Why is my paint fading?

Park it indoors, or get a car cover?

 

You should see my '08 silver car from Florida The hood paint is literally chipping off from being in the sun The interiors in great shape and the windows were kept tinted I got leather seats in that bad boy that don't have any damage on them either side etc so on and so forth I'm not repainting that car and it's really worthy of it but I just don't do that painting is out. There is no ROI on painting other than you just enjoy that sort of thing or you get some kind of pride thing out of having a perfect paint job that you have to wax and keep up yeah cool But that was pretty regular of outdoor cars of this genre Corollas and all that will happen to some people think it's poor paint no it's It's a wash and wear like thing you know like laundry it's just washed and driven maybe not washed very often pressure washed and knock the crap off of it and then left outside It's an everyday runner you know Not a garage queen. Depending upon the state it can be really hard to keep up with trying to keep it in the shade but not in the tree sap and all that sort of thing.

 

You could take that to a good body shop and have that car buffed on by an old guy that knows what he's doing and actually make it look quite decent without going through a whole lot of hullabaloo seriously You need somebody who's about 55 years old at the body shop just hand him the car and say do what you can I've got $300 or something and tell him to call you when he has time whatever you'll be shocked at what you get back.

 

Yeah and in the body business there's millions of them around You look on craigslist or in the back of advertisements of various and sundry type magazines talk to some people you know at regular shops and you will find somebody who's over 50 does this kind of work did this kind of work does some on the weekend whatever and you just get it to him and say hey man this is what I got when you want it so on and so forth should go pretty smooth before you know it and we'll have your car back looking very reasonable won't be perfect by any stretch of the imagination but it won't look like what you got you'd be surprised I got a old ugly gold car here that I drive is my service vehicle I should have something done with it but it's driven through the bushes and taken out on trails and goes up beside barns all kinds of nonsense during the day so seems kind of pointless.

 

It has clear coat and that is what has failed. The best protection is a garage followed by a carport. A good behavior is to avoid cheap automatic car washes with rollers which eventually scrub off the clear coat leaving a dull base coat.

Once clear coat has failed buffing has limited to no benefit. Old school paint jobs before clear coat could be “rubbed out”. Scratches in the clear coat can sometimes be buffed out.

 

If the damage is really limited to just the hood then have the hood repainted by a reputable paint shop. If you can bring it to them off the car it shouldn't be too expensive. Probably even less if you strip the paint off it first.

Alternatively, since that is a really common paint color, pick up a good one at the local junkyard. The local LKQ sells hoods for around $100, which will certainly be less than what the paint job will cost. The trick in a pick a part lot is finding a Prius which doesn't have front end damage, because most of them in there do.

 

This is the perfect answer. I owned a very high end detail shop in Silicon Valley and have more experience than most, and yes I am way over 50. It cannot be fixed, once the clear coat fails and separates it is a repaint. The base coat underneath the clear coat when buffed can be a bigger mess. I was sent multiple products that supposedly would fix the failing clear coat and they did nothing.

 

Why did it fail?
From the photo, it appears to me that it is possible that 1/2 of the hood was repaired at one time (notice the almost straight lines at the edges of the failure).
Bad prep, too thick of paint, too much heat/ UV rays, too much engine heat (is there a hood pad?), and low-quality paint products; would be my answers for the failure.

Yep, to repair, strip all the paint and primer off the entire hood, back to bare metal. Reprime, spray color, spray clear, polish.
I personally would not blend the paint to the fenders, keep the paintwork only to the hood.
Not knowing your area labor rates I'd estimate 5 hours and $200 in materials.
On a budget? FWIW sand the surface by hand or power tool to the primer, taking care not to overheat the metal so you avoid metal warping, and "rattle can" the hood flat black . Or find a silver used hood.

PS I see in the photos your bumper is damaged, from a collision IMO, and your headlight lens are clouded. So those are other issues to consider as you decide on your hood repair course of action.

Your case "sucks" yet it is a common issue with many cars, good luck.

 

This is starting to bug me, lol. You'll ask to see birth certificates? There's some old guys that are not that on-the-ball...

 

can be true but if you ask the right questions and all that usually You can get it sorted out and narrowed down pretty quickly The young guys out and about right now they won't lots and lots and lots of money and many don't have a lot of work ethic I didn't say all but you know it can be problematic your car can be locked up in somebody's garage and tied up for days and weeks just all of a sudden.