Can You Prevent Peeling Paint?
For motor-heads like us, peeling paint is a nightmare scenario. Here’s how to protect your ride.
Whether your vehicle is a sporty coupe or a capable off-roader, a beautiful paint job is a mark of pride and a cause for admiration. On the other hand, a neglected or deteriorating paint job will cause the value of your vehicle to be far less than its potential.
Peeling paint is one of the worst problems that face modern vehicles, as peeling paint looks terrible and exposes more structural components of your vehicle to corrosion and damage. Here are the common causes of automotive paint peeling.
Poor Preparation
Certain car models tend to experience paint peeling more than other vehicles. This is usually because a batch of vehicles wasn’t prepared properly to accept the coat of paint. Before a coat of paint can be applied, the metal of the body panels needs to be treated with a primer. The primer’s job is to stick to the metal and give the paint something to stick to. If the primer is not done correctly or is of poor quality, the paint doesn’t have a chance to adhere properly. The only solution to this problem is to strip off the old paint and repaint the entire exterior of the vehicle.
Poor Primer
About 10 – 12 years ago, due to more stringent emissions rules, all the car-makers had to switch over to water-based car paints, and for a brief time, the paint did not stick to the cars with the same predictability it did in the past, especially on hoods, trunk-lids, and roofs where they get full sun.
The worst cases we see are when the paint has properly adhered to the primer but the surface preparation wasn’t done correctly. When this happens, the peeling is especially heinous.
The manufacturers have solved this issue now, but that doesn’t help cars built during the “Beta Test” period. It still might mean sanding down the whole panel to bare metal and starting fresh with proper metal etching prep, and proper primer and paint coats.
Chip or Scratch
No matter how careful you are, a rock or bit of flying debris can easily hit your vehicle and cause a chip or deep scratch. If the damage isn’t fixed quickly, the paint will start to deteriorate.
Modern cars are all treated with a clear coat before they leave the factory. The clear coat protects the actual pigmented paint, which is quite fragile. If the clear coat is damaged and not repaired quickly, dirt and moisture will build up underneath the finish. This means that the damage will get worse over time, and eventually, you will see large pieces of paint flake and peel away. In worst-case scenarios, this will result in rust.
Don’t let peeling paint ruin the curb appeal of your vehicle. Get in touch with us at Island Colour and we will help get your vehicle back into showroom condition.