Fix for peeling clear coat on 10-year old-minivan?

My 98 Plymouth Voyager is starting to lose the clear coat finish in
places. My garage guy - who I trust - says that he knows no fix short
of a repainting. That's not gonna happen! Is there some kind of wax,
sealer, or other treatment I can use here to repair the damaged areas?

 

I also just read your problem with the headliner. Coincidentally, my
'03 Dakota has the same issues. Clear coat has bubbled and peeled away
on the roof and now the hood, and most of the headliner has come unglued
and is sagging.

There's no way I can afford a new paint job or a replacement headliner,
so the paint will stay as is, and I'm going to remove the headliner from
the shell and strip away as much glue/residue as possible.

They had to have skimped big time on the finish and the headliner glue.
Lesson learned.

 

The cheap way is to
continue to apply car wax. The UV protectants in car wax will work
just as well on the base paint as on the clear coat. Your goal here is to
keep the base color coat intact and continuing to provide rust protection
to the sheetmetal. Of course it will look like hell but who cares, right?

However, a much better way IMHO is to get a couple rattle-cans of
clearcoat spraypaint and mask the car and recoat the bad areas with more
clear
coat. Do several very light coats of clear and give it a half hour
between coats. Follow up with wet sanding with the finest grit sandpaper
and then polish. This is an easy Saturday afternoon project and if you
are careful the results will look excellent. There are many websites out
there that explain the process it is not difficult.

Ted

 

I'd just Rand-O-Strip it to metal, prime and reshoot.

 

Heh. I'm sure you would. However unless you have a computer color
matcher in your garage the results will look pretty bad - unless you do the
entire vehicle.

Ted