Clear Coat failing

[Cowboy0001]

Greetings everyone! These days are really crazy and Kate and I hope and pray this covid and vaccine are not an issue to you and your family. We have a 2000 Affinity 42" coach and would like to hear anyone who is experiencing the issue with the clear coat peeling off. We are new to this RV and I do want to protect the coach from the weather. What are the options to stopping the failure of the clear coat, can anyone help with good advice?

[Ljwt330]

Originally Posted by Cowboy0001

Greetings everyone! These days are really crazy and Kate and I hope and pray this covid and vaccine are not an issue to you and your family. We have a 2000 Affinity 42" coach and would like to hear anyone who is experiencing the issue with the clear coat peeling off. We are new to this RV and I do want to protect the coach from the weather. What are the options to stopping the failure of the clear coat, can anyone help with good advice?

Let me begin by saying that what you are experiencing is very typical of a coach that is of your age, and even newer. My 2004 has the same condition in certain areas. Coaches that have been kept covered over the years, fare much better, but that is not always possible. You will find the clear coat breakdown is usually on the parts of the coach that are always exposed to the sun and are difficult to keep clean and waxed, like the roof radius and end caps along the top.


Once the clear has failed, the best you can do is try and slow the spread, but that can be tedious. Wet sand any loose/bubbling clear coat and keep the area around the margins of the peel smooth and well waxed. Keep the paint as clean as possible. Keep the coach out of the sun as much as possible.


There is no long-term repair for failed clear coat. The area must be sanded down, a new color coat applied along with a new clear coat. The clear coat is designed to bond while the color coat has not yet fully cured. You can have a pro shoot only clear over your old color coat, and it will look good for a while, but it will not last like the OEM did.


It comes down to how bad the clear looks now, if you wish to slow down the inevitable by cleaning and waxing, of if you wish to invest in long-term repair of certain sections of the coach.

[stonegully]

I have a 2000 Intrigue and have fought this losing battle for 5 years. I store mine outdoors in Arizona and have gone in five years to where about 80% of the clearcoat is now gone.

I’ve talked to a lot of people including paint shops and have determined the following. It can’t be stopped as the previous response said. The option of painting it was $15-$20,000. One mobile painter told me he could clearcoat it and guarantee it for the life that I own it but I’ve been told by more than one person that would not work

The option of driving it over the border to Rocky point Mexico is about $3500 a few years ago. I would do that but I don’t know how long it would last though I have heard they look fantastic immediately after.

An interesting option a paint and body shop showed me was to buff it out with an orbital sander and wax it. He did about 2ft.² in a matter of about 1 minute and it looked like new. That is the route that I am going to go. By the way my year might be different from yours as it was never painted only clearcoated so the results could be different also.

[Cowboy0001]

Thank you for that info. I had an estimate from a detail person to wash and wax our coach and they said it would be around $500.00. I thought that was high since some of the local truck stops will wash the coach for around $100.00. I washed the roof and replaced the four vent covers and the roof looked so good I had to wash the rest of the coach. Lol. I saw a lot of large slices of coating coming off and in my yard now. I guess I need to reconsider that detail person's estimate just to get the wax on the sides. Don't know if that will help since almost half of the coach has lost the clear coating already. Any pearls of wisdom?

[amosnandy]

As everyone has said. The only true way to fix this is a sand and repaint. Or you can just do the spots that really bother you. I had my 2006 Winnebago in for some service work and asked the body shop that does all their paint work for an estimate to do just the roof coves, which had no clear coat left.

Blew me away. $700 and he didn’t even need to look at it. Does hundreds of them a year.

I am now at the point of debating how long I will keep this coac. May have some touch up done on the front caps. Blending it will never be perfect but will look much better.

And yes, having been in the body shop/industry $15,000is the going rate. I have seen the Rocky Point paint jobs and they look really good. Can’t tell you how well they stand up.

And lastly, clear coat issues are not limited to RVs. Look at the rust free cars and pickups in Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico. Void of any clear coat after 10 years.

[tpisi]

Just got 2 quotes to repaint & clear coat my roof radius and tops of front and rear radius for $2,500 & $3,200.

[Ljwt330]

Originally Posted by Cowboy0001

Thank you for that info. I had an estimate from a detail person to wash and wax our coach and they said it would be around $500.00. I thought that was high since some of the local truck stops will wash the coach for around $100.00. I washed the roof and replaced the four vent covers and the roof looked so good I had to wash the rest of the coach. Lol. I saw a lot of large slices of coating coming off and in my yard now. I guess I need to reconsider that detail person's estimate just to get the wax on the sides. Don't know if that will help since almost half of the coach has lost the clear coating already. Any pearls of wisdom?

I wouldn't consider this a "pearl of wisdom," but your description of large slices of clear coat coming off is, to me, the deciding factor in that something needs to be done.


Waxing will only supply a short term cosmetic remedy by making the exposed color coat appear shiny and with the same depth of color as the clear coated portion. The waxing process will have to be repeated within a short while, depending on the exposure of the coach to the elements. At even $100 a shot, that will add up fairly quickly unless you learn to DIY and then follow up yourself.


Now may be the time to think about how long you intend to keep this coach. A CC Affinity is a quality coach and even one over 20 years old will have a solid residual value. However, any major investment in any coach of that age should be considered a "sunken cost" which you should not expect to get fully get back by an increased value at sale, whenever that may come. On the other hand, that coach with a largely compromised clear coat will naturally be negotiated downward at time of sale.


The point of the above is that whatever you decide to do, do it for yourself. It will cost you money that will not come back. If this is a coach you intend to keep for another 10 years, investing in a professional repaint will be costly but still less than you'd pay for a newer, replacement coach ten years from now. If you only see yourself using this coach for a couple more years, then waxing may work for you. If, you're somewhere in between, considering a professional clear coat reshoot/blending may be the best solution. It will not last, as discussed previously, but it will look good, is more durable than waxing, and will likely still be intact at the time you wish to sell, should that come to pass.

[stonegully]

My paint and body guy thought wax would hold up for about a year. Can anybody confirm that? I am in Arizona so is he.

I think doing it myself once a year is a better option for me then a $20,000 paint job. Especially that we store it outdoors. At this point we have no plans of selling and what have you on for five years and can see may be only another five.

Can anybody report how well their are paint job in Mexico held up.

[dons2346]

Wax will not hold up for a year. The only way to solve the problem is to remove all the clear coat which at this point isn't hard. Then repaint and then clear coat.


The Rock Point point jobs, if you do the whole coach, should be considered a 20ft job meaning it looks good from 20 feet away. Small jobs they are great but not an entire coach.

[Griffin379]

stonegully, I am interested in the buff and coat that the body shop gave you. Where is the body shop located ? My Magna was not painted aii over , just the stripes were and the balance is just fiberglass gelcoat. I have been offered only a single stage paint option for just the unpainted areas or a full body paint.
I have seen videos of some products saying that they will shine the gelcoat but never has a paint shop said that.

My clearcoat has not failed over all of the coach yet just about 25%. I had the back cap repainted 2 years ago in South Texas for $1200 and it is in good shape.

[Mark_K5LXP]

There are lots of reasons a 20 year old RV is worth 10% of what it cost new. Shot paint is on that list. I live in New Mexico, I bought an RV that has spent it's life outside in New Mexico, and it looks like it. So from my perspective I have an authentic New Mexico RV. I will never get a compliment on how nice it looks and I can pretty much forego the idea of spending time in "10 years or newer" RV resort. It also cost half the price of a pickup that can tow a 5th wheel so the cosmetic tradeoff was easily justified. Maybe I'll replace the sun scorched decals, maybe not. Sometimes "it is what it is" works out OK.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

[stonegully]

Griffin

I’m not quite sure I understand your question. The body shop friend only looked at it but did not want to do the work. He demonstrated with his orbital buffer how it would work. My feeling is it’s worth giving it a try myself.

My hope is that once the work is done, I can redo a couple times a year, probably not once a year as he said, I can keep it looking pretty good. At the same time I agree with Mark from New Mexico, so what, it’s a 20 year old coach from Arizona.

[deandec]

Originally Posted by Griffin379

stonegully, I am interested in the buff and coat that the body shop gave you. Where is the body shop located ? My Magna was not painted aii over , just the stripes were and the balance is just fiberglass gelcoat. I have been offered only a single stage paint option for just the unpainted areas or a full body paint.
I have seen videos of some products saying that they will shine the gelcoat but never has a paint shop said that.

My clearcoat has not failed over all of the coach yet just about 25%. I had the back cap repainted 2 years ago in South Texas for $1200 and it is in good shape.

This is a picture I took in about 2013 with old clear coated paint, Zep Wax on Gel Coat, and Clear Coat on Gel coat, and Gel Coat with Clear Coat stripped off.

[Griffin379]

Deandec, did you do the clear coat on gelcoat yourself? I understand the Zep on gelcoat as I have done that. The clear over gelcoat looks as good as zep.