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Why is the paint on my 200k+ silver 240 so bad?

CoconutLeah

CoconutLeah

tseb eht er'uoY
Joined
Feb 1, 2008
Location
Philadelphia
...and what can I do to make it look better until I can repaint? Looks like there is hardly any clear coat left and the silver met has deep scratches all over like it was brillo'd :( doesn't look like it can be buffed out lol

(1990 240 btw.)

I see so many shiny 80s 240s on here, is it something with that year, or is it my mileage? Car is from LI NY but has spent probably almost half it's life here in southeast PA.

2011-05-11083614.jpg
 
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1980s quality soft, flaky clear coat that didn't work.

I could scratch the clear coat off with a fingernail on my gray '90. Part of the reason I sold it and bought a white one. The top surfaces were rough and nothing but a respray could fix that.
 
wet sand. 2000 in one direction then 2500 in the other direction. then polish the paint. just make sure the area is clean and you soak the sand paper for at least 30 min before you start.

edit: if the area you are sanding is milky dont worry that is just the clear coat. if you start to see color in the water you need to slow down as you are in the paint. if you find you are i the paint right away i would switch to a 2500 then 3000 grit. make sure you pick a direction for each grit and stick with it.
 
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Yeah, the clear coat turned all flaky and crappy looking in the late 90s on my family's old '82 244 sedan. My dad tried to buff it out but it just ended up looking reeeeeeally weird. That smudgy spot is still on the hood to this day! (My uncle has the car now.)
 
polishing this paint w/o clear coat on it will be like trying to polish lead. good luck with that.
 
My 84 looks exactly the same in the places where it hasn't been resprayed or the clear hasn't completely flaked off.
 
Car washes maybe? Search the internet for 'Rustoleum, painting a car with'.

PS I own the '90 Towery mentions. It looks really bad which just enhances its down-at-the-heels, not worth a second glance looks thus stealth as am now +t'ing it :oogle:
 
weslee said:
wet sand. 2000 in one direction then 2500 in the other direction. then polish the paint. just make sure the area is clean and you soak the sand paper for at least 30 min before you start.

edit: if the area you are sanding is milky dont worry that is just the clear coat. if you start to see color in the water you need to slow down as you are in the paint. if you find you are i the paint right away i would switch to a 2500 then 3000 grit. make sure you pick a direction for each grit and stick with it.
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There is nothing that can be done to bring that paint job back to life. That clear coat has crazed. Those "scratches" are cracks that run all the way through the clear down to the base coat.

To the OP. Silvers are notorious for this issue. Not just Volvo paint. GM, Ford, Mopar, BMW, you name it. They all had problems with crazing on high metallic paint jobs.
 
it was explained to me that the clear coat and the paint for silver and other metallic type paints suffer more due to getting a double exposure of UV rays....1st the rays go thru the clear coat before hitting the car, then due to the silver, the rays "bounce" right off and go thru the clear coat again instead of being absorbed
 
Mueller said:
it was explained to me that the clear coat and the paint for silver and other metallic type paints suffer more due to getting a double exposure of UV rays....1st the rays go thru the clear coat before hitting the car, then due to the silver, the rays "bounce" right off and go thru the clear coat again instead of being absorbed
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I have heard the same. That's why I said high metallic paints have these problems. The silver colors being the worst. They are basically a mirror with clear coat over them.
 
2manyturbos said:
There is nothing that can be done to bring that paint job back to life. That clear coat has crazed. Those "scratches" are cracks that run all the way through the clear down to the base coat.

To the OP. Silvers are notorious for this issue. Not just Volvo paint. GM, Ford, Mopar, BMW, you name it. They all had problems with crazing on high metallic paint jobs.
Click to expand...

it's not what I wanted to hear, but it is what I expected. :-(
 
2manyturbos said:
There is nothing that can be done to bring that paint job back to life. That clear coat has crazed. Those "scratches" are cracks that run all the way through the clear down to the base coat.

To the OP. Silvers are notorious for this issue. Not just Volvo paint. GM, Ford, Mopar, BMW, you name it. They all had problems with crazing on high metallic paint jobs.
Click to expand...

YUP! This! I was going to say the same thing. Silver cars are prone to this for some reason, kind of like how red cars are prone to oxidizing, and white car's paint seems prone to peel/fall off.
 
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