White peeling paint question

[Micah Wells]

I know this is a common issue, and I've done some research. Needing some more experienced thoughts.

My peeling is occurring on the hood and roof only, no peeling on the sides. I'm wanting to repaint, and was looking at doing most of the prep work myself to help cut down on the cost. My thought is to take the hood and roof down to bare metal, and just scuff(red scotch-brite) the rest of the truck. Do you guys/gals think this is a good idea? Thanks in advance.

 

[DerekTheGreat]

The reason the paint fails most commonly in that area is that those areas take the most beating from the sun. The paint (primer, primer sealer, basecoat & clear coat) weren't thick enough to block the UV so it damaged the ecoat which being epoxy, doesn't like UV very much. It begins to chalk, thus forcing the paint to delaminate..

You want to preserve as much of the ecoat (bottom layer) as much as possible, it's protecting the zinc phosphate layer, which on the body panels is protecting the galvanized substrate. You sand down to substrate you'll lose all of that. This is why there is damn near no better system than what the factory gave you in terms of corrosion protection. Those conversion wipes aren't worth squat... So, sand away the chalkiness of the ecoat to salvage it if possible and then go about the refinish process per usual with primer surface, sealer then basecoat and such.

 

[Macfluke]

My truck started on the hood and roof but eventually working its way to the sides... I've had it taken care of as needed, but didn't have it taken down to bare metal... so far so good...

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[DerekTheGreat]

Our old 88 was toasted on the hood & roof, I preserved the ecoat where it was possible to do so and no problems after that. I rattlecanned that one though. Looked good 'nuff and there weren't any adhesion issues.

 

[someotherguy]

Some of those colors were just notorious for peeling. The white, and the silver, are generally bad and it will eventually start peeling on the sides, too. I wouldn't spend effort/money putting new paint on top of the bad stuff, but that's strictly an opinion.

I had a '92 parts truck factory silver that finally started peeling so bad on the sides that while it sat in the lot the paint literally formed pockets that would fill up with rainwater, then they'd finally break off.

Richard

 

[Markgyver]

I had a white 89 in 96 the local chevy dealer repainted mine under warranty, they had the whole truck media blasted down to bare metal.

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[kennythewelder]

A strip down and repaint is the only real fix. I had my 97 done in 2013. It still looks grate today, but I take care of my truck. What happens is the base coat turns chalky and the clear coat lifts off. All of that needs to be removed before a repaint. My paint job was a cheap one @ less that $1000, but I did a lot of the prep work myself, and need no body work. All thatwas need form the body shop was a finish sanding, tape off and paint. Also being white, I went with a single stage paint. Clear is in the paint basically. All this saved me a good bit of money. There are a ton of videos on you tube on body work, and prep work for painting. If you click my avatar, then alblum page and then my 97, you can see how good mine came out.

 

[DerekTheGreat]

The ecoat is what chalks up due to UV penetration beyond the clear coat (where applied, some colors were single stage) and basecoat layers. GM thought they could save money by omitting primer sealer & tinting the ecoat instead. Obviously they were wrong. Unless the car never sees excessive moisture or salt again I'd be very hesitant to remove the ecoat layer, because you'd also be losing the zinc phosphate & galvanized layers the ecoat is protecting. Up here where they throw salt it's not uncommon to see repair jobs blister & corrode just two years after they were done, usually from the inside out as it's near impossible to seal that back up, especially patch or cut & replace jobs.. I'm not sure how well zinc rich primers work against fighting corrosion but I can say the pretreatment wipes are nearly worthless.

 

[Bob L]

As far as the sides go if the paint is still good I would wet sand by hand with 400 or 600 grit not scotch pad. Hand sanding will not break through the layers as machine sanding will.