Clear Coat/ Paint

[NEARLY]

The Clear Coat On My 95 E420 Has Cracked. Can This Be Replaced Without Damaging The Paint Or Repainting The Car???

[Roger St.Pierre]

Yes,
Any quality body/paint shop will sand off your original clear coat and respray. It will not require any painting unless there are other issues with the paint itself. Fairly simple, easy job for a good body shop and not all that expensive either.
Roger

[D.L. SWINFORD]

NEARLY;
It's so sad to hear of your clearcoat cracking on you '95 E420.
Are you the originak owner?
Has the machine being subjected to exteme atmoshereic or temperatures?
Have you inquires of MB ?
My '85 300DT with grey/silver metallic clearcoat looks as new with the highest of reflectivity and brillance.
I've always used body clay and Mequires 26 for protection.
Read further in this FORUM for additional care techniques.
I'm so Sorry for you.
Happy Trauls Beep Beep from The Spiderman on The Gulf Coast, Don :p :p :p

Until Then JOY

Your Moderater
Chairman of The Board
'85 300DT 288K miles(DONKAII,original CHARACTER,CHARACTER)
'87 300E 2xxK miles (DONKAI, pute out to pasture)

[NEARLY]

DL, the car has been in Houston since new and I'm the third owner. I can't believe MB would do anything to help. Thanks for being sorry. :), Norm

[Allen]

I have a 94 E420, the clear coat went to heck on mine 2 years ago and my neighbors 95 e420 clear coat went to heck over the last year. It's simply something that happens over time and is common on many other vehicles in that age range due to the type of clear cote used. Solution, get it repainted. I did and am happy to have done such.

[NEARLY]

Thanks Allen, as usual the best way to fix most problems is to do it right.

[marlinspike]

How much of the clearcoat has cracked? I was talking to the guy at the body shop where my car is being repaired and he said if you are readoing the clear coat you might as well paint it too since you don't save on any blending (though this may be different on a newish car than on a 20 year old car) since the new clearcoat will make the paint look deeper.

[tiggerfink]

We repaint our house every 5 to 10 years. We should repaint our cars too.

[marlinspike]

We repaint our house every 5 to 10 years. We should repaint our cars too.

Nah. With a house, every paint job is as good as the first one. To make that true with a car, you have to take the whole thing apart, strip it down to the bare metal, and paint it again. For one thing I don't know how good it is to be taking a car apart needlessly, and for another thing nobody would be willing to spend $15k every 5-10 years repaintnig their car, so if people did do it that often they would just go a cheap route.

[tiggerfink]

I would paint every 10 to 15 years. It is about $5,000. I know several people would do that.

[marlinspike]

I would paint every 10 to 15 years. It is about $5,000. I know several people would do that.

You can get a bare metal repaint for $5k? Let me know where cause I'm going to be looking to get it done in a few years.