When All Else Fails

Kyd

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I have some peeling of my clear coat, and I poked around the forum and saw that the only way to really fix this is a repaint. I'm not looking for show room quality here, I am looking to stop my wife from nagging me to death. ;)

This is a 2005 Chrysler Town & Country that my wife has to drive a few more months until we can get her something new. What is the average, ball park cost of a basic repaint, nothing fancy. Better yet, are there any tricks you can recommend that will get me through the next few months without my wife complaining about how embarrassing her van is.
 
Scuff the panel with red scotchbrite pad and buy some clear.Is it just on hood and roof.a no fancy paint job will run 750 to 900 with decent durability products.
 
She's that much of a princess that she can't drive a vehicle with some clearcoat peeling? FOR A FEW MORE MONTHS??? Yikes
 
I have some peeling of my clear coat...
What is your definition of "some peeling".

"Some peeling" doesn't sound so awful, to me,
to have to live with for a couple of months.
{But that probably doesn't count for a whole lot
at this time and place.}

This is a 2005 Chrysler Town & Country that my wife has to drive a few more months until we can get her something new.

What is the average, ball park cost of a basic repaint, nothing fancy.

I'm not looking for show room quality here
What is your Wife going to drive if you were to take
the van out of service for the clear-coat repair?

Anyway, IMO:
A half-adze paint job ain't gonna stand a chance
up there in the Northeast during the next couple
of Winter months. Don't waste your money!

Better yet, are there any tricks you can recommend that will get me through the next few months without my wife complaining about how embarrassing her van is.
If I knew how to keep wives from complaining...
I wouldn't have to win tonight's lottery
in order to be a Billionaire.


Bob
 
Plastidip it for a couple hundred bucks.... And that way she gets to pick the new color also
 
Pictures would help. It all depends on where you can break the line and blend to. You also may be able to do some brush touch up the sand and buff.
 
I think it was Benjamin Franklin that said:

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

:autowash: :buffing:
 
Why are you getting rid of the van? Simply because it's old? Or is there more problems with the van such as mechanical issues?

If it's simply cosmetic issues, I would plastidip it as well. You can do this yourself over a weekend.

Heck, you could even get a few more years out of it if you really wanted too.
 
Repaints are pretty expensive. For a mini-van like your T&C you can expect to pay anywhere from 1000$ to 5000$ depending on the quality of the job you want and the amount of repair they need to do before painting. The prep work is the most expensive part of repainting, so if there is any rust, dents or any other kind of repair to do before they can paint the cost will quickly increase.

If you are someone who likes projects, you could do the job yourself. The least expensive would be to do a rattle can repaint. This will cost you around 200$ and take about 2 days of your time. The quality of the paint job will be poor but it sure is a big improvement over a peeling clearcoat.

You can plasti-dip as others have suggested, this is more expensive. You would have to do research on cost but I would expect something around 500$. Personally I don't like the look of plasti-dip but that is a matter of taste.

Finally if you have good compressor, you could get yourself a paint gun at harbour freight for about 30$. This would make a much better paint job than rattle cans. Cost of paint would be around 200-400$ depending on color and quality. For this you need a compressor with a good air reserve (40 gallons or more) and decent air output (at least 10 cfm). If your compressor is small you would have to take your time and do one panel at a time instead of shooting the whole car in one go... but it can be done.

Generally it's not worth having an old vehicle repainted professionally because the cost of the repaint will exceed the value of the vehicle and it adds little to no resale value. In your case, the vehicle is probably worth about 2000$ so having it repainted for say 3000$ would make no sense.

If you want to learn how to paint yourself, there are a gazillion videos on Youtube about DIY paintjobs from Rustoleum roll on paint to almost professional quality paintjob.

Hope this helps, and have fun what ever you decide to do ;)
 
Do you have pics? Those would help.
You only plan on keeping the vehicle till Spring I take it?
Where in the Northeast US are you?

Well, others have given great options, but here is another option. It won't be perfect but may be acceptable and pass the 3ft view test/wife test. Polish and wax it! The clear has already failed and you're dumping the car anyway...

I saw a video on-line of a car-dealer in CA who details his cars prior to sale and makes videos. He has an 89 Ford T-Bird Super Coup that has total clear-coat failure on the hood. He polished and waxed the car anyway. Essentially he polished out the base coat that was exposed, degraded and oxidized. It came out great (from the video view) and you could still make out the out-line of the clear coat failure, but you know what... he made the hood shine.

At this point you nothing to lose, and your wife will probably be happy with the results.
 
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