Paint problems?

Hi! I've got a white and silver '90 Trans Sport for my work van, that I'm wanting to get some custom decals made for. The body's in pretty good shape and would probably polish up just fine except for the hood. It has this mildew-looking stuff all over it, and everyone I've talked to so far is afraid that if they try to buff it out they'll go all the way through, and get into the primer below.

I was wondering if anyone here had any ideas how to take care of this? Maybe some trick to bleach it out, paint just the hood with the same paint code, find another white hood w/o the mildew, or just start buffing and hope for the best? As much as I want to start on the decals, I can't really justify the cost of repainting the whole vehicle if it can be humanly avoided. I'm also thinking "maybe" if I repaint just the hood, that a really cunning painter might be able to match it to the older paint.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

-Sarge

I would think you will have to repaint the hood.. GM had a lot of issues with the Paint process in the early to mid 90's... I'd have them match the paint and paint the hood...

I haver a 91 White Bonneville I want to paint and have found that the White paint WA8554 is $78 a gallon for the Dupont... Not too bad really.. My Medium Garnet Red Met is $178 a gallon..

The Transport I have is Dark Teal Metallic and I am afraid to ask how much that paint is:smile:

Have you tried a cleaner wax?

3m makes a very fine compound called Finesse II. It's used to buff out swirls from heavier compounds. You can use this stuff to fix minor imperfections.

It will be ALOT of elbow greese and rubbing but if you use this and like a white(READ: undyed) work rag, it'll probably take the milew stuff you are talking about off without damaging what's left of your paint.

Just my:2cents:

Good luck and let me know if I can help any more.

What type of filler do you use to repair damage in the plastic?
Do you use ordinary spraypaint?
What type of seal on top?
Carwax or boatwax?

Regards
//Stocken

For minot dings and low spots use a 2 part body putty, NOT the laquer based spot putty. For smallish low spots, even a high solids primer will do, again, use 2 part primers. Single stage ones are usally again laquer based, and will attack the plastic.
I had to repaint the hood on my 95 a year ago due to severe orange peeling of the paint, and I went with the original base coat/clear coat, however, it is much more expensive and difficult to work with, and is not forgiving at all to mistakes in the prep of the hood itself. many people use enamel to repaint due to it's lower cost and more forgiving nauure in hiding blemishes, but that will be up to you. Find a body shop or paint retailer that can use a special camera to custom mix the paint to the exact shade of the rest of the body to a repainted body panel won't be so noticeable as one mixed to original paint code. car wax seems to work fine
Jeff