painting

It's what I used when I painted mine 2 or maybe 3 years ago. So far so good.

 

Like woreout said. You got to break that surface to get new paint something to adhere too.

 

You are going to have to at the very least remove all of the clear coat. And most likely all of the base as well. Just scuffing the surface of what you have left will work for a little bit but whatever you put on it will lift eventually. As the clear has already started the process of it won't stop. Even if you use a primer sealer. As the exposed base coat has been degraded and most likely become porous those spot will be dull. The parts that still have clear will debond with the original basecoat and lift off everything above the clear. Best and fastest way if aircraft stripper to take I'd down to metal and if you are real good down to fiberglass (not recommended though) that's a da sander and a lot of discs. The rivets you can use the stripper and then a red Scotch brute to scuff. When clear coat debonds from the base coat it is a pain there is no way to go over the top and does require a complete strip prep seal and paint. The debonding is a chemical reaction from incompatible materials when it was applied, usually solvents and hardeners.

 

A buddy of mine owns an auto body shop and he had a special primer meant for hard to sand places, like door jambs. It's really thin, he sands the best he can, then uses scotch brite, then sprays this primer on that eats into the paint a little to bite, then he used regular primer over it. I want to say it's called self-etching primer, but I'm not sure that's the right name for it. I remember it smelling like a Sharpie marker. When he painted my Camaro he used it all over, door jambs, firewall, inside the trunk, etc. That was over 15 years ago and it's still fine.

 

Some of the new products are really amazing. I paint all of our own trucks. I use an epoxy primer in cases like yours. I have had zero problems with it. I spray Urethane single stage paints on all of our trucks. The shine holds very well. It is a lot less work than base /clear, and makes for fast repairs if the drivers damage anything on the truck.

Lots of great sites if you google some of the auto body forums. Taught me a lot, including that stripping to bare metal is no longer a must. Your local paint store can help you a lot also. Just remember spraying is not as easy as it looks. Took me about 4 or 5 times to get proficient at it. First few times I was afraid to spray heavy, so I got tons of orange peel. Once I learned the gun, and spray patterns etc, kind of fun. Here is a pic of a truck that had the front left hood smashed and cracked and bumper on the passenger side . I resprayed the whole hood with a single stage urethane. The new Urethane's are very tough, not quite as tough as Imron, but way safer to spray. Make sure you wear a good respirator, and a hooded suit. I use a full face respirator as your eyes and ears can absorb the gases. I had to spray this out side because it is too tall for our shop door. Here is what single stage looks like, with epoxy primer under for bare ares.

 

Not sure what you mean by tear offs ?