Paint Job is cracking and falling off!!!

==================== This appears to be another "trade-off" situation, which will be little consolation to your son, although possibly a valuable learning experence.

The custom paint jobs seen on show vehicles correspond to the velvet tuxedos worn on prom nights. They look nice, but are not suitable for everyday wear. Show vehicles are driven very little, and even then the paint jobs still crack and must be redone every few years. Indeed, some are known to crack and spall if exposed to extreme temperatures and must be kept in temperature-controlled environments.

In general, the harder/shinier the paint, the more brittle the paint and the more prone to cracking. I would assume that a 3K$ paint job was plenty shiny and most likely a metallic or pearl which are also know to be prone to cracking. It may even have had several applications of clear coat, which is also known to promote cracking if it is too thick especially on body panels that flex, such as the hood and bed.

Of course, there could always be an application/mix error, but unless the paint is failing on the entire vehicle including the doors and body this is doubtful.

What type/brand of paint was used? Epoxy? Polyurethane? Brand? You might try contacting the paint manufacturer direct about the problem.

Some sites (among many) you and your son might review are:

see:

Unka George (George McDuffee)

...and at the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased, and the epitaph drear: ?A Fool lies here, who tried to hustle the East.?

Rudyard Kipling The Naulahka, ch. 5, heading (1892).

"Poxing" is due to contamination of the base (someone squirted some WD40 a block away); cracking/pealing is due to:

1. Too hot a mix; the paint layers are brittle and lack flexibility.

1. Poor adhesi> Need some expert advice. My son had a 3 thousand dollar paint job put

I had this happen with a brand new Ford Explorer. A guy saw it and said - I bet you bought this car from XXX (and he named the dealer). I was dumbfounded. "How did you know?" I asked. This dealer had a reputation for re-painting cars that were damaged during shipping, and not "curing" the paint the right way. I think they have to use heat lamps and "bake" the paint on.

Dude- What is all this trivial pursuit philosophy about?

it doesn't matter what kind of paint was used, if the paint is "falling off" the surface wasn't prepared properly or the wrong undercoating was used. even off-roading the paint might get scratched up but it shouldn't crack and fall off.

Have either of you read the warranty? I presume that since he spent $3k on the "paint job" that some sort of warranty was included.

On 5 Aug 2006 09:27:43 -0700, with neither quill nor qualm, "litlbitnva" quickly quoth:

I drive a 1990 F-150 and it has peeling paint. Ford repainted half of it because they acknowledged a faulty primer job. How they determined that only the horizontal surfaces were faulty is interesting. The dealer method for determination was a piece of masking tape. If the paint peeled, they'd repaint it free. At the time, the going rate for a complete paint job was $400. They asked for $800 to do a complete job including FORD's half. I let them paint the top half and let them know what I thought of their attempted extortion.

If there was a problem, the painter should have stripped to bare metal (as Ford did for half of my truck), primed it well, and then repainted it.

BTW, your kid is a sucker. $3k for a paint job? Har!

P.S: Bells peal, paint peels.