2004 Monte Carlo SS, superior blue metallic. 122k miles. Been garaged at home and in a parking garage the last six years.

There's a couple questions here, so apologies.

Did our 04's come with a base and a clear or did they just come with a lacquer? I've done some research on the difference and I'm a little unclear. It seems people use the terms interchangeably.

Anyway, whichever we have, on my hood I'm getting really bad "cracking," so to speak. It's only on my hood, not on any other part of the car, everything else still looks great after a nice clay and wax the other day. The cracking irritates me so on the way home from work I stop by a body shop I trust. Their paint guy comes out to look at it and in no uncertain terms tells me there's no way my hood looks like this from a factory paint job. Maybe something from the late 80's early 90's would do this, but not my 04 Monte. I tell him I've had this car since it had 20 miles on it and it's never been out of my possession. The body shop says it's not uncommon for a car to be damaged in transit and then be repaired and he all but guarantees my hood had been repainted (my local service guy at the Chevy dealership also told me it's possible it was damaged in transit....I don't think he was supposed to admit this because he dummied up after saying it).

Do you guys have any experience with this? I'm guessing I have no remedy for this even if it's true?

They're pulling together a quote for me but said it needs to go down to parent material and get a full repaint. All said and done they think it will be around $900. Is this a good price?

I'm looking for alternate opinions from people on the forum about possible causes here? I know people will say it's because it sits out in the sun but I can't stress how good every other part of the car looks....this just seems highly implausible.

Thanks for any help.

 

Apologies but my BlackBerry doesn't have the greatest camera. There are spots with a lot higher concentration, and these are all over the hood.

 

$900 seems like a bit much. I have been talking to a body shop lately about repairing some rust on my fender wells and having them re-painted and to have the rust cut out and have a new metal welded in and then re formed and then repainted would run me around $500. Of course supplies and things may cost more where you live which would cause it to be a little more expensive. But I still think $900 sounds a little high.

 

Ok a little secret the Deuce had repaired body damage from the carrier that took it from the factory to Detroit.
The tie down chain was hitting the roof and left dent and scratches.
The Detroit dealer did a cheap quick fix
My dealer got this car from the cheap Detroit dealer

How this came about:

I had custom work done at my fav auto body place Mason auto body
They noticed the clear coat cracking in the roof

A search at the dealer I got the car from reveled the work order from the crappy dealer to fix the Deuce.

Mason Auto body was given authorization to repair my Deuce correctly
I was given 2 years of free maintenance from GM

 

I don't do body repair for a living, but I have never seen clearcoat crack in short, straight lines. It has always been a random, spider web type of crack. Those marks (to me) look more like an animal (or an unscrupulous individual) scratched it. They look fairly deep, but have you tried any paint correction to remove them?

 

those lines definitely don't look like cracks in the clear coat, but could just be the picture creating that illusion. In my area for a shop to repaint a body panel the approx cost is $400 per panel, whether it is a fender, door, trunk lid etc, etc. So the $900 sounds a tad high. I am not a body mechanic but I do know what has worked for me in the past when doing any kind of body work. With small scratches on the finish, the first approach is a rubbing compound to try and buff them out, secondly would be a wet sanding, using a fine sand paper with water and essentially buffing the finish (this can be a bad choice if done incorrectly, I am certain you can see the potential for disaster when using sand paper on your paint, but it is an effective method and when done correctly has great results, but again contact a professional or do lots of research before trying on your car, maybe get a panel from the junkyard first) a body shop may offer you this as a cheaper alternative, no harm in asking.
and worst case there is always those pens they sell at your local auto store, you can see them on late night advertising actually I have used one and had great results with it, not like seen on tv but it covered the scratch in the clear coat and then I buffed and waxed the car and it can't be seen anymore, but I know it doesn't work that effectively on deep scratches, basically the little surface scratches that the wax builds up in causing the white lines.

 

First: These cars are base coat/clear coat (not sure when GM officially switched over to that).

Second: It's tough to say if the cost of body work is high or not. You need to be able to judge the quality of the work. The cheapest cost can sometimes be the worst work. Plus it depends on what that shop feels needs done to make it right.

Third: Be careful with that blue (it's the same blue I have) and the body shop that works on it. A body guy that I used to feel was top notch (did the spoiler and some repair on my Monte) did nice work but had a pain with the color matching each time he worked on the car. Due to issues the 2nd time he had my car, I don't plan to send a car to this guy again.

 

I stopped by my local hot rod shop on the way home and their guy quoted me $500, that sounds a bit better. He'll also take one or two shallow dents out of the fender and fix a couple rock chips on the fender.

Regarding the lines, there is also the traditional "crows foot" spider style marks on the hood. It's really hard to get a good picture. They don't seem to be actual scratches, you can't feel anything.

I've tried a rubbing compound before and it did nothing, it's like it's under the surface. The hot rod painter guy said he's seen it before, and said it is down in the paint. He traditionally sees it in repaints, not factory work, which seems to confirm my initial thoughts and what happened to the Deuce. I know the original Chevy it came from, but they've since been sold. I've got a call in to figure out history, but I am talking about nine years, it might be a stretch.

Good point on the blue Maniac, I'll make sure I ask around a bit to figure out who gives me good confidence about matching.

 

See that alot on black GM vehicles usually on the hood roof and trunk, never seen it on another color but it happens on factory paint aswell as repaints, $400-$500 is the price range for a good hood repaint

 

I noticed some of that on my fender, from what I have read Honda's are real prone to crows feet