My paint needs help. Can a paint & body guy tell me ?

Question

1995 Merc GM silver, trunk & top need work, need clear coat stripped off (how) and save good original paint (how) Paint is good, these two areas need strip, save paint, redo clear.

Answer 1

I'm guessing your clear is fading and peeling? If this is the case, you dont need to strip the clear remove all the chipping clear by sanding w/220 grit sandpaper.  then you need to feather edge the bad area where the clear is completely off , by this I mean so you cannot feel the edge between base coat and clearcoat, sand the whole car with 320grit finaly wet sand whole car with 400 or 600 . doing the whole car in clear. that is easier than spot repairing trunk and top, because you end up taping off the whole car anyhow to not get overspray on the other areas.

Answer 2

When a clear coat breaks down, the panel needs refinished with base coat clear coat. There is no salvaging the color. If you want to save money and do the prep work yourself, you will need an electric dual action sander, 320 grit paper, 400 wet or dry, and 1200 grit paper.

First sand the bad areas with the 320 grit. Sanding mostly on the clear and feather into the base coat. Then sand the areas you D.A.ed with the 400 grit. Use lots of water to keep the paper clean. Now that the 320 grit scratches are gone, sand the rest of the panel with 1200.

After you have spent all this time and money, you have probably saved yourself around 200$ to have a body shop do the whole job. But that's just for painting the roof and trunk.