Hey guys,

My panda 2ga is suffering from some major clear coat failure on the black roof but the white paint is just fine. Has anyone had just their roof repainted without doing the entire car? I'm wondering how much of a cost savings this would be compared to doing the entire vehicle. There's a few threads on this subject on tuners but no solid numbers and no advice from someone that has actually gone through with it.

If it were my car, and that paint scheme, I would sand it down and Tremclad it. You can get some seriously good results with some skill.

I'll post pics of my JDM front clip I did on my 2000 Acura Integra GSR.

If it were your car it wouldn't matter if you sanded it down and smeared dog poop all over the roof...cause no one will ever see it on jackstands in your garage

Seriously though, you can get good results with spray paint but it probably wouldn't cost much to (properly) paint the roof at all, especially if there's no sunroof. Unscrew the drip rails, pull up the windshield trim and tape/mask everything else...it's the easiest panel on the car to paint.

My roof paint isfaded aswell I was gonna just flat black plastidip the roof and the spoiler. And prolly do the rims aswell. Leaving the body gloss black.

I've tried my hand at spray paint over the years and can never seem to get good results, the amount of work to do the whole roof wouldn't be worth it if I can get it professionally done for $300-400, I don't know if that price is reasonable. I do have a sunroof but I would pull it out along with all the trim and bring it to the shop like that.

Thats the thing with spray paint tho... Quality is in the eye of the beholder! Some might think a paint job is really good, where others might see the flaws. Thats why im going plastidip. 1... It self evens out so its alot easier to use.. And 2 If I dont like it... I can peel it off and start again.

Mind you, Im not really picky on the paint, so my standards will be lower then most!

spray paint Your car is to mint for that crap. I will shoot you a text with price for factory like finish.

It requires technique and experience no doubt.

I can get a nearly oem finish with rattle can.

And like most things, your finished product is very dependent on the preparation.

I'll track down those pics.

I think the key to rattle can is to get the fancy stuff with hardner in it. If you get tremclad like I did then you will get a result like mine.

As for technique, just lots of light coats.

Tremclad is garbage and never fully hardens. It's also an alkyd based paint which is not UV stable and will fade relatively quickly. We used to paint farm machinery with it for quick sales but in 2 years it looks like complete sh!t. Seriously, unless it's a winter beater or you just plain don't care, DON'T.

You can buy a liter of good quality automotive paint for under $100 with hardener and a $30 HVLP gun and will look great for years. It's a flat surface mostly, so spraying it is cake even for a beginner.

The new water based auto paints are almost fool proof.

If you want to be even cheaper, go to a body shop, they always have leftover paint, I'm sure you can get some and hardener and possibly clear coat for next to nothing, guy would rather have a few bills in his pocket than a partial can sitting on the shelf.

I would just take it to Deep for
like i did with my front bumper.

Sounds like I'll be taking it to Deep, he offered me a good price for the roof, hatch, and spoiler. My eventual goal is to have this car looking like it did when it rolled out of the factory so this is really the only way to go.