Product(s) for maximum sun/UV protection?

S

StriderTacticaL

New member
I recently bought a car which had obviously spent a lot of time under the sun without much protection. The front of the roof has some clearcoat failure and the hood has developed a faint white haze in some areas. I just washed and claybar'd the car and also applied a couple coats of Optimum spray wax with its UV protection. I have used this wax on my previous car which had a very small area of clear-coat peeling on the pillar. That peeling hasn't gotten any worse during the last 3+ years of ownership which I've been happy about.

I am wondering if there are any other products I can use for maximum sun/UV protection so that I can prevent the damage from getting worse and preserve the rest of the paintwork? The rest of the car is in ok shape paint-wise.

I park my car in an indoor community garage which I know helps tremendously but there will be lots of days where I will have to park outdoors for hours. I don't have a Porter Cable or any other machine so at the moment I am only open to products that can be hand-applied.

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The haze on the hood isn't quite as pronounced in real life and the paint isn't quite as flat as it appears in the photo. Nevertheless, the haze is there.



Thanks
 
Once it started, nuttin gonna stop it. Needs re-paint

For other areas, a GOOD sealant (blackfire, Poorboys world, etc)
 
When you say nothing's gonna stop it once started, you mean even with wax and everything on top of that roof damage, that damage will continue to get larger and spread?
 
you may be able to slow it, but it wont stop completely. as well as when you are applying the sealant, it will probably flake and scratch more of the paint, and same goes for washing
 
Lol no worries. I'll have to make the best of what I have. Does the spreading only occur when wash mitts or towels glide over the damaged area causing the clear to peel, or something else which causes the good clear-coat directly surrounding the bad area to start going bad too? Because I was worried about the same thing happening with my previous car but like I said the peeling did not get any worse. I also did not wash that car often but only gave it a good wash, claybar and wax and mostly left it alone.

Also what about the haze on the hood? Can that be prevented from getting worse or will it suffer the same fate as the roof?
 
Not necessarily. It, sort of lifts, so washing or waxing etc just helps accelerate it. Either way it's toast
 
I agree with Ron. Once the damage is done, no "LSP protection" can be applied that will do much to stop it from spreading.

However,

I have an option for you for the roof. If I was looking to "better this" on the cheap, I would cover the area above the windshield with metallic black 3M Di Noc or 1080 film.

If you do it correctly, it will look like a fairing for the roof rack, look good, cost you maybe $40, and completely protect the area where the UV damage has been done (black film will act as mechanical block from UV rays).

I did this process to my roof rack rails last year and it's as good as the day I did it.

Here are some pics to give you an idea..

Started with this (massive peeling paint from UV exposure):

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1422976815.390323.jpg

Then stripped paint down to this (stripping paint not required in your case):

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1422976847.277989.jpg

Then, carefully wrapped the rails in 3M 1080 film & coated with DLux. After, I have a brand new looking roof rack:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1422976908.742469.jpg

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1422976919.025367.jpg

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1422976935.111903.jpg
 
Strider, take a look at Barry's thread: http://www.autopia.org/forums/click...eal-presidential-details.html?highlight=barry

Also, forum member KC (in Singapore) demo'd Opticoat on the deck lid of a car with bad clear coat failure. It made a huge improvement.

I guess the bottom line with both these scenarios I reference is 'what do they look like a couple years later?'

I tend to agree that re-finishing is the solution to fixing that failure. Sure, you can make it look better with various potions etc., but how long will it last before needing to be done again.
 
Thanks everyone for the helpful replies. Swanicyouth, that sounds like a a great idea and your roof rack looks fantastic. So the 3M film is basically a car wrap right?

and Tom, Opticoat looks interesting too. I will have to look into it. The description makes it sound like a foam-applied clear-coat?? I wonder if it could actually help eliminate the white bubbling-like appearance or only seal in the damage to prevent it from getting worse.

Anyway, does anyone have any insight as to the hood? Will the white haze slowly but surely turn as bad as the roof or have I saved it just in time from getting any worse?
 
StriderTacticaL said:
Thanks everyone for the helpful replies. Swanicyouth, that sounds like a a great idea and your roof rack looks fantastic. So the 3M film is basically a car wrap right?

and Tom, Opticoat looks interesting too. I will have to look into it. The description makes it sound like a foam-applied clear-coat?? I wonder if it could actually help eliminate the white bubbling-like appearance or only seal in the damage to prevent it from getting worse.

Anyway, does anyone have any insight as to the hood? Will the white haze slowly but surely turn as bad as the roof or have I saved it just in time from getting any worse?
Click to expand...


not stopped it, but maybe slowed it down some
 
One thing I forgot to ask, even with my waxing and etc., how long would you expect it to then take for my hood to start looking like the front of my roof? I mean is this a 6 month thing or a one year thing, 2 years, or?


Thanks
 
StriderTacticaL said:
One thing I forgot to ask, even with my waxing and etc., how long would you expect it to then take for my hood to start looking like the front of my roof? I mean is this a 6 month thing or a one year thing, 2 years, or?
Click to expand...

The other panels might never fail like the roof even without any special treatment. For clearcoat to fail like that just because of UV exposure is very, *VERY* uncommon. So rare that I think something else was going on there that thinned the clear in those areas of the roof. Like...somebody (previous owner? dealership when "new"? coulda been anyone..) buffed it too aggressively and took off a few too many microns of clearcoat, resulting in premature failure due to increased UV-vulnerability. Or maybe it got run through a carwash where rollers/etc. always rubbed those sections of the roof. OR a combination of those two guesses. Generally, paint just doesn't fail like that, let alone in somewhat isolated "blotches" like what's in the pics. Note that the rest of that leading edge is OK even though it oughta all be uniformly weathered.

IMO you oughta just bite the bullet and have the roof repainted by somebody who knows what they're doing. It's already failed, and it's only gonna get worse. You got sold a vehicle with paint issues, simple as that (sorry to say).

Easy for me to spend your money, huh? And that wouldn't be the cheapest panel to paint either.

You can keep it from turning into a complete rusty mess by using a paintcleaner (not an abrasive polish, that'd make things worse) to reduce the oxidation and then wax/seal/whatever to provide a sacrificial barrier between the messed-up paint and the elements. It'll still continue to fail, but if you redo it often it won't get all that much worse.

If you don't do that, and keep doing it, it'll eventually turn into really awful surface rust.
 
So how long would you guess it'll take for the hood to look like the roof?

Repainting the roof and/or hood isn't an option at this point simply because it such a low value car and respraying of those panels alone will probably cost close to half the value of the car itself if not more. The car was purchased as an overall clean and reliable commuter car and is so far serving that purpose well...I was just hoping to find something to do to delay the progression as much as possible.

Perhaps in the future if I find a hook up on a respray job then I might take up on it, but by then I just might be ready to move on to something else.
 
Honestly, there's really no miracle for preserving you clear coat other than not exposing it to sunlight. I Opti-Coated my wife's minivan and the paint on the hood still failed. And when I initially coated it it was perfectly fine. I just ended up re-polishing it and re-applying Opti-Coat every couple months to keep it looking shiny. Here's the 50/50 of the hood:

 
StriderTactical- Heh heh, yeah I know what you mean...my older vehicles often cost me more than they're worth!

The hood might never fail the way the roof did, I wouldn't worry about that. For the roof, if you won't repaint then I'd:

-use some product known to remove oxidation with minimal abrasion. Klasse All-In-One comes to mind, but it might not be potent enough.
-clean away whatever the product leaves behind with a solvent
-apply a coating like OptiGloss and hope for the best.

David Fermani- Was the minivan new when you got it?
 
Thanks for the responses. When you say remove the oxidation, do you mean essentially use a very aggressive compound to remove basically all the clear-coat then seal what's left with Opticoat? I'm still having a hard time finding out what the difference is between Opti-Coat and Opti-Gloss.

Also, when I get an opportunity, I really would like to give the entire car a gentle one-step clean up polish with something very light like Poorboys SSR-1 or something like that. As mentioned, the rest of the car appears fine but do you think it would be safe to polish the hood as it currently looks?
 
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