Truck Re-Paint Questions???

[Buffalo]

Hi, guys. I hope you can send me off in the right direction with your advice.

I have a '91. 5 W-250, White/Silver sides. A lot of the paint is just falling off! 171,000 miles and the truck runs great. Just looks like hell!

The story I heard was that the EPA made the manufacturers take the lead out of the primer and the oil out of the color coat (water base, now), and the two don't want to adhere to one another.

I need to get it repainted. Some paint shops say that the primer is still OK and you just have to remove the old color coat. Others say it needs to be stripped down to the metal to do it right. And, others say to just sand down the color coat and "feather" new paint into the areas where the old paint fell off, sand again and repaint. This last recommendation doesn't sound right, to me. What would keep the existing, old paint from separating from the primer while under the new coat of paint?

Would the truck retain more of it's value by keeping the stock color combination (White/Silver sides)?

I've heard that higher-end Maaco paint jobs are really not all that bad. What experience do you guys have with them?

Is it worth putting a good, expensive ($3000+) paint job on the truck? Will you get much of your money back if you sell it with the expensive paint job? Probably, not!

I, also, heard that D/C sometimes compensated it's customers with a bit of money to help defray the costs of a new paint job. Any of you heard of this?

If any of you guy's have any thoughts or suggestions I would really appreciate hearing them. Thank You.

Joe F. (Buffalo).

 

[tugboatphil]

Joe,



My 90 had a light/dark blue paint job. A quarter sized flake when I bought it (4 years old & 100k miles) turned into a fully rusted hood and roof. The upper part of the sides had hundreds of tiny bubbles in it. By this time she was 7 years old. When I asked a dealer about it, he said that it wasn't a recall. However, it was something that they would have fixed if I had brought it in within 6 years.



I asked a body shop in my area and they told me that it would have to be stripped to metal. Looking at it, I had no reason to disagree. Concerning Maaco, I've heard lots of bad stories about them, but my only experience with them was good. Prior to selling my old F-150, which had a rusted out hood, I got a $700 paint job. My old neighbor bought it and it's still a good paint job today (11 years later) and it sits outside 365 days a year.



As to the benefits of a rusted out truck, I was securing vacant houses for mortgage companies with an occassional eviction at the time. I spent a lot of time in the "Cracktown" sections of Norfolk, Richmond and Newport News. Never once had anyone bother my "Fred Sanford Special. "

 

[TKingsbury]

I had a Maaco paint job on my 67 Barracuda and it was decent. It was 8 years old when I sold it and it was still shiney and looked good. It was parked outside year-round so it wasn't babied. The worst part about cheaper paint jobs is that most of them use a D. A. sander to feather out the chips and it leaves waves or blotch marks when you look down the side of the car. Try to find a place that at least uses an inline sander to sand it down.

Travis. .

Almost forgot, my truck was white with silver and now it's all white. didn't see the need for the silver.

 

[MFranz]

Buffalo,

I have a 1993 3/4 ton that I bought used with 30,000 miles on it. I bought the truck in 1996. It is blue over silver.

After having the truck for about a year I noticied the paint peeling on the hood. I asked the dealer about it and they

didnt give me any indication that they would do anything about it. Another year goes by,the paint peels a little more

and I discover thru a friend of mine who also had a Dodge

with a paint problem that Dodge will in some cases repaint

your vehicle as they did in my friends case. I believe his was a 1998. So I call the Chyrsler 800 number tell them my problem,they set it up with the area rep, whom looks at the truck and agrees to pay for roughly half of a$2000

paint job. The truck gets painted,looks great,I spent about $1000 and felt lucky that they even went as far as they did. The downside,the paints peeling again. It would have been better to have stripped it down to bare metal.

At this point it doesnt much matter Ive got over 200,000

miles on the truck. Hope this sheds a little light on the subject.

Good Luck

Take Care

Mike

 

[Buffalo]

Thanks for your reply's, guys. I appreciate your help.

Joe F. (Buffalo)

 

[Ncostello]

The story I got on the GM paint delamination was that UV light went through the paint they were using and oxidized the primer underneath. A chalky film would build on top of the primer and lift the color coat off. Chemical reactions are strong indeed.



Most GM paint folks agreed that removing the color coat and lightly sanding the primer would work fine for a new color coat. It was usually never the primer that lifted... just the color. I had the problem on a 1994 Chevy 2500, white. The grey primer underneath did infact have a chalky appearance you could scratch off with a fingernail. Don't know if this applies to the dodge problem.

 

[TKingsbury]

The story I got on the GM paint delamination was that UV light went through the paint they were using and oxidized the primer underneath. A chalky film would build on top of the primer and lift the color coat off. Chemical reactions are strong indeed.



Most GM paint folks agreed that removing the color coat and lightly sanding the primer would work fine for a new color coat. It was usually never the primer that lifted... just the color. I had the problem on a 1994 Chevy 2500, white. The grey primer underneath did infact have a chalky appearance you could scratch off with a fingernail. Don't know if this applies to the dodge problem.

I think this is the true with the Dodges also. A white 93 we have at work is peeling anywhere there wasn't something applied to the paint(stickers, painted on #s and the like). It also isn't peeling on the left side which was repainted when it was less than a year old due to an accident.

Travis. .