clear coat maintainance/repair

[rstrrnr]

Just bought a 2002 concourse and joined. Interior is a 9 or 10 and everything works but the exterior has a lot of issues. cracks and areas that the clearcoat is peeling or has peeled. clearcoat has bubbled up in one area and I removed the bubble down to the edge but the edge has moved back about a 1/4 inch. Any ideas on how to stop this? Thanks for any comments.

[Blue~Go]

Hi and welcome!

On the clear coat (Concourses are painted stripes with clear coat; Premiers are vinyl stickers), the only "proper" way to fix it is a complete re-paint of the stripes. That said, a number of members here have vastly improved their peeling clearcoat by doing it themselves and carefully feathering the edges then applying DIY clearcoat from a spray can.

[Chinnin-about]

Here's what I did. Bring your Chinook to a paint store with a scanner, and let them scan the color. Then they can put the color in a rattle can for you. Then buy some clear coat in a rattle can. Then have fun!

[Blue~Go]

Nice job!

But speaking of color, if you have one of the "known" colors then you can also buy that color directly. Chinook tended to use available colors (from a specific vehicle - like say 1985 Chevrolet truck Delphin Blue)(I just made that color up as an example).

The color codes for a given rig were on paper stickers on the driver's door jamb. But they tend to have a short life. Some of us had ones that were still legible, and we have a thread going that lists them all (search on something like "color code" here). We have most of the common colors for the mid-90's onward-ish listed there.

[Chinnin-about]

The reason I used the scanned color, which was scary accurate, was I wanted a match to the aged color of the bottom stripe, which was not redone. My fear was that the original color would be a few shades brighter than the aged color and would stand out.

So, I recommend the scanned color. It was a scaringly perfect match.

[rstrrnr]

Thanks all for the info. Don't want to go into anything major, Chinn-abouts project looks great but again looks like a lot of work. Besides, the weather here is freezing so will have to wait for spring. Will try Blue-gos suggestion though. Thanks again all.

[Blue~Go]

Just to be clear, I have not done any clearcoat repair. When mine fails I don't know whether I will try to touch it up myself or have it re-painted professionally. However, others here have done the DIY touch up with the consumer-available clear coat spray (it's been shown in some threads).

[Chinnin-about]

This is the "before" picture. This picture was taken before any buffing or waxing treatment of the cab, or the fiberglass as well. I also had to repaint the hood and the top portion of the two fenders. The hood was in pretty bad shape (corner rusted out not in picture), yet blended perfectly with the rest of the cab.

[deppstein]

Greetings All...
I am looking for some advice on doing the repair of a scratch to the passenger side of my 2004 Premier--took the corner into the driveway just a hair too sharp and nicked it on the stone wall...cosmetic only, no need for glass repair. The scratch is on the lower panel of the grey "Millennial Swoop." The color code door tags are no longer readable, so I went to an automotive paint supplier to use their scanner tool to try to match the color. The color match came back as 1.2 (which, I am told is in the "only you will notice the difference" category--which is good enough for me). So, I purchased a spray can of grey base coat, a spray can of the grey color match, and a can of clear coat. I then proceeded to prep the scratch area (I have some experience with fiberglass boat repair from past life), and apply the gel coat, which is curing for a day as we speak. My plan was to then wet sand things down, tape off the area and spray--undercoat, color, then clear coat. But now I am wondering if I really need to clear coat??? Maybe just finish off with a good buff and wax using my usual Mcguire's wax. What do people recommend? Any and all help graciously accepted.
Thanks,
David

[Chinnin-about]

But now I am wondering if I really need to clear coat??

I did the clear coat. I used the aerosol cans just like the paint I used an aerosol can. Pretty impressive for a rattle can?