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How can I easily fix car paint clear coat?
We just bought a used car for my 16-year-old son, but the exterior looks a little dull. There aren’t any huge scratches or anything; there’s just been some aging. How do you easily fix car paint clear coat?
Bellina Gaskey · Updated on
Reviewed by Shannon Martin, Licensed Insurance Agent.
Congrats to your son for beginning his driving journey! The easiest way to fix car paint clear coat is to take the car to a paint shop, but you can also do some touching up yourself by wet sanding, spraying new clear coat, and buffing.
The paint shop will typically redo the entire car body, which is the more expensive (but easier) option. You’ll save money by touching up the clear coat yourself, but it won’t look as good. You also run the risk of scratching the car up a bit.
Even so, here’s what you need to do for a DIY touch-up:
- Wash the car with water and car soap
- Identify the areas that need to be touched up: peeling or flaking clear coat, fading clear coat, etc.
- Mark the areas with a border of painter’s tape.
- Get a few different grades of fine sandpaper: 1500 and 2000-grit (or higher). You’ll also need 1000-grit if there are big scratches or peeling areas.
- Use a degreaser to remove extra gunk from the car body.
- Wet the lowest grade of sandpaper and attach it to a sanding block. Wet sand the area vertically and horizontally (never in circles) until the peeling or faded areas start to dull. Don’t sand so much that you remove all the clear coat and expose the base paint underneath!
- Switch to the next highest grade of sandpaper and repeat the wet sanding process until the area looks a little better.
- End with the 2000-grit or higher grade sandpaper for a finer finish.
- Use a microfiber cloth wet with isopropyl alcohol to wash off any grains and debris.
- Apply a few light coats of clear coat spray paint, waiting at least five minutes between each coat.
- Remove the painter’s tape and let everything fully dry.
- Buff the touched-up areas with rubber compound and then a polisher of your choice. Use a dual polisher machine for best results, or do it by hand.
As you can see, there’s no super-easy way to fix your car’s clear coat—but there is an easy way to find a cheaper
car insurance
rate with Jerry
. A licensed end-to-end broker, Jerry can help you review your current insurance policy, browse competitive quotes from top providers, and make an easy switch—all without any long forms or spam calls. The average Jerry user saves $887 a year on car insurance payments!
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- Gregory R.
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Jerry partners with more than 50 insurance companies, but our content is independently researched, written, and fact-checked by our team of editors and agents. We aren’t paid for reviews or other content.
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