Re: Should I repaint my car?

I have a 1999.5 Pathfinder SE Limited Edition and engine runs well and I

>have been keeping my with regular scheduled maintaince. > >It has 107,000 miles on it and I recently changed it's timing belt (at >105,000). I spoke to the mechanic that does my maintainance he said I can >get another 100,000 miles out of it easy the older models last forever. > >Does it mean the newer PF are inferior in quality? > >The problem with my car now is the paint. Being in south Florida under the >blazing sun for many years the clear coat has partially disintegrated and so >now it has white patches all over, I don't see any corrosion. Checked >kbb.com and it values the car at 3500-5000 ball park. > >Trying to decide if it's worth it to repaint the car now (have not gotten a >quote yet but I suspect around $2000 plus may be a week of car rental while >I wait for it to be done at say $50 a day). > >Or just live with the paint problem and drive the car for as long as I can? >The paint problem will get worse and worse until it becomes unbearable I >think. What if I repaint it and then the transmission breaks! > >The paint problem is on the hood and on the roof, but I don't think a >partial paint is practical if more than 30% of the surface needs to be >painted. > >Opinions? > >MC >

This decision always turns on $ and love of the car. This condition, called clear coat failure occurs in all areas of the world, not just Florida. It is caused by not enough sun-block in the clear coat(really!). The paint is plastic and is destroyed in microscopic parts by UV- light-- heat also accelerates the condition. The top layer of paint, the clear coat, has failed and is loosing its grip on the layer of paint below it. What you can not see without magnification are very very small cracks that lead through the paint down to the metal. That is the path that water takes so it can cause RUST. Car manufacturers place the coatings on their cars in a system. Coat one is a "magnetically" placed primer applied after the car body is acid etched to clean the metal, then rinsed and dried. The body is dipped in this "EDP," then baked. The base coat is applied next--under a microscope the dry base coat material looks like a sponge, has holes, is NOT A WATER BARRIER, and is designed to stick to the EDP (Technical term is "electro-deposition primer"). The color coat is usually .002-.004" thick. This is two to four thousandths of an inch. Clear is applied after a flash period--time to allow the solvent to partially evaporate, or it is applied wet on wet--immediately after the base coat. The layer of clear, a polyurethane material, is two thousandths of an inch. Not Much there, and for a reason. Then the car is heated to 300 degrees to evaporate the water borne paint. The CLEAR COAT is the WATER BARRIER. This is the "system" that most factories use, and most auto body repair facilities (body/paint shops} try to copy. This system has proven to be the least harmful for the environment according to the EPA. This type of paint was first used in Los Angeles, CA. Paint applied thicker than six to eight thousandths of an inch will tend to crack. Lacquer (the repair paint in your father's days) required two to three gallons of paint. Most of which was sanded smooth and polished off to get a mirror like finish. Today if you try to polish the paint on a modern vehicle, you have just two thousandths of an inch....... So that white cloudy looking ring around the top of the car and the hood, and/or the trunk lid (boot cover-in England), is the edge of the failure moving towards the paint that has not completely failed...yet. Polishing lightly with a polishing compound that feels as smooth as cornstarch will not help this problem, sorry. Trying to use rubbing compound or polishing other than lightly, will give you circles of dull color surrounded by shiny clear. What you have done is worn a hole in the clear, and removed the protection that the paint offers. Look at the texture of a few cars on the showroom floor and you will see that mirror smooth finish is reserved only for AUTO SHOW CUSTOM CARS. I can not imagine leaving "orange peel" on my 59 Corvette. But, to help answer you question, "Should I paint?," The answer is probably yes. As long as the motor runs, the car starts, does not stop when it shouldn't, the radio plays, why spend money on a new car during a recession not caused by you. Now that you have decided to invest in the longevity of your Nissan--my "Nissan" is a Datsun 1970 Fairlady convertible w\both hard and soft tops, repainted ten years ago with single stage (no clear coat} Dupont Cronar polyurethane based paint--the next question is do you want to work to get the best result? Do you want to do the important steps that will insure that the paint-job that you get is the best possible for the conditions? It has been my experience that production shops, Maaico, Miracle Auto Painting, 1 day Paint-A-Car, etc are wanting in two areas. These are insufficient sanding close to moldings and lamps, which is needed for mechanical adhesion of the top coats==the place where paint chips and peels first, and closely masking or part removal. You get what you PAY FOR. If you want a pristine paint-job, then remove every part on the vehicle before painting. I suggest that a paint shop would charge you prox three to six thousand for this little item. Here in San Francisco, at $85-130 per hour, that three tenths of an hour to remove and replace the tail light is about forty dollars. PERHAPS IF WE ACCEPT masking closely --applying tape to cover any moldings and lights or items attached to the outside of the body so the tape is very close to the painted surface of the car---but not touching--we can be happy with the end result and the price. If you decide to invest your labor to increase the quality, you will wet sand the vehicle with 600-1000 grit sand paper. Buy automotive grade primer in a spray can, acid etching primer is best, from a body shop supplier, and prime any bare metal spots that you leave--before the sun goes down. RUST IS THE BAD GUY THAT YOU ARE REALLY TRYING TO FOIL. The girls or guys, whatever your choice, will ride in a spot primed car, believe me, but a rusty car is not really acceptable. Especially if you have left moisture on the metal overnight to start microscopic rusting that will remain under the primer, under the new paint, to start rust spots only months after painting. These spots will look like small blisters that will, of course, grow larger. So wet sand to remove the failed clear, promote adhesion of the new paint, and give the quickest prep time without mechanical sanders, then dry the surface well before you prime. Electric sanders and water don't mix too well, if you decide to go mechanical. Use a grade coarser sandpaper for mechanical sanding, and use an "orbital" sander. This type of sanding device will leave circular scratches that are harder to see than straight line sanders. Use sanding grit that is specified by the paint MANUFACTURER. As paint ages it will shrink, and those scratches that barely show up in primer and not at all in fresh paint, really stand out in aged shiny paint. Now is the time to mention a selling point for paint shops. Baking the paint. Non-manufacturer paint shops will always advertise "Oven Baked Paint will last longer." Actually, remember that Chevy or Ford, or Nissan will raise the temperature to 300 degrees to evaporate the water out of their paint, which you remember was "waterborne." The instrument panel, the seat covers, the tail lamps, the headlamp assemblies, the--aw heck, darn near every thing in or on that car is plastic. Heat plastic, almost any type of plastic except thermosetting plastic like old Corvettes, to 200 degrees and you can start welding the pieces together. What your paint shop is doing with those heat lamps is "setting" the clear coat, by removing some of the solvent from the paint, and not above 125 degrees. This allows the shop to remove the vehicle from the protected dust free paint area quickly enough to place the next vehicle in the booth in order to keep the line moving, not to mention the bank account up. But the curing of the paint takes longer and is a CHEMICAL process that "cross-links" the molecules of the paint. Incidentally, the agent used to cause the "cross-linking" is an isocyanate based material. You have heard of that stuff before, usually when San Quentin State Prison reduced the inmate population by one--the hard way! While we are here at the point of removing the "repainted" car out of the paint booth, THIS IS A GOOD TIME TO MENTION THAT Dupont does not recommend a hard paste wax on any of their paint-shop products. BECAUSE paste wax products work so well to create a hard shell that they seal in solvents. Sealing in solvents stops curing of the finish, and creates cracking. Think Mud. Do you remember seeing a photo of a dry lake or river bed. Nice thick clay on top. Water mixed with the clay. The sun evaporates the water on top quickly leaving a flat smooth surface. But the water underneath dries slower, and must come out. When the water does come out, the clay parts and splits leaving those characteristic cracks that you will now look for in the National Geographic Magazines about Africa, The Nile, The Mississippi, and well, you get the idea. First, you should not need any wax at all to protect the color. That is the job of the clear coat. But for those of you that must, use only liquid car waxes such as Dupont #7, or Meguairs liquid, or Mothers in liquid form, or equivalent Apply wax only when you can see water not "beading-up" from the last wax application. Apply waxes in the shade, of course, with a Karate Kid "Wax on-Wax-off" technique. Because vehicle makers are aware today that RUST is the BAD GUY, and apply a wax based material inside the door panels, USING LIQUID WAX IN THE WASH WATER is not really necessary any more. But then, wherever the salt meets the road, it meets the inside of the door panels, and causes rust. So when you wash the new paint job, put a small amount of liquid wax in the wash water. The water will travel down the inside of the door panel past the door glass and will deposit SMALL AMOUNTS OF WAX.That is where rusting starts that really makes your day go bad. In heavy dust areas, like the dirt roads near Ada, Oklahoma, check the drain holes in the bottom of the door assemblies. It is OK for water to go in--if it drains out. NOW LETS CHECK THE HIGH POINTS FOR CAR PAINTING SUCCESS. 1. Check with your paint shop before you do anything. AHH, I forget choosing the paint shop. Well, you have a phone book, and a price guide called a wallet. Any shop that displays an "ICCAR" or "ICAR"--Inter Industry Conference on Auto sion Repair--will have participated in professional training for their technicians. This does not guarantee that they are any better than a non-ICAR shop, but it does mean that they are aware of proper repair methods when a car is crashed. Back to our list: 1. check with your paint shop. If the following apply's; ask if they will work with you doing the sanding and masking. They probably will not adjust their price if you do, but you will know that the paint will not come off in big sheets causing ugliness, repainting again, and usually days in court. 2.If all this is a little cloudy, check at your local library or car parts store for a book on auto body work and\or painting. There are few secrets about what is needed, the books will explain everything you need to know except, the amount of work that is needed. Should take two to five days.....Check with your local community college. The students there may be able to supply you with information, and\or paid help. IF ALL THIS SOUNDS LIKE IT IS TOO MUCH WORK, let your paint shop price your needs, and then get out of their way. Sometimes though, the cheaper paint job is the better choice.

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Did your information come from an article? I check this group daily and this post is one of the best I've seen on any Nissan topic. You put a lot of work into it.

Unfortunately for me (and others), it's bad news. I've been following this thread as my '93 Sentra has the same problem -- less than 55K on it since new, but it looks like crap even though it's mechanically sound. It needs TLC, but judging from your article, I doubt I could provide it, as the paint restoration would probably equal the car's value. And I've had no luck finding quality workmanship, so I'm not optimistic there.

But your post! Hey, it's great to know what goes into today's factory paint jobs. Thanks.

JPM

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DemoDisk

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