Dumb question about clear coating an older vehicle

[NiceGuyEddie]

188304

My 2010 Tacoma has a quarter of a million miles on it and it's almost perfect. The seats are clean, and even the engine bay looks like I drove out of the showroom a week ago. The clear coat on the hood however is no match for the LaLa Land sun. The truck is always garaged, but of course not at work. On the area of the hood above the hood scoop the finish is losing its luster.

So the question is could a body shop simply clear coat over the hood, and will they charge me a zillion dollars to do so?

[RBachman]

With just a half-million miles, a well cared for Tacoma is just getting it broken in. How's the roof? You may want to show a picture of the area in question to help the pro painters here give a more informed answer.

[mikeinatlanta]

No, not a good idea.

[Mastertech5]

The who!e panel should be refinished, sand, paint and new clear coat. Get an estimate at a few shops.

[Jeff Kleiner]

188304


So the question is could a body shop simply clear coat over the hood,...

No, It'll need base + clear.

Jeff

[Alan_C]

The amount of clear the factory uses is minimal which leads to the finish breakdown. Not to mention, silver on imports seems to be one of the colors that breaks down the most.
The hood likely has a number of rock chips or other minor damage which prep and a respray will take care of. Have the shop shoot a number of coats of a high quality clear coat which has a UV additive. DaBat liked the House of Kolor clear. In my research for the paint on my restomod, I found the HOK urethane show klear to be of high quality, economical, and included the UV component. I have not had my car painted yet, but I expect the HOK show klear will do a great job.

[NiceGuyEddie]

Thanks for the replies. There are no stone chips on the hood. The weird thing is the clearcoat is giving on the area above and around the hood scoop. The roof's clear coat is still good.

I tried, but I can't get any angle where the photo would show the area where the clear has given way.

[Alan_C]

Likely there were some thin spots in the OEM clear coat and they are breaking down first.
Unfortunately you are going to have to prep the hood and shoot new base before adding the clear coat. The variations in the surface you have now will be amplified by fresh clear.
A downside you may face is that if you have the hood redone, it will look so much better than the rest of the truck it will look out of place.
The truck runs an drives great, do you really need to make the hood perfect?

[DanQ]

I have done that with both cars and boats. My son had an older Honda Accord, that the clear coat had started to peel off on the hood and trunk lid, so I sanded it off (it was very dried out, so it sanded off easily) and just barely cut into the black paint. I bought a quart of DuPont Imron clear and shot it myself and the results were an improvement, it was no longer embarrassing parked in the driveway, but by no means a show car finish. This was his car in high school and college. I also had a fiberglass jet boat that had the gel coat "dried out" look, which I did the same process and that turned out absolutely brilliant. The metal flake looked like new again and lasted over five years until I sold it.

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[NiceGuyEddie]

I have discovered Krystal Diamond SiO2 Silver Ceramic Wax. It really adds more silver sparkle to the finish. It (allegedly) has UV protection, unlike traditional wax (allegedly). It helps the section of the hood where the clearcoat has failed look a little better and I'm just going to live with it. It was an expensive bottle at $70 but I will use it for the hood and trunk only.