StealthWeaponLS1

Well, as the title says, my clear coat on my car came off. I took my car to a car wash and i was using the water gun or whatever its called and i was rinsing off my car before washing it and i came across some haziness which i thought was some left over bird poop so i used the gun to get it off, but as i was washing off what i thought was bird poop....was really the clear coat. The gun took a good section off on my rear passenger side fender. It happened just today (being Saturday), so my question is.....would the body shop be willing to just repair the small area on my fender? and would it be actually a smart idea to make an insurance claim on it or not? Heres a pic below of the damage after i washed my WS6.

01BlueSS1995

i would say your own your own! how much is your deductible?

LunarWillow

iTrader: (3)

The body shop is going to have to repaint the fender (prime/base/clear), the new clearcoat will not stick to the factory paint because the chemical properties are different from the new basecoat/clearcoats the body shops use (most have gone to water based paint now vs. the factory solvent based). I worked in a body shop for a few years lol.

As far as making a claim, it depends on your deductible/policy. If you can get it done for less than your deductible, go for it. I personally like to keep the insurance out of it if I can help it, that way I'm not waiting around for their OK for the work to get done, which can take awhile depending on your company.

StealthWeaponLS1

Yea i think my deductible is either 250 or 500, so im guessing if i have to get the whole fender repainted, its going to cost WAY more then the deductible. Which sucks a big one. But LunarWillow....whats your opinion on how bad this spot will spread....if it will? Is there anything i should do differently when i wash my car? I havent ran into a problem like this before with any cars ive owned.

ULTIMATEORANGESS

iTrader: (4)

i just had to have my hood repainted. the clear came off big time. it looked terrible.

StealthWeaponLS1

Yea, i keep thinking....if this spot was some where i couldnt see it, then i wouldnt be so upset about it. But of course, it has to be right smack dab in the middle of my rear fender where everyone can see it. Of course.....

LunarWillow

iTrader: (3)

Stealth, the spot will spread over time unfortunately, because air/water can get in underneath the clearcoat now and will eventually separate it from the fender. The only thing I would say to do is to not powerwash or put direct water pressure on the spot when you are washing the car, regular hand washing and gentle rinsing will be the way to go. It's not anything you did when you washed it, GM has had kind of a history with bad clearcoat peeling, the worst was in the late 80s/early 90s, the durability was very sub-par. I had a '92 Olds Toronado Trofeo that I had to entirely repaint because of the awful clearcoat peel. I think you just got a little unlucky here, the paint on newer GMs are actually pretty decent. I would just shop around for a good body shop to give you an estimate, you might get lucky and not have to make a claim.

Mr Incredible

If that clear coat separated because you overheated it, you may have overheated it in other areas. In that case, it could very well spread. If it's because of rock chips or something, it could be an isolated event.

fccs

iTrader: (26)

Why don't you for now just get clearcoat and paint a couple coats on the area to cover it, wetsand it, and buff so it's flush. It will come off again but it wouldn't look as bad as it does now until you get the whole thing painted.

01 ss vert

iTrader: (1)

The paint quality on these cars were not very good from the factory.

Case in point - I have another 2001 GM car...and Oldsmobile Aurora and the paint quality on that car is 3-10x better than on the camaro. I've never waxed the car in the 6.5 years I've owned it, and it still has more luster than my Camaro's clear. In addition, it has 68K MORE miles, and I park it outside vs. the camaro always being garaged.

That's the difference between a luxury car paint job (car was $37K new) vs the f-bodies in the same year.

As for your car, just take it to a body shop. Dealing with insurances is a pain, and if you have too many claims, they will drop you, raise your premiums, up your deductibles, or any combo of those 3.

I wish my camaro had my Aurora's paint job quality.

trigger man

I'm a newbie on here but not at the painting thing. I have been painting cars for a living for 32 years now. What you have is called delimitation which can be from several things. Given your make and model it's probably just breakdown of the clear due to sun damage/ age. Labor costs vary greatly from Region to region but a normal estimate should be roughly 2-3 hours to feather/ strip paint and 4 hours to refinish.our hourly rate in ky is about 45 hour so about 400-450 should cover the repair with materials. Also could be from a repainted panel that was not refinished properly...no way to tell without seeing it in person.