Got a non-chevelle question about paint. I have a 1990 Dodge truck. The paint on this thing is literally falling off. I've heard different opions about why this is happening. My father-in-law has the same year truck and his paint was falling off. My questions are:

What is causing this?

How do I prep for repair? I belive the body is galvanized. Thanks in advance.

Neons also have this problem, falls off in big sheets. Just more info.

Paint formulas were being modified in that area to reduce the amount/type of emissions created from the paint process. All manufacturers had some problems, worse with certain colors. Had a 90 Suburban, it was developing the same problem before I sold it. Had the problem shown up sooner Chevy would have repainted it. I saw them completely stripping cars and repainting them and few years earlier. That's the why. Can't help you with prep part but I'm sure others will.

Maybe a "real" paint pro can chime in too, but as I recall, GM across the board in the 80's had serious paint issues with checking, fading and peeling. Maybe it spanned a greater timeframe than that, but I know quite a few GM cars had some pretty big problems.

Amazingly, F*rd and Chrysler didn't seem to have as many issues at that time. Was it a formula change away from lead perhaps?

Sorry, just had to chime in...
Now back to Dana's Q !

Worked in a Chevy dealer for 3 years, did 2 a week the whole time I was there!!! I was told it was a problem with a new sealer they were using which got to hard not allowing the paint to adhere properly?? A lot of the cars seemed to have very little paint on them also.
They sell a product called PEELER in a spray can that will strip the old paint (messy)
You can get a tool that holds a single edge razor blade and scrape it off ( takes some know how to not gouge metal)
I used 80 grit on a air grinder (7") then followed with 80 grit on a DA then 180 on a DA. Sprayed 2 good coats of sealer a light scuff and paint.
Most cars peeled just on the top surfaces, stripped as far as first bodyline down the sides. This is a big messy job!!!! Mike

Mike, it was my understanding that the cars didn't have enough paint on them, they were thinking the clear would protect it. Well, the clear was thin as well and the UV rays got thru and broke down the primer. If you looked on the peeling paint, there was always a little primer on the back, that was proof the primer had failed.

As far as repaint, I would seriously think about finding a place that did all those GM repaints a few years ago and looking them up. The dealer that did them all around here has a nice plastic media blaster set up and only charges about $400.00 to strip it. You just can't beat that with a stick.

Ya for $400 I'd take it also!!!!Of course that is about what I made painting them graemlins/angry.gif We were told the sealer also had to come off, sounds to me they weren't positive what caused it???
Just seems odd that all of the big three had this problem.Guess that's why they have all those high paid EXPERTS!! Mike

Thanks for the info.