Okay, while I was washing my car (OT '80 Olds Cutlass)... I happened to look and an area on the trunk lid (pass right bottom corner) there was a spot maybe 4" long and 1" tall that looked like the clear coat (or possibly a layer of paint) was missing.... There is still a layer of white but there is a raised edge all around it and paint or clear missing (it's no longer shiny)... I noticed it before I even washed the area, and haven't driven the car all winter so I don't know what it could be from, the paint is still the original paint, and this is pretty much the only flaw aside from some rock chips in places... So my questions, first off would this be clear coat coming off? and the second question, how should I take care of this? Can the raised edge be sanded down, and then maybe shoot the bad area and wet sand smooth? or should I just take the whole bottome portion of the deck lid and have it repainted and blended back into the top portion (there's a body line where the trunk lid drops down at the back of the car, that's what got me thinking about blending.. then I could get rid of the striping back there too) Anyways thanks for your help, and sorry for the OT post.. Bobby
You can feather edge the clear and blend the color and clear the whole deck lid. That is of course IF you can feather edge the damaged area out, you might wind up chasing the peeled area. sounds like a pretty major paint problem. How long ago did you have it painted?
It's never been painted... It's still the factory 1980 Olds Paint, which is pretty damn nice except for this problem.....
That sounds like a delamination problem where the clear has broken bond with the base coat. Normally white takes about 1.1mils of base coat to hide the primer, while black takes about 0.7of a mil. Add to that 1.5 to 2.0 mils of clear. Too much time in the bake oven or a contamination on the base can cause the clear not to link with the base and in time it starts to peel. To be safe I would do the whole panel.
Yup, strip the hood and paint. You "could" feather the edge, color blend and clear the hood, but with the clear coat adhesion failing underneath, how long before the problem returns? Keep an eye on all your horizontal surfaces, they may be next...
I doubt a car painted in 1980 would have a clear coat finish, especially white......it's probably been repainted. I would try to repaint the entire panel if possible, there may be more paint ready to peel..
I actually know the car has never been repainted, etc... The car was owned by a family freind since new, and my dad bought it for me from her about 4 years ago.. The car was never ever driven in the winter, always garage (w/ cover), never wrecked, and on and on.. I haven't really checked out to see if it's a layer of paint or clear that came off.. I was just thinking, I had it detailed the other day and that area of paint is right where one of the Olds emblems was on the deck lid.. I had them remove all the emblems and ding strips, could this be a result of the chemicals they used to take off the emblem glue? or maybe some of the clear/paint came off w/ that emblem and the spot just got bigger from me washing it last night? Anyways sounds like redoing the whole deck lid is my safest bet....
I've done a million cars like that back in the day, there was a paint problem at the factory when they switched paint types. A good shop i worked at made us DA all the clear off, 1 coat of prime, base and clear... then again these cars were new and we got paid from Ford and GM. How much do you like your car? I'd DA until the clear stops getting an edge and feathers nice, prime, base and clear. I never blend clear, just the base... My 2 cents .good luck
RMR&C has good info and advice. It's not uncommon for parts or whole cars to be repainted some where between the factory and the original owner. This is probably a single stage (non clear coated originally) but may have been repaired with clear. The most likely scenario is that the trunk was repaired/repainted at the dealership or before it was delivered to them. Small and large paint damage are frequently repainted or repaired before customer delivery. Clearcoat wasn't common before 1984 on GM cars. overspray
If that's the only bad spot, I'd feather the edge where the clear is gone, and open blend the corner with just clear coat. You could polish out the blend and probably never notice it since it's white. I would think twice about this if it was a darker color or metallic. This way you don't have to repaint the whole deck lid.
Lots of good advice here, however I would tend to agree that where theres smoke, theres fire. If this spot just "happened" I would bet that more spots are ready to as well. If thats truly the case, its going to be your weakest link for whatever goes on top of it. If your in the mood, sand it down, re prime, and paint. If you wanna take the quick way out, feather it and blend it.
Did they buff the car out with a high speed buffer? If so, they might have burned through the paint? Can you post pictures?
All good advice so far. You gotta ask yourself if you want to take a chance and just blend the area and hope it was an isolated incident and not a problem with all the paint on the deck. Myself I would strip the entire panel and repaint just to be safe. Delamination usually isn't isolated to one small area.
No I had them detail it inside and out, remove emblems, wash it real good then I hand waxed it... I've never had it buffed, buffers aren't the things that scare me it's the people who operate them... Also, I took it down to the body shop today and they looked at it and said pretty much what you guys have been saying.. They could feather it out and reshoot the bad area but he said I would be better off redoing the whole deck lid to avoid problems in the future (plus this way I get to ditch the striping on the deck too)... Thank you for all the advice! I'll try and snag a picture tom. so you guys can see what I was talking about too...
Sounds like either a repaint or put a hamb plaque there .I do think you should look into information on Gm had a coating ,It peeled off ,You could strip the coating off ,and then just wax ,Ill see if I can find out more ,My moms boyfriend has an 88 that had this problem .Its not clear paint ,
id agree with the guys who say repaint the deck, not that big a deal, and then you can forget about it. you're actually quite fortunate that the paint is still good on a 30 year old gm car, lol skull
Hey paint guru's was that a simonize coating that was used in the 80's ,You could just apply some stuff and it would strip the coating off and then you had to wax ,I bookmarked this page till I ask my moms boyfriend what he used to get the coating off ,He only did one fender ,But its still shiny and was cheap and quick .
very true... The interior is imaculate too... no cracks in the plastic, and the top of the rear seat is just starting to fade... And the ol' girl only has 68,000 on the little 260 Olds... Age is startin' to show though.. Anyways the cars goin' to the body shop on monday... so it's all going to be better!
before you try that try some simonize wax ,If it loosens up the clear you have that experimental coating that gm used ,If it doesnt come off repainting is your only option..
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