Peeling paint prep
 

Well, I've got to go ahead and bite the bullet and paint my 95 Suburban. Paint on roof, hood and tops of front fenders look like the mange, chipping off everywhere. Paint from backdoors to rearend look great. I know this is one heck of a problem for this year model. Seeing how as I want to paint it myself, I need some advice on the best way to prep. I know that it apparently is a primer issue. Do it I have to completely strip the vehicle or can I sand all the loose stuff off, scuff the rest and then apply a good epoxy primer. I'm sort of lost on this. Any help would certainly be appreciated.

Thanks,

1968Chevy Prerunner

Re: Peeling paint prep
 

That will work fine you dont really need to get it all the way down to metal but tear into the primer well so the new primer grabs well, also ask the guys in the paint forum

Re: Peeling paint prep
 

So what happened with these era GM vehicles? Did GM not prep right before paint? I have to wonder- I have a brand new cab in factory primer... the same color primer that seems to show itself after some age is on the vehicle.

Re: Peeling paint prep
 

I had my '81 El Camino painted in '90. The shop was doing a buncha recall paint jobs on GM vehicles. Seems that it involve several colors, but not all. I remember a silvery-blue, white, a dark greyish silver being the ones at the time. Story was (if I can remember) that there was an issue with the type of paint....like when there was a change in the VOC content. I reserve the right to be wrong, so anyone with the low-down on this please chime in.

However, as they prepared a vehicle for paint, they were using single-edge razor blades to scrape the paint off of the primer. I thought it was weird, but that's what they did.

Peeling paint and quality issues
 

We have problems with our 1994 K1500 Silverado truck too. The paint is all original (no accidents requiring new paint) but some top coat lacquer is just flaking off, most of the truck is covered in white specks (never saw such a bad case), and some colors faded so bad that in some lighting conditions you would think a cheap respray was done on some of the panels!

Really shameless quality control and for not doing a recall on this IMO. It seems like Hyundai and Kia use better paint and we bought this vehicle new (it was NOT a cheap truck at the time)!

Re: Peeling paint prep
 

Yeah what bothers me so badly is the fact that the paint seemed fine until last year. I noticed some small flakes above the windshield, then within a month the paint was coming off in sheets. It looks terrible. The scary part is if I put all the effort and expense into painting it I want to make darn sure that I have it prepped right so that I don't have it happen again. My suburban is white.

Thanks,

1968chevyprerunner

Re: Peeling paint prep
 

95, white, peeling paint, 94 white, peeling paint and our old company trucks, gmc sierra's from 95 to 96., all white and peeling paint. NICE HUH

Re: Peeling paint prep
 

The last time I did peeling paint, we took it all off with razor blades. Believe it or not, the dang stuff came off easier than I thought it would. There is NO getting around the fact that the paint has to go, or you will live the problem over and over. Whether you sand it off or peel it, it will be to your advantage to do it all.

Re: Peeling paint prep
 

Do you mean all the paint needs to come off? Down to the primer???

Re: Peeling paint prep
 

Think about it this way: The paint is peeling because there is something NOT right under it. Whether it be the metal has something in it, or the primer has something bad in it. If you are going to spend serious dollars for a new paint job, then do it right the first time and not be sorry later. I took my 84 GMC to bare metal and started from scratch.


Just a word to be wise.

Re: Peeling paint prep
 

On my '86 swb the clear is coming off real bad. It looks horrible.
I took it to a car wash and while rinsing it I noticed the pressure washer would take the flaking clear off pretty nicely. So I decided that would be a smart thing to do; blast it to get the bubbling/flaking clear off.
Unfortuneatly in a few spots it blasted the paint of in 6" diameter pieces.:o

So in this situation does it need to come down to the primer/metal? What I mean is if its only the clear coming off do I need to get to the primer or will sanding until the clear is gone be enough?

BTW, I found a nine page journal of the original owner trying to get GM to repaint the truck. The paint peeled in less than a year! (1986) They said it was because he lived in the mountains and didn't clean the snow off as often as he should have. LESS THAN ONE YEAR OLD!
After trying a few different dealers he finally got them to repaint it in 1993 but they would only pay half. And (according to him) they agreed to repaint the entire truck including replacing all the chrome trim but when they gave it back to him SIX WEEKS later (said it would be ~10 days) they had only repainted the top of the body and refused to even look at the bed.
He wrote that he had an estimate from an independant shop to do what they agreed to do for a little more than the "half" he agreed to pay. He went to the dealer because he thought they would do a better job. He felt different after finally getting his truck back?

Re: Peeling paint prep
 

When I bought my dark blue '88 a few years ago it was peeling. GM had put out a service bulletin to dealers long ago on this truck telling them to repaint free, but only those made in the Louisiana plant--- mine was made in Indiana. I guess if your truck wasn't made in Louisiana, it wasn't really peeling, lol. GM told the dealers that no "primer" was used, that there was a different type undercoat used. I don't remember what it was called. I had a cheap paint job done just to get rid of the peel, and the shop charged me an extra $300 IIRC for all the sanding.

As far as I'm concerned though, this problem occurred in many years and models going way back. I've always thought GM had a paint problem. I bought a new white '72 Buick, and within a two years it was peeling. The dealer said tough sh-t.

Re: Peeling paint prep
 

This is going to take a little time, first of all, there is no way that you can properly sand JUST the clear off. You will undoubtedly get into the basecoat and that will require a repaint of the color base. NOW; with that said, you can look at your adhesion capabilities of your basecoat and decide if the body is providing a good surface or not. Odds are the clear is giving up due to something that did not react properly with it and the base color. This one may only require a sanding and prepping the same as any other vehicle that just needs a repaint. Again, you also need to decide if you want to do the job once and not ever again, this will tell you how far to go in the prep. MAACO is not your friend, here. You need to use quality stuff, if you plan on keeping the truck for a long time.

In the past years the manufacturers made many approaches to controlling the NASTY rust that we saw in the mid Seventies. They tried a zinc coating on the metal, they tried different types of metal and then they tried paints of all kinds. Every one of the ideas crashed badly and created the problems that you are dealing with now. I went to bare metal in 1996 on my GMC SWB and it is still on there with some updates to add the flames at a later date. Quality paint, quality body prep, and time is what you need.

Stay away from a body shop that wants to do it for next to nothing--they are using the lower quality paints---Maybe you should do it yourself, getting input from others that do the work. I had a personal hand in all of my body work and paint.

As for the paint coming off, due to setting out in the cold and the snow is not removed---I have only one word and it is BULL. They did this so that they wouyld not have to turn a claim into the corporation for work done in warranty---they would loose money on that.


All of the companies had problems with paint, some worse than others.

Re: Peeling paint prep
 

Oh yeah....check out Chrysler products from the late 80's well into the '90's.