Expert: William Forster - 12/1/2007

Question
I have a 94 Blazer which is dark red with really bad dead paint.  If you rub your fingers across the paint you can pick up the dead paint.  Six months ago I cleaned all the dead paint by hand rubbing until the rags where clean, (took a million hours and a million rags) polished and then waxed.  It looked great for a couple of months then the dead paint started coming back.  I don't want to do this every 6 months.  Is there anything I could do or should I just have it painted?

Answer
Hello Tim! Your vehicle is suffering from a condition called chalking. The paint is actually undergoing a chemical change, it's irreversible, and goes all the way to the primer. The blazer just plain needs an overall paint job, followed by clearcoat. For some reason, red is the most susceptable paint color to this condition, and the only way to stop it is to cover the red paint with clear. This seals it in, and the sun beats up on the tough clear coat instead of the more easily damaged color coat. Bill