Question re: touch up car painting from someone completely clueless about subject...
 

Posted over in the paint/body work forum with views but no comments. The paint on the roof of my Carrera is dying. Color is still there and will wax out OK but clear coaat is gone. Just curious...can I clean and shoot clear coat on it as a temporary stop gap? I'm planning on a windows out respray in the spring after finishing up the mechanicals/suspension over the winter. Just trying to preserve it a bit until then.

Provided you can get the proper type of clear and all the old is gone.... But then it will look like a patch and be shinier than the rest... If you are spraying come spring I would just live with it...


Red car right?

yup

Jim, I'll talk to my dad at lunch and get you a better answer... He's trained in all of this...

I'm pretty sure my guards (India) red '87 doesn't have clear coat.

you may be correct...told you I was ignorant on the subject.:confused:

That may actually make it easier. Take it to a detailer and see if they can remove some paint (using compound or polish) without getting down to the metal.

I don't think they used clear coat at manufacture. Could be clear after a respray after the fact. The Guards patina can be buffed out by someone that knows what they are doing, easy to burn through if to aggressive.

What the others said. No clear coat on Guards Red. Get the paint buffed out.

If you are going to do a complete repaint in the spring, there's no need to do anything to "preserve" the paint right now (from your post it seems safe to assume your paint is not worn down to metal, rusting away).

Your car has been that way for a long time, a few more months isn't going to hurt it, and it seems like a waste of money to do any kind of partial repainting on it at this point.