Cheap paint job

Saturday we'd gotten some weather and my new to me Grand Marquis was covered with buds from a maple tree.  So I pulled the car around back to hose it off and this is the result.   Apparently the EPA pushed for less environmentally bad paint but the manufacturers struggled to make something actually stick.  I've owned more than 50 cars in my life but never just hosed the paint off before.

So how inexpensively can I make the car white again?  Perhaps slightly better than a couple cans of rustoleum but certainly not a concourse competitor.   Educate me please :)

Wow, just a regular garden nozzle? Wrap the roof, hood and trunk?

There was a period of time when the auto industry was switching over to water based paint when there were terrible problems with adhesion, my brother is a retired coatings engineer from Chrysler and I remember him talking about it.  I don't know if that applies to your car.

I wonder how well kitchen contact paper would hold up - it's white and it's cheap.  https://www.amazon.com/Toduso-Countertops-Removable-Waterproof-Decorative/dp/B08QD67J1X

In reply to stuart in mn :

Seen a few NA Miatas with that look. 

Chevy vans of a certain age do that as well.  To fix it properly you would at least have to take it down to primer and spray sealer on it.  Then re paint the whole panel.  My last work van had a hood that was half peeled, we just put peel and stick vinyl over it.  At least that made it one color.

Go down to the local tractor supply. Buy a gallon of paint and a gallon of reducer. Find some "japanese hardener".

Scuff the car with a random orbit sander. Don't even bother going past like 230. Don't bother with primer. Mask it with the paper from the grocery store flyers you toss out every day.

Do wash it down with a wax and grease remover. Some people prefer windex, not tried it. I do think this step is important, so I use proper bodywork wax and grease remover.

Mix that E36 M3 up and spray it with a $35 HF spray gun. 

Roll on rustoleum? Pretty sure there's a thread somewhere about DusterBD showing how it's done.

There's 7500 videos on YouTube to watch and 93,000 people arguing all day long on FB on technique. 

Just do what the guy 2 comments up just said.

I haven't seen a white car that doesn't happen to.  I'm pretty sure that white paint from any company doesn't adhere well.

I'll second the wrap idea.

wvumtnbkr said:

I haven't seen a white car that doesn't happen to.  I'm pretty sure that white paint from any company doesn't adhere well.

If it's like the NAs ("crystal white disease" it's called in the Miata world), it's not the paint, it's the primer.  It rots and then the paint comes off in sheets.

My last S10 (2003 vintage, if I remember correctly) did the exact same thing, but only on the hood.  Not the fenders, top, bed, or doors.  It (the hood) got the flat black rattle can treatment which - on an otherwise gold truck - didn't look great, but did look better than what I started with.