Clearcoat or No Clearcoat

[Nick3]

Greetings.

I'm interested in buying a late 1991 Malibu Gold (Sunburst Yellow) NA, with original paint, and thought I had found a possible candidate.

The present owner states the car has several areas of bubbling clearcoat, which I'm led to believe would require a complete respray to rectify - very expensive.

On the main American Miata site, it states that, with the exception of metallic colours, their NA's, and early NB's, did not have a clearcoat over the base colour.

Does anyone know the situation with Oz-market MX5's, in regards to having, or not having, a clearcoat ?

Does the car I'm interested in having a clearcoat mean that it could be its original paint, or has it been resprayed already, and had a clearcoat applied, which is now failing ?

Any advice will be gratefully received.

[hks_kansei]

my GFs NA6 (red) has no clearcoat and never did.

In saying that, a lot of panel shops these days use clearcoat, so bubbling clear indicates a potential respray.

I;d just look at it in person, if there's clear, probs a respray, so look hard for signs of a smash.

[bruce]

Yup, resprayed. That's OK for a 24 yr old car.

[93_Clubman]

Nick, yeah, no clearcoat on the ADM NA6 Malibu.

The present owner states the car has several areas of bubbling clearcoat...

Do you think their advice quoted above is sound? In other words, did they diagnose it, or did someone else, & how qualified was whoever that diagnosed it?
Another possibility might be that it had a clearcoat applied later - not sure of the feasibility of that, but perhaps the repercussions are eventual bubbling?
How much of the car's history have you been able to ascertain - perhaps if you could find out more that might help answer some questions.

[bruce]

Plus the history of the yellow, being that the original paint gave poor coverage (see-thru) and that they had to run it through the spray booth twice at the factory. Don't know if modern paints (with the clearcoat) rectify that problem.
It could be original metal, just the factory paint gave up the ghost and needed respraying.

[93_Clubman]

Tks for reminding me Bruce - meant to add above that the NA6 white paint was very prone to peeling, & the NA6 silver had issues too, from memory that was a peeling/bubbling clearcoat & possibily subsequent peeling silver paint.

[Nick3]

Hmmmmmmm ....... Thank you all for your input.

Anyone else have any thoughts, or examples, of clearcoats on non-metallic painted NA's ?

Is the only remedy a respray of the affected panels, and possibly the whole car ?

[hks_kansei]

Anyone else have any thoughts, or examples, of clearcoats on non-metallic painted NA's ?

there's plenty out there with clearcoats, the cars are 25 years old now, so there's been plenty of time for the original paint to have gone crappy and need to be repainted, and plenty of time for previous owners to have had it done.



As for what to do once the clearcoat has started to peel, usually it's a matter of having to repaint the panel affected.
I have heard of some new product that supposedly can fix it without a repaint, but I can't really remember much detail about it sorry.

[Mr Morlock]

if a clear coat were peeling and unsightly it would need to be rubbed down and recoated. However its probable that more colour coat would need to be applied before adding clear coat. Provided paints are rubbed down and not in very poor condition they can be recoated by a paint that does not react to the base coat or primer etc i.e. no need to go to the metal.Check with a local painter or a proper paint shop i.e. one who supplies paints to the pros for a rough estimate of cost and an understanding of options. Some guys have said about $500 per panel for a pro job? Whether you need a clear coat is another thing- ask the paint guys.

[taminga16]

93_Clubman, bruce..... These blokes would know!
Greg.

[aka_juffa]

You finally found a Malibu.....

As for the clear coating....neither of my 2 had clear coating. I wouldn't expect the factory to treat Aussie delivered Malibus any differently to the US delivered Sunbursts from a paint point of view.

I did arrange for my 2nd Malibu to be given a full exterior repainted after a nasty front end accident, mainly because I was getting a few things touched up at the same time and it made sense to do the whole car.

As the others have said, you can't expect a 24 year old car to be in perfect condition.


J

[renovo]

Easy test. Try a little ordinary car polish on it. If no clear coat, it should shine up and there should be colour on the cloth.

[Nick3]

Once again, Thank You to all who have taken the time to respond to my queries.

I obviously didn't expect to find a 24 year-old car with immaculate, original paint.

I intend to keep my eventual Malibu long-term, so I was hoping for original paint, whatever its condition, to ensure that the car hadn't been accident-damaged, and then bodged-up.

The car I checked had different shades of clearcoat, most peeling heavily, on almost every panel.

So, in addition to having non-standard clearcoat, it has obviously had at least two different applications, which raises my suspicions about likely accident damage repair.

I'm still considering this car, but also still looking for a better example.

Regards.

[93_Clubman]

Hold out for one that meets your requirements - maybe even offer your Clubman as a swap for one that meets your requirements.