I have sun damage on my Chevy Cavalier. Lots of rough patches all over the car, but now the roof has gotten worse, with an orange hue to the patches, like it’s rusting. Will a regular paint job be sufficient to correct this or will the car need some kind of additional work before a paint job? Thanks
Have A Professional (Or Two Or Three) Evaluate The Damage And Recommend A Solution And Estimate. Most Good Body / Collision Shops Will Do This Gratis.
CSA
If the car is really showing signs of rust, then you will need to take off the paint on the entire car, strip the rust, prime it, and repaint it. For every bit of rust that you can see, there is far more that you can’t readily see.
Depending on the model year of your car, this process may not be economically practical. How old is the car?
It’s a 2003, with about 104,000 miles. I’m not ready to get rid of it, as it’s not given me any problems since I bought it in 2008. Any idea on what the strip/prime/repaint might cost?
" Any idea on what the strip/prime/repaint might cost? "
That’s where getting the 2 or 3 estimates makes sense. These costs can vary by locale, process, and even car color. It can’t be estimated online. It will likely be in hudreds of dollars.
Depending on the condition of the rest of the car, one could possibly consider a cheapo all-over paint job by a cheapo national chain type car painting facility, but I’m not recommending this approach because I can’t see your car.
CSA
I had a 1993 Caprice repainted by Maaco about 6 or 7 years ago. The paint job cost ~$450 on sale. The hood, trunk, and roof paint had to be stripped off and reprimered due to sun damage. Between that job and a few dents the total cost was around $1100-1200. I did as much prep work as possible, removing emblems, grill, etc. The paint job has held up reasonably well, but requires more attention (waxing) than an OEM paint job.
Ed