My '90 Dodge had shiny paint up until I went six weeks without washing it, when I washed the dirt off a couple days ago it took all of the shine off the horizontal surfaces. Now the hood and roof look like somebody scrubbed them with sand. There gos the "dust is a protective layer" theory.


Here's the deal... I still have the original crap early 90's Dodge primer that lets the paint fall off. The truck has a $500 paint job over the original primer that was put on 3 years ago and another cheap paint job that the insurance company put on after an accident 2 years ago.

The second cheap coat of paint is peeling off around all the seams; door jambs, bed, bed rails and rain gutters. The first cheap coat of paint underneath looks better, but has places where a rock hits it or it gets a little pit and then a quarter-sized flake flies off leaving primer underneath, which then rusts.



Here's the question... Would it be a bad idea to get a vinyl wrap applied over the crap paint?

It's a first gen Dodge, it couldn't be too difficult a vehicle to apply a vinyl wrap over... After I take all of the vinyl off, the only tricky parts I can see would be the louvers under the windshield, the tailgate and the rain gutters around the cab. Everything else is square and flat.

Does rust grow under vinyl wrap? The only rust on my truck is a little bit of surface rust where the paint has flaked off and on the edges of the doors. Provided I grind off the little rusty spots that exists on it now, can the vinyl be applied on bare metal or do I have to paint those spots?

Is a vinyl layer a death sentence for sheet metal? Rust doesn't grow underneath it does it?

Is a peeling coat of paint or bad primer a death sentence for the vinyl? I would hope it'd put enough surface tension and protection over the existing finish to keep it all in place and preserve it for a few years until maybe (yeah right...) I have time and money to put a real coat of primer and paint on it. But if it'd be a waste of time I'd like to know before the vinyl starts bubbling or peeling or whatever.



Or would it be the best bang for the buck to just get another $500 paint job put on it?

 

on my one ton 96 Dodge i was quote $2500 to go one solid color, nothing fancy, no graffix etc.

this was the "deal" price because i belong to an association that that guy is in.

i promptly told him i could paint it about 3 times for that amount of money.

so if you want something that is better than paint then a wrap might be the thing. i just don't see paying more than the truck is worth in a vinyl wrap....

 

i know a custom 3/4 vinyl wrap is around 3 grand up here, that means it only covers about 3/4's of the vehicles surface so if it were me i'd get another cheap paint job, or just say screw it and wait til you have enough money to do it the right way

 

I keep hearing the price being high... Three or so years ago I was quoted $600 plus the vinyl, and I could get the vinyl for free; now I keep hearing $2000+. If I couldn't get it done for $1000 after I have the truck stripped down to bare paint it wouldn't be worth considering.

 

honestly I don't know what kind of vinyl you're talking about, like is it going to have the begle bird on it or is it going to be solid, etc, but i know custom vinyl isn't cheap

 

Sounds to me like you washed the truck with some kind of soap that was citrus based(many dish soaps and Turtle Wax Car wash are loaded with citrus bases that strip wax off).If all you did was wash it and it looks like crap,wash it again,dry it off good and re-apply a good coat of your favorite wax.

The next time you wash it use a good car wash soap(Mother's Gold is about the best and easiest on freshly waxed trucks).

 

I HATE body work or paint work or exterior cosmetic/ detailing work of any kind. I'd seriously just as soon pay $400 for a dirt-cheap coat of paint rather than wax anything...

I tried rubbing on some of that New Finnish stuff, I must need some Old Danish or something else because it didn't work at all...

I could try a real wax. I've never waxed anything though. I'd rather stab my eyes out with a hammer.




Would it do more harm than good if I were to strategically sand down to metal just the parts where the paint tends to flake off the worse? Usually the bad primer is most evident on the edges of the roof and fenders, on the verticals right before they become horizontals... Because I could walk around the belt line and roof with an air sander and sand it all down to metal. That sounds like the kind of body work I could do. Shouldn't take more than 10 minutes or so, right? What grit paper should I use?

 

there's this stuff called race glaze, you wash the surface let surface dry a little then wipe this stuff on and you can use one of those cheap little buffing units from wal-mart to take it off. It keeps bugs from sticking to your finish for a while. thats the easiest way i know