CLEARCOAT RANT ......... and Question

ThunderTurkey

Registered User
My daily '89 beater has Clearcoat peeling off in sheets. I can almost understand, because altho it was cared for, it was never garaged and the AZ sun is treacherous! Now, my garage-queen-always-pampered '93 has a clearcoat flaw starting the size of a dime on the hood, roof and trunklid. HOW, in all good concience can Ford sell cars with cheap, shoddy paintjobs on them??? I am about to visit every Ford Dealer in the area and ask if THIS is what will happen to the 2005 TBird costing a FORTUNE in only 10 or 12 years. Can you see my point? Shouldn't they make good on the lousey paintjob we all ended up with? What exactly IS the meaning of the phrase "Ford-Tough" in the comercials? :confused:
Okay, on to the question : Is there ANYthing I can do to STOP or SLOW the deterioration of the clearcoat? The '89 went the same way. It was fine for about 10 years, started peeling in a few spots, and then ZAP!!! Now, more than 2/3rds of the clearcoat is gone. Oh, I have about 20 coats of Zaino on my '93, it's the Midnight Opal color(black metalflake), but it is still starting to grow. AAARRRRRGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!! :eek: :mad: :(
 
Ford would tell you "What do you expect from a car that is 13 years old, a factory fresh paintjob?"

In all reality if a paint job lasts 10 years and still looks like the day it was painted I'd say you are pretty lucky. You could try and just repaint where it is peeling, but the best thing to do(if you plan on keeping your car) is wet sand the clear coat off and repaint, if you do alot or all the prep work and buy the paint and clearcoat, i guarantee a local shop would spray it, just have to put in a lot of hours sanding the car down.


Just my 2 cents.
Mark
 
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MagpoweredSC said:
Ford would tell you "What do you expect from a car that is 13 years old, a factory fresh paintjob?"
I guess I EXPECT some oxidation, yes ........ some fading ......... but NOT the whole dang clearcoat to be peeling off in sheets. I always thought FORD had a BETTER idea! Hahahahahahaaaaa .... sorry for being unreasonable.
 
I'm not sure 89 had clearcoat on them. I was told this when looking for some paint to fix stone chips my car is a 90.
 
ThunderTurkey said:
My daily '89 beater has Clearcoat peeling off in sheets. I can almost understand, because altho it was cared for, it was never garaged and the AZ sun is treacherous! Now, my garage-queen-always-pampered '93 has a clearcoat flaw starting the size of a dime on the hood, roof and trunklid. :eek: :mad: :(

I feel your pain. I went through similar thing a few yrs ago on my 94 when it was only 7 yrs old. However, mine hasn't been a garage queen and has been exposed to the TX sun/heat. Not quite as hot as AZ, but just as bad. I started noticing a rough texture to the paint on the trunk lid and top of rear bumper when I washed it. Still, I took reasonable care of the car with frequent washes/waxes and was puzzled why I was having this problem on a car LESS than 10 yrs old. I just attributed it to having the car in south TX.
I had noticed this problem on older cars of all makes/models, but I thought it was just a beater and the car owner didn't take care of it.
I later learned that this is a common problem with our cars as well. Although, the pre-94 SC's tended generally to fair better. I also talked with a paint/body guy at local Ford place and he told me that it was especially bad for the mid-90's birds.
It appears there was a problem with at least one of the plants where the cars are painted. The problem is there wass insufficient clear coat applied to these cars and now we're seeing the effect. A yr or so ago, I started noticing a LOT of the mid-90's birds showing the clear coat problem, so I didn't feel as bad.
I often wondered though, why I don't see mid-90's Mustangs with the same problem. I'm guessing most of them were painted elsewhere, cause they don't seem to be having the same problem and there's tons more of them around.
Unfortunately, your best bet is just to repaint the entire exterior and make sure they apply a few coats of clear this time. That's what I did cause I couldn't stand the white spots developing all over the car. At least with a white car, it's not as noticeable. If you just "spot" paint the car, it will just show up again elsewhere eventually until you have the whole care repainted.
I agree, Ford really screwed us on the clear coat cause it lasted just long enough to be covered by warranty.
 
Yeah, '89s HAD ClearCoat!!!!

Jason Wild said:
I'm not sure 89 had clearcoat on them. I was told this when looking for some paint to fix stone chips my car is a 90.
Hey Jason, my '89 below was purchased from the original owner, never been repainted, and all that peel started just over a year ago. Now it looks HORRIBLE! :mad:
 

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my oldsmobile had that, i dont plan on doing much besides driving it but to make it look better i got some rougher grit rubbing compound then some finer stuff then on top of that i put some wax on and it dosent look to bad
 
The actual problem isn't as much a thin coat as it is how it used to be applied.

Ford used a process that involved two steps in painting the cars. The first step was to shoot the base coat, allow it to dry, then shoot the clear. Ford found that the clear would not adhere properly, so they used an intermediate chemical to promote adhesion of the clear coat. The biggest problem there was that they did not prep the base, so you ended up with contaminants underneath the clear. After a while these contaminants work up into the clear, causing a bubble-from there they will progress to the sheet-peel effect.

I received this explanation from a friend who worked in the paint areas at Ford for 18 years. The process used now is much different, and the paint is a better formulation.
 
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