Paint hood or replace hood?

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Mazda, Protege5
The paint on my hood is peeling badly and shows metal underneath. I think the heat from the engine is accelerating the process. I previously had to remove the fiberglass insulation underneath because a Brooklyn rat kept chewing it for a nest and leaving bits of it all around the engine. Anyone have economical solutions? Wrap? Plastidip? ...or bite the bullet and strip/repaint?

A new primed hood is $270 on ebay...

Pics are linked below:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1--Ma4HTxTF2RhVEog6mH2_j7zmdYD97X
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-ImUzTMEXtdp2TD892AY9uA1h4_oubqC
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-4kK73fE-mZIpwqfAMNjOkZ40_w1ujrP
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-JIqLGmzpouWMIiQPehyBqDEWPkJT5sb
 
Just sand and paint it yourself. I've had to do it in the past. Easiest way is to use spray paint.
This picture is of a Honda hatch I painted black.
 

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Ultimately, in decent condition it's around a $2000 car if everything works and not all rusted out. I personally could not justify spending several hundred dollars to repaint a hood.

what I would do...

Get a couple cans of aerosol klean-strip. it's an aerosol furniture stripper and works very, very well. I use it to strip golf cart bodies down to bare plastic so I can prep and repaint them correctly. It takes several layers of spray paint off in one application. Automotive grade professional paint it can take 2 applications, but does work very well to take it off. It's easy to use (it's aerosol!) and not expensive (around $7/can).

Remove the hood and put it on saw horses. Spray it down with a good thick coat, in the shade. it'll pretty much instantly start doing its snap-crackle-pop thing. Wait 20 minutes and blast it off with a pressure washer. Lather, rinse, repeat. IT should take it down to bare metal pretty quickly. You may have to sand some to get it 100% off but shouldn't have to sand much. A DA or orbital sander and some 300 grit will make quick work of it. Then spray it with a decent primer. It's a steel hood so you really shouldn't have much, if any, body work to do or scratches/holes to fill . I would lay down a couple good layers of primer. let it sit overnight so it is good and cured. Then lay down several LIGHT coats of spray paint, about 15 minutes between coats. don't worry about it being "blotchy" just keep applying coats until it's nice and even. It will probably take about 10-12 coats but that's okay. Just don't get carried away and spray it too thick, that's when you get runs. If you get a run it's not a big deal, but you'll have to wait 24-48 hours for it to COMPLETELY cure. Then sand the run down with some 800 grit and touch up the paint before you can continue. It's better to do a LOT of light coats and not have runs. Once it is completely even, blotchiness and all is gone and you're happy with how it looks, I like to let it set up for a day to cure. it may still be a little soft (you can dig into it with your fingernail) but that's okay. Once it's cured for a day you can lay down clear coat. Again, lots of light coats is the way to go but if you get a run in the clear coat it's not the end of the world, it's much easier to sand and fix. Just keep going and try not to add to the runs.

Once you get about 8-10 light layers of clear coat on, you should be good. I let it cure for 24-48 hours until it's completely hard and cured. You should not be able to dig into it with a fingernail. Then you can wet sand the entire hood with 800 grit, then 1000 grit, then 1500 grit, then 2000 grit. Then buff it real good with a polishing compound and use a good quality wax to seal it all up. You'll have a perfect mirror finish just like it came out of a body shop.

You'll never be able to tell that it was a home made spray paint job. It will probably take a total of about 3-4 days start to finish, but you'll only be out around $30 for primer, paint, clear coat, and some sand paper. I restore a lot of golf carts and each one of them always gets a paint job. I have done both rattle can and HVLP with automotive grade paint; and when it's all said and done if you set one of my HVLP jobs right next to a rattle can job, you can't tell the difference... you'd never be able to tell which one was rattle can and which I used the automotive stuff and HVLP gun on. I usually just use the HVLP setup when I'm going with either a flip or pearl job where you have to mix the pearl in with the clear coat.


You can get the foil insulation stuff at Lowe's and re-line the underside of your hood. it's not expensive and not too terribly difficult to install.
 
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