well its time for a paint job. i had my car painted about 6 years ago and it lasted 4 years before the hood, trunk and top started separating the clear coat. i washed it with softwater and used good wax but forget it. it was a $3000.00 paint job, looked perfect for a few years. the car gets driven every and sits out in the arizona sun. thinking about maaco, under $1000.00 and 5 year warranty. they have cheaper but figured $1000.00 should be half way decent. problem is here the shops want $4000.00 and there warranty isnt any better. theres might look better but from my experience it wont last any longer. also thought about epoxy black primer as a paint job. any thoughts.

 

so if im understanding this correctly the maaco near you charges 4k? if its parked outside i wouldn't waste any money getting an expensive paint job. black primer would probably last longer and is easy to do yourself.

 

youll be lucky if Maaco last a year. Ive had plenty of cars painted before all this waterborn paint was intriduced and they lasted at least 6 or 7 years and sat.It was lifted truck so it was too big to cover and garage.

 

I painted a boat with Dupont DBC followed by DCU-2002 clear, been sitting outside for 365 for 5 years and it looks as good as the day it was painted. Other than being washed down after use it sees wax once a year.

With the right prep, correct flash times and good product there is no reason it can't sit outside. If your clear is coming up I wonder if the shop waited too long between the base and clear or just used an inferior product.

 

i dont know what happened to the clear but im really getting tired of having to do everything myself. what im going to do is drive up to the nearest maaco and look at there paint jobs and see what kind of work they do. i know each shop is going to be different. still thinking about the black epoxy primer as a paint job. any thoughts on the primer for lasting.

 

Call Southern Poly and make sure that epoxy primers have uv inhibitors in it. I believe most do not.

 

primer is not sealed, it will not withstand the environments

 

The reason your clear separated was probably due to to the base setting up too much before the clear was applied and/or the shop using a budget clear. The AZ sun certainly can be a contributing factor with delamination, and more so if we are talking about a silver or lighter metallic blue base. I don't know what color your car is, (in your neck of the woods) but if you look at most cars that are light blue or silver and more than a few years old your will probably see some delamination.These colors + desert sun = problems.

The biggest issue I see with "Macco like" shops is their tendency to use unactivated or under activated products, which do not cure hard and they create poor (or even unusable) surface for the NEXT paint job.

Frankly, when I am doing a nice paint job I would spend that $1,000 (and sometimes much, much, more) on materials alone. Quality materials DO make a difference, especially with regard to longevity. The paint manufactures don't provide longevity for free, their "budget brands" are designed to only last a few years.

Now your Macco warranty, I can't say I have ever read one, but if I were you I would read all of the fine print on their warranty before I automatically assumed that the warranty will provide much "real world" protection. "normal wear and tear", fading, and delamination issues are probably going to involve some exclusions and "pro-rate" compensation and/or pro-rate repair.

Any surface that does not incorporate UV protection will break down in the sun, no primer will have UV protection.

 

then what about just shooting it with a black epoxy primer.

 

Although the epoxy will seal the metal, it has no UV protection so it will just break down in the sun and you'll be right back to where you are now.