My wife has a 98 Honda CRV and the clear coat is pretty faded. The paint looks to be in decent shape other than it being dull. Is there anything I can do to restore the clear coat or is it just time to have it re-painted?

First: I don't know how well either of you maintained and took care of the paint, so I'm just going to throw this out here. If you don't wax the paint regularly, the paint will fade and dull out. I'd say at least once a year, you need to get a clay bar or something and strip the old wax and put on new... waxing at least twice a year... I'd say at least quarterly. Wax helps protect the paint, and if you know for certain the vehicle has never been repainted (i.e. it's the factory paint)... it needs to be taken care of better.

Second: to what degree is the clear faded? is it "chipping" or "peeling" in any places? If it is, it needs repainted. If the clear is just dull and there are no signs anywhere of chipping or peeling... then I'd recommend trying the following:


Get a clay bar kit. It's time consuming, but works wonders for paint. Heck my car brand new (just got it in May of last year)... few months after I got it I went and got a Mother's Clay Bar Kit, Clay barred the car, waxed it... it looked better than it did new. Pick up a clay bar kit and clay bar the whole car, following teh directions, and give it a good coat or two of wax afterwards.

If clay barring doesn't bring the paint back to life, Take it to a detailer and see if they could get iti to shine with wetsanding and buffing... and tell them that you don't want them to try if htey are doubtful it'll bring the shine back... and let htem know you're not paying for them to just try, you want to know if they an actually do it or not.

If not, then take it to a shop or two or three and get some estimates....it's time for a repaint.

Of course, it would help to have pictures of where the clear coat is the worst to make a better determination along with other areas of the clear on the vehicle.

Post up some pics!!!

The paint is not chipped or peeling. We got the car used so I can't say for certain but I am pretty sure its all factory paint. I'll get the kit and try it on a spot, see how it works.

I know she has never actually waxed it. If she gets the car washed she always uses the spray on wax stuff. Is that any good or is that a waste of time and money?

The only camera I have is my Razor phone. I could try to upload some pics but I doubt they will show much.


Thanks for the reply

The clay bar will not get rid of the faded look. It will only remove contaminates in the paint. Here's my suggestion.

* Wash the car really well.
* Clay the car. Follow the directions on the box. If the clay bar drops on the ground, DONT use it again. It may have picked up small rocks, dirt, etc. that will scratch your paint up.
* Then, take Meguiars Scratch X and rub it into to the areas where it's faded. You will need to put some muscle into this stuff though. It's not something you apply and wipe off. This is pretty much like a rubbing compound, but it works great. I've been using it to buff out pieces after wet sanding, and I've been very impressed.
After this, your car's paint should be revived. If it isn't, have another go with the Scratch X. If you still do not have a shiny car, then you may need to go with something a bit more abrasive (harsher compounds, wetsanding, etc). This is where you could get into some trouble though, because you only have so much clear coat to work with before you start hitting paint.
* Optional: Polish the car. This will help deepen the color of the car, however it doesn't do much of anything for protection.
* Wax the car. I'd suggest, at minimum, 2-3 light coats of wax. This will keep your paint safe from future abuse, but as Fallen Angel mentioned, it needs to be done a few times a year, especially if the vehicle is not garaged.


Check out Meguiar's Online Forums for more helpful tips.

Ethan wrote:I know she has never actually waxed it. If she gets the car washed she always uses the spray on wax stuff. Is that any good or is that a waste of time and money?

The Spray wax really doesn't offer long term protection. It's pretty much something to use a few times between actual waxes.

ok take it to get buffed out


can i haz bondo

I did the clay bar. It was pretty good at getting rid of some oxidation(If thats what it was). Then I did a wax job and it looks pretty good. I think it really needs to be professionally buffed. At least its reasonably shiny now. Looks like at least someone cares about it and not all dejected any more. I can't see my reflexion in it or anything but its pretty red now.

I never really noticed how many nicks and chips there really were in the paint though. Heh. oh well.

Thanks

Here are some pics of the stuff. I am surprised how well they came out from a camera phone. but they still suck and you can barely see what I am talking about. The best one is the one of the hood and the fender. You can see the fender is nice and shiny where the hood is pretty dull.







These are before I worked on them. It just seems odd that the fenders are all shiny and the hood is dull. One door is shiny and the other is dull. All the pillars are dull the roof is moderately shiny and the tailgate is pretty dull........I guess its possible some parts were re-painted and others are factory.....I dunno though. I doubt it was ever painted

If you have $8 and a few hours, I think you'd be really surprised at what you can do with the Scratch X. Professional buffing will easily run you 20 to 30 times the cost of a bottle of Scratch X and some TLC.

It's not for someone who wants a quick and easy fix. But with the right amount of touch, you can have something like this:













(this is out of a can, 5 coats of clear, and wetsanded with 600, 1000, 1500, 2000, and then 2 applications of scratch x)