Xantia tailgate paint

MW · Post by MW » 16 Aug 2005, 14:53

My Xant (metallic blue) has gone down with the dreaded paint crackle problem on the tailgate, as referred to in this thread:
http://www.andyspares.com/discussionfor ... t,tailgate
It's been threatening to happen for some time now, but two weeks in the Mediterranean seem to have finished it off. It looks pretty unsightly now, all grey and crackled along the horizontal lip where the water collects. (Now what bozo thought of using a water-soluble paint for a wet location like that?) It doesn't bug me particularly, except that the rest of the car is immaculate.
So, I've got a can of Citroen spray paint and I'm ready to go. Do I need to rub the crackled surface right down to the plastic? Any special primers? And will the cellulose paint stick to the water-based stuff OK?
Any other tips?

Post by **Peter.N.** » 16 Aug 2005, 18:51

Water based paint is only water based when its applied, when it dries it changes composition, otherwise in this country we would all be driving round in primer! All you need to apply the paint is a perfectly flat surface, rub it down firstly with about 100 grit wet & dry, then perhaps 400, finishing with 1000.

JohnT · Post by **JohnT** » 16 Aug 2005, 19:25

The paint is very specialised as it is used on mica surfaces only. The infill to cover the scratches is specific to that mica surface. The preparation is very different from other applications. You must use a specific undercoat for the top coat.(ie Black undercoat for the dark red metallic) I suggest this is not a DIY job as I have seen the results from those attempts. This is a common problem with Xantia 'plastic' tail gates. If you do have it done professionally expect to pay around £175. I am fairly handy at painting so I tried doing one, the job was a pain in the rectum and the end finish was not as good as I had hoped for.

Post by **Peter.N.** » 17 Aug 2005, 15:26

I bow to your superior knowledge John, I'm going back a few years! I resprayed a Morris Oxford estate in metalic light blue and after about a year it all started falling off, I thought it was my bad preperation so I did it again, carefully, again it came off, I then resprayed it with light blue Hammerite in thin coats so it had a straight metalic finish and after five years it was still OK except that all the gloss had gone.

MW · Post by MW » 17 Aug 2005, 16:09

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Peter.N.

I resprayed it with light blue Hammerite in thin coats so it had a straight metalic finish and after five years it was still OK except that all the gloss had gone.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
And five years after that, I bet the metal had gone but the Hammerite was still intact!
Ah, happy days, when the ads in Exchange & Mart used to show a cartoon strip suggesting that you could fool your neighbours into thinking you'd got a new car, when all actually you'd done was hand-paint your jalopy with Hammerite. [8D]
Mind you, Hammerite always did a great job on my motor bikes. Great stuff. I still use it all the time. And the non-metallic finishes are great as well.
Hmmm, I'm starting to wonder whether I'm really up for all this work with the boot lid. It's only a smallish area - about the size of my shoe - and I wonder whether I wouldn't be better off just using one of those blue-tinted waxes from Halfords instead. Anybody tried them?

Post by **Peter.N.** » 17 Aug 2005, 19:09

You must be nearly as old as me Mike! I think I would be inclined to just rub it down and try a can of spray paint, it cant look any worse, can it?

Garysz · Post by **Garysz** » 01 Sep 2005, 18:00

I had some damage from a hit and run accident done last year with a professional resprayer. Asked them to spray over the cracked paint. They refused - they said that they had had several goes at Xantia lids and no matter what they did they could not get a good finish and the problem returned very quickly so it was a waste of money. So I live with it.

Ross_K · Post by **Ross_K** » 01 Sep 2005, 19:27

Yep, I'm having the same problem with the replacement for my demolished ZX tailgate. It seems to be impossible to get a decent finish with a respray, so I'm resigned to finding an exact matching tailgate in a breakers yard...

MW · Post by MW » 01 Sep 2005, 22:58

Okay, it's confession time. I wimped out of the job and bought a bottle of dark blue polish from Halfrauds! (My car is metallic blue.) Slapped the polish on thickly, buffed it off, and the discolouration is practically all gone. The only way you'd know the problem had ever been there would be because it doesn't shine as well as paint.
It'll do me!

DoubleChevron · Post by **DoubleChevron** » 02 Sep 2005, 07:03

Hi Guys,
just about every Xantia in Australia has done that on the bootlid. I just had mine resprayed at the local panel shop and it came up perfectly.
If you local panelshop can't paint plastic they are obviously very shoddy, and I wouldn't use them. How do they manage all those plastic bumpers, grills, mirrors..... etc... on modern cars ???
Once the hatch has been resprayed out here the problem goes away. It's not the plastic that is the problem, it was the way Citroen must have applied the paint originally (though it does make it to the warranty has run out, so that should be all that matters to them).
seeya,
Shane L.

alan s · Post by **alan s** » 02 Sep 2005, 08:53

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by MW

Okay, it's confession time. I wimped out of the job and bought a bottle of dark blue polish from Halfrauds! (My car is metallic blue.) Slapped the polish on thickly, buffed it off, and the discolouration is practically all gone. The only way you'd know the problem had ever been there would be because it doesn't shine as well as paint.
It'll do me!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
and woe betide the guy who ever tries to get paint to stick to it!![:0][V]
Alan S [;)]

DoubleChevron · Post by **DoubleChevron** » 02 Sep 2005, 13:15

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by MW

Okay, it's confession time. I wimped out of the job and bought a bottle of dark blue polish from Halfrauds! (My car is metallic blue.) Slapped the polish on thickly, buffed it off, and the discolouration is practically all gone. The only way you'd know the problem had ever been there would be because it doesn't shine as well as paint.
It'll do me!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Unfortunatly it will not last long .... Once they start to go out here, within 6months the whole hatch is a crazed mess... You might get double that given the ... er... "lack of sun" over there [:D]
seeya,
Shane L.

MW · Post by MW » 02 Sep 2005, 13:53

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">woe betide the guy who ever tries to get paint to stick to it!!<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Well, if anyone was daft enough to try painting over polish they'd get what they deserved. If it gets bad enough I'll take it down to the (heavily crazed) plastic and start again with the full paint procedure. But I'm only expecting to get another couple of years out of my 95 Xant, and right now it doesn't bug me badly enough to make me want to spend a whole morning on it. Sometimes we just have to make these judgements. [:p]