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DIY clear coat repair

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by bonchien, Apr 22, 2022.

  1. bonchien

    bonchien Junior Member

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    2010 Prius
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    My 2010 Prius started having the clear coat bubble and come off on the roof about a two months ago. It then started spreading on the roof really fast. I got a quote from a local body shop to repaint only the roof, for over $1K. High prices here in California. There's a Maaco about 30 miles away, and they wanted $500 for the roof repaint, but they pointed out that the rails next to the roof appear to be starting to have the same issue. I would buy a new PHEV to replace the car, but everything I like is back ordered. So I looked into a DIY option.

    To give credit where it is due, there's lots of videos on YouTube for repairing clear coat. I followed the RachetsAndWrenches clear coat video.


    I also found a guy on the Tacoma forums that followed the same videos and repaired the clear coat on his roof rails. He said the repair lasted a year, but the clear coat started coming off in places he didn't repair it, so he got it professionally repaired as he thought the job was too big. You can check that out at tacomaworld forum:
    https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/oldie2007-the-little-big-red-readers-digest-renovation-revival-and-restoration-thread.569377/#post-18766500

    I used two cans of 2K clear coat and just barely had enough for three coats on roof. The first was light, and the next two were heavier. I would have liked to have a little more to do a really heavy final coat. The gray scotchbrite pads didn't really smooth out the bubbles, but the final result was good enough that I don't feel the need to use rubbing or polishing compound on it. Photos are below.
     

    Attached Files:

    #1 bonchien, Apr 22, 2022
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2022
    ASRDogman likes this.
  2. prius16

    prius16 Active Member

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    That looks like a decent job.
    Congratulations!
    (y)

    Painting a horizontal surface is hard and a PITA.
    Painting the roof is worse, because you need a ladder/stool, and have to be very careful not to touch the roof, when you're leaning over.

    As for any comments by people saying that it doesn't look like a factory paint job, that's because it's not.
    If people think it super mega easy to have a factory-like finish, then feel free to show your work. Note, I may ask some questions. In my teens, I used to sometimes hanging around an older relative's body shop. So, I know a thing or two about how body-shops do things.
    But, that does not mean that I have those types of skills. :-( Like painting a landscape painting, painting a car is a skill. "Many" people can learn, but many is very far from "everyone".

    Imho, it's more than fine for an older car.
    Imho, in reality 99.99999% of the people that walk by the car won't notice.

    Congrats again!
     
    #2 prius16, Apr 22, 2022
  3. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    Maaco roof paint is $500? I thought they painted entire cars for that amount
     
    #3 JC91006, Apr 22, 2022
  4. bonchien

    bonchien Junior Member

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    Thanks. It's a twelve year old car, and I wasn't going for perfect. I wanted to protect the paint, and I didn't want the roof to look janky. I think I'm one of the only people who can tell it was redone, especially at more than a few feet away.
     
    #4 bonchien, Apr 22, 2022
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  5. bonchien

    bonchien Junior Member

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    Maaco has three levels of paint jobs. The minimum cost near me is about $700K, but no clear coat. Just a coat of paint.
     
    #5 bonchien, Apr 22, 2022
  6. prius16

    prius16 Active Member

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    Welcome to post 2020.
    The OP didn't mention, or Macco didn't tell him, that he likely would have a 1+ month wait.

    For over two years, most body shops have been swamped.
    First, people didn't buy new cars (for various reasons), vehicle manufacturing went down (as inventories grew), the vaccines happened, the pandemic was getting under "some control", then any new the car inventories were sold, manufacturing was still down, then supply line problems, then the the chip shortage, and so on.

    Now, many new cars/trucks/SUVs have long wait times. Ford no longer take orders for it's Mach-E or Lightening F150. The waiting list is already 1.5+ years out.

    So..., during all of the above, people kept their older cars. Which meant more people were getting the cars repaired after accidents, for rust/inspection, for looks, and so on.
     
    #6 prius16, Apr 22, 2022
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2022
    PriusCamper likes this.
  7. OptimusPriustus

    OptimusPriustus Active Member

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    It’s the post process that does the trick. DIY paint always look more or less horrible but after wet sanding and polishing it’ll be decent if not semi-good even.
     
    #7 OptimusPriustus, Apr 23, 2022
  8. LifetimeLearner

    LifetimeLearner Junior Member

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    Touring
    Fast forward to now, July, 2023 - can you give an update on how the clear coat on your roof is holding up? My 2007 bumper is starting to bubble and get water under the clear coat when it rains - curious if the DIY method held up all right so far.
     
    #8 LifetimeLearner, Jul 9, 2023
  9. BrianStranded

    BrianStranded Member

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    Nice project, I’m going to do this.
     
    #9 BrianStranded, Jul 12, 2023
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