off.

In the end I jet washed the lacquer off the roof, bonnet and tops of wings.

10 year old car.

Currently it’s having a cheap respray by a guy who just does countless electric orange focuses.

Me: I’d not bother. Either let or fall off or get a pro to repaint it if it’s worth it to you.

As above, don’t bother unless its something special, in which case get a pro to do it.

Or colour change and roller the whole car with rustoleum for some damn good results on a budget.

https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18751

Colour matching is an artform.

My old neighbour was a paint supplier, with near 40 years paint/body shop experience before he retired and knew all the tricks. Even he would tell you a full respray was the only way to fix paint fade/peeling issues without colour matching issues.

Unless you can get a perfect paint match, most paint repairs involve fading across neighbouring panels. Paint the affected the panel with the new paint, then the neighbouring panels would get faded across, using a range of techniques depending on the type of paint, to make the colour change unnoticeable to the untrained eye.
The biggest headache was metallic, over large flat panels. Things like patch repairs on bumpers, it’s surprising what can be hidden with fade out thinners and a new coat of lacquer as the curves hide differences, but on door panels, with large flat uniform surfaces, blending in the repair requires good painting, and good finishing skills.

Cool thread. I’ve been thinking along similar lines. Got a twenty year old VW with extreme lacquer peel. There’s no chance I’m paying for a re-spray, and I don’t have the skills, time, inclination, equipment or space to try and fix it properly myself. So been thinking of creative solutions. I thought maybe paint the bits where the lacquer has peeled with a contrasting colour, like literally paint on some decorating trim paint so it looks like camouflage or something. Or pay a street artist to paint something cool on it, or let the local yoot tag it into oblivion. Or glue on carpet/lino/fake fur/googly eyes/leatherette…

I’ve done the Rustoleum on a Landrover roof – it gives good results but DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE the amount of time you need to spend ‘flattening out’ roller marks.

I’ve also sprayed a few repairs on my white Transit with 2k paint, a decent oil free compressor and the correct RPE / mask.

I wouldn’t bother wasting my time or money with rattle cans repairs if you are half bothered about results.

My 17year old silver Volvo goes to a good back street paint guy for the odd scuff and scrape.

Surely if it’s not rusting just get it wrapped in something striking?

@molgrips:

Nobody would wrap my car.

If the lacquers lifting and the remaining lacquer is the only thing keeping the wrap attached to the car then they don’t want to know. Which is fair enough.

“Yeah we can wrap it but A. You’ll see the edges as it’s thin (the wrap). B. If the remaining lacquer lifts then so does the wrap”

By the time you’ve had the car sanded back and flattened you the cost of wrapping and painting is negligible as the crap labour has been done. That’s what I’m told. Hence a respray for me.

I am used to threads dying so left this one till now. bigyim image attached. It doesn’t show the fading too well. I will try to get some better shots tomorrow. I didn’t mention the marks as I thought this would elongate my issue description. I plan on using filler/primer in these areas. I am aware it will not be body shop quality. The paint is supposed to be colour matched. It is just an old Zafira that I plan on saying goodbye to in a year or two or three (currently saving to pay the mortgage rather than have nice cars). I am not really keen on over-investing in it i.e. spending £500 to spray two panels when the car is probably worth only slightly more. Part of me is thinking I might just have some fun and go for it, but I want to have a decent stab at it rather than throw caution completely to the wind. With regards to just lacquering, I am worried that the paint is too far gone for this not even accounting for the marks.

Maybe I will spray test the colour behind the number plate first.

I’d not bother, it’ll probably look worse. If it was white, maybe.

Id also not bother.
You’d need to flat back the existing peeling paint till it was a reasonable surface. Spot prime areas. And basically paint the side of the car. Fully base coat the doors and wing and clearcoat the whole side.
You could machine polish the doors where the paint has sunk and gone dull and touch up the peeling areas to make it look better

I’ve been painting cars for 20 plus years and that’s what I’d do. Especially if you are saving and don’t plan to keep the car

Put some rad stickers on it.

Put some rad stickers on it.

This +1

Flat red paint here thankfully.

Not thankfully. It’s the hardest colour to match and spray. Red paint suffers from fading more than any other colour so even if you get the correct colour rattle can it will look completely different by the time it gets onto you car. I ‘m talking from experience after owning two flat red cars in my time.

You can do it. You might be able to make it look half decent, but thats the best you can hope for. The chances are it wont look half decent. And nothing easy about spraying on lacquer either.

Go on, give it a go. Not saying you shouldn’t. What have you got to lose? But don’t get your hopes up it will be an invisible result and not stick out like a sore thumb. All that fancy kit they have in body shops is not there for show.

If you are going to get it done by a pro then go to a small local body shop, you’ll more likely find reasonable prices…For a repair to my wife’s car the range of quotes were from £350 at a local small place to £1400 at a big fancy pants place. The main difference wa the fancy pants place wanted to remove the tailgate, disassemble it, take out the glass and really go to town on it. the local body shop was going to do the repair in situ. I went for the £350 job and the repair is invisible. Perfectly adequate. You’d Neve know it was there even if you knew where to look.

Just let it grow old gracefully.

Anything else is a waste of money on that.

I’d not bother. Itll look worse.

Reds bloody awful too match. Even if it looks good in daylight under sodium lights it can look completely different

Best colour is white in my opinion hides a load.

Blacks ok if your preps good enough