Expert: Gary - 12/17/2009

Question
Hi Gary I just had a quick question.  Earlier today I was buffing a rear quarter panel on a 2002 S430 with a co-worker but it looks as if we ended up going through the clear coat slightly.  There appear to be two cloudy areas where it was burned through.  The problem is that this body panel is the largest one on the car and it would be extremely costly to repaint or clear coat it again.  Is it possible to fix this issue without doing the whole thing?

Answer
Hi Aleks,

In my opinion, No, there is no possible way to repair it correctly without the damage coming back to rear it's ugly head. Unfortunately, the whole panel needs to be refinished to avoid the clear-coat from peeling in the future.

Now, with that said, you can spray and blend a couple of coats of base over the damaged area and clear just a bit larger area than the base and blend the clear-coat in as well. PPG makes a product called Blendease (DX840 or SXA840) that will allow you to melt the clear-coat edge in and make it look great. The problem is, like I stated above, that clear edge will peel in the future. How long it will last is anybody's guess. If the vehicle is garage kept and cared for well it may last as long as 5 years. One thing is for sure, it will peel eventually if repaired this way.