Okay, first off I know this is not recommended by anyone with any sense, BUT the paint on my car sucks, especially the top where its been baked by the sun, lots of dead paint on hood, top, and back below the hatch. This past weekend, while painting and clear coating the trim pieces, I thought what the hell, and sprayed some on the back hatch area over my dead paint spot. Let it dry, they popped it again, shockingly, it did not look too bad. You can still see the dead paint, but near as bad.

So my question, would it screw up my car to rattle can the top and hood with a clear?

Eventually, I am going to have some body work to get the dents out, and a real paint job, but I dont have the extra $2000 grand to get it done right now.

What this would be is just a band-aid right now, any thoughts???

 

I cant see much harm, at work I spray painted our tire machine and then cleared it. It came out really well and with all the abuse that machine gets it hasnt flaked or peeled or anything.

I might actually do that on mine which I am trying to get it look good with out spending alot of money on paint since the motor needs more attention.

 

About the only downside is some additional prep work when you do eventually get it re-painted, and the chance that the clearcoat will bond poorly and blister or flake. Especially if the old paint is not really clean, all old wax and dead paint removed.

 

Wet sand with 2000 grit paper, that should cure most of the unsightly problems.

 

Can you get that at the autoparts stores? I think all advance had the other day was 400?

 

Take your car to an autobody paint supplier and ask them what would work best. My supplier is a painter himself and I've picked his brain many times. They also sell the finer grit wet/dry sandpapers and polishing compunds to bring back dead paint.

 

wonder what happens when you take the oxidation and old clear off first?

 

I redid my prelude with the whole $50 roll-on method using Rustoleum flat black back in the day, but that's a story for another thread.

The pertinent part is this:

I didn't want to try and roll on some clear too, because I was sick and tired of that damn roller, so I got a bunch of cans of aerosol clear and sprayed everything.

If you keep each coat light, it'll work out great, just lay down like 2-3 light coats, hit it with 2000 grit (you should be able to get a wet/dry car sandpaper kit at like Wal-Mart even) then give it another 2 coats, hitting it with the 2k grit between the coats. Make sure you give it ample time to dry between coats (at least 12 hours, I gave it a whole day). Then top it off with a Cleaner wax (Meguiar's is good) and it should look pretty nice.

This being said, I would definitely clear off all the bubbling and chipping paint and clear coat before you shoot the new clear.

 

you can use 400 to smooth and clean it up real fast, then use a small paper bag, and bag sand it. paper bags are the finest sandpaper you can get. then clear coat it. I rattlecand flat black enamel on my lancer. it looked good. there are many methods of painting cars, for cheap. fyi if you rattlecan do very light coats, and bag sand each coat. but dont be lazy about it. the most important part of painting is the prep. spraying, or rolling paint is easy. if you spray, go back and forth about 10 inches from the car and work it in strait lines and try to keep it uniform. if you roll go in a cross hatch pattern like x's. I'll be painting my car soon as I finish all the body work. but for now I'm rockin like 5 differnt colors. I'm not going to spend a bunch of money for a shop to paint it untill, i've got nothing else to spend money on.

another thing you can do is find a freelance painter. I've seen some good work for cheap from freelance people. they often do better than a shop will. since they really need the word of mouth advertisement.