Is there a first generation Neon without peeling paint? I haven’t found one yet, and So Cal Metro, who posted this at the Cohort, shows that it’s not just a case of the Oregon rains washing the Neon’s soluble paint away. The Southern California sun is equally effective, it would appear, if not even more so.
It seems to mostly only happen to the white ones. My 99 still has all it’s original paint on it.
Though this pictured one appears to have succumb more to fading than peeling, I remember these non-metallic purple ones being terrible about peeling too. The only one I still ever see in town looks about like the pictured white one, with 50% paint coverage.
PS- Nice 1st gen! Those were such good cars for the time, getting rarer every day… And is that an intercooler I see?
hi do you know where I can find this one I really need one I can make payments asap from new years till itès paid maybe I can find a loan for it
Candice
Peeling paint and broken badges really makes a vehicle look cheap and nasty.
How many rotting gold Chevrolet bowtie badges have you seen?
What does it say about a brand when its badges rot away on their vehicles?
My uncle’s Trailblazer is doing that. I’m thinking about getting him some ’80s Caprice fleur-de-lis emblems to replace them with.
Living in Michigan I’ve seen some pretty sorry municipal cars (stop into inner city Detroit sometime and enjoy their lovely selection of rusting, clapped-out police cruisers)…. but that is the absolute saddest, most non-intimidating “enforcement” vehicle I have ever laid eyes upon. I kinda like it.
The mismatched wheels are the icing on the cake.
If nothing else, nobody can accuse them of wasting taxpayer resources.
+1 for mismatched wheelcovers, at least it’s not plain black steelies!
Or it could tell another entirely story. How deep Los Angeles is in the red. But then again, I have seen brand new Toyota Priuses too. My first memory of LA Parking vehicles were the old Jeeps that the Postal Service used to drive with right hand drive.
I’ve never seen a Neon parking enforcement car but have seen those new Priuses. The most popular model in my neck of the woods is the old Civic HEV 4-door. The paint on those looks brand new.
There seems to have been a major problem with white paint on Mopar and GM cars in the ’90s to early Oughts. I know the switch to water-based paint was the culprit, but I see far fewer Fords of that era with peeling white paint.
Automatic Car Washing brushes wreak havoc on paint JP and company and municipal cars get cleaned that way and are often white so the odds of a white one being destroyed quickly is not a surprise
Very early Miata’s had the same issue with white only. I was kind of surprised to see that Dave Skinner’s did not have the issue when he wrote it up recently.
It experienced a Denver hail storm back in the mid-nineties, and recieved a new hood, trunk lid, and paint. I’m not sure all the panels got a new coat of paint, but it what’s there remains firmly stuck down.
I know the switch to water-based paint was the culprit,
It wasn’t just white. My Aunt’s blue 94 Plymouth minivan was starting to peel in the rain gutters by 2009.
The big three all blamed government environmental regs for the paint problems, but I never saw a Honda Accord peeling like that, and Accords, being built in Ohio, were subject to the same enviro regs.
The white paint on 1957 and 1958 Plymouths was like that too.
That’s what I call peeling.A common sight on silver UK Fords of the 60s and 70s.When I was a bus driver I used to see a silver 68 Plymouth Fury with peeling paint quite often in the South Kensington area of London.It seems Mopar paint finish hasn’t improved much in 30+ years
I’ve seen some without peeling paint, though the paint is certainly faded.
Although the hub caps in the one pictured are mismatched I do appreciate that whoever replaced them used original wheel covers available on 1st generation Plymouth Neons, not aftermarket ones.
Worst for peeling paint here are used JDM imports the makers could never have believed how long we keep cars going next worse are Aussie cars for cars designed in a sunny country you’d think they’d be more UV proof nar just the opposite, however peeling Neons I don’t see many but those I do seem mostly intact and in good order and this is a sunny part of the Island, even my French built Citroen wears its original paint and other than lots of stonechips the clearcoat is fine and the vehicle tight and rattle free on gravel, poorly made European cars, Really.
Not enough sunshine in the UK to peel paint.Silver 60s & 70s UK Fords took a long time to get the paint to stay on.
I seem to be in need of two of these neons at the current time. As the 2014 racing season quickly approaches and I have one that is caged and almost race ready, besides chassis tweaks and building an engine. We only use the s.o.h.c 2.0, as per the rules but the most competitive are running the 2.4 block disguised with the 2.0 head, and believe I will try that combo. Personally I want to use a pure s.o.h.c 2.0 with the mopar cam and e.c.m. I have been in the crapcan racing thing for a while but haven’t raced anything in four years and I cant wait.
It’s not lemons style just oval but it is a fun way to spend a Friday night.
There is a white 1st gen Dodge Caravan still used by beach and park security where I live. The paint is in better condition than on this Neon.
Something else could be the culprit on base model cars did they churn out some cheapies in acrillic laquer instead of clear over base for fleets wouldn’t surprise me, Its been done before here,
Rootes undercut all the bidding for the Post office at one point and produced a Hillman Minx devoid of everthing it didn’t legally need I’ve seen, one my car is fairly primitive its only automatic feature is self cancelling trafficators, but even that was removed for the post office cars they did however all get two tone paint it was either that or white only but no exterior garnish whatsoever so they saved on drilling all the trim holes and a couple of kilos of stainless steel and no extra seat padding one visor without mirror it would be like driving on a wooden pew and they strangled them with the 1390 engine from the van any gains the car had made in 3 models was cut its quite something to see what can be cut and still call it the same model, Henry Ford started the practice of selling last years model missing a tailamp as the standard model but at least he left the seats in
Hi.
Where’s the Earl Schrieb?
Riiiight!
Rigggght! I’ll paint any car any color for $99.95! (including the moulding and tires) Hope you like blue tires!
That Plymouth is full of character! Purple, Yellow, White, and Red Neons also suffer like this down in Dixie. Weird how the pain peels just so in that area, I wonder if the rest of the car has been repainted or if just that area has been exposed to the most sun?
Part of it was the Neon had color-dyed (vs painted) bumpers and plastics. I had a fire engine red ’98 coupe. Loved that thing despite the head gasket of death(tm). Only car I regretted getting rid of.
WoW!!! This looks right out of the original Robocop. The person behind the wheel of that thing would get more respect on a Segway.
I can’t help it, it’s a Plymouth, so here goes……..”Car 54 Where Are You?”
I’ve seen lots of white Neons in Tucson missing a third of their paint.
My ’84 Toyota pickup (solid blue) did the same thing, but during the third year I owned it. Fortunately, Toyota paid for a complete repaint.
Those Neons wear some pretty tough primer though.
They should just get rid of all the white and go for that matte finish that’s big now with tuners….
Mad tight yo…..
We just pimp’d your ride!!!
You beat me to this comment. That gray primer was some tough stuff.
Neons used to be quite common in the UK especially with older people.They tended to be immaculate or very scruffy,nothing in between.Boy racers and chavs have no interest in them despite them being pretty good performers so monstered Neons haven’t been seen over here.I borrowed one and found it to be a decent car with good performance,handling,comfort and milage
Oh that is just too freaky…In the CC effect, until my recent job change I used to pass an identically flaky white Neon every day as I headed to and from work. And the really freaky part?…it also had an orange light on the roof too, as it was used for a private security patrol car… Mmm, chasing crims in a 3-speed auto Neon, not sure that’s gonna work out so well…!
As a police officer friend once told me, “they might be able to outrun me, but they will never be able to outrun my police band radio”.
True, but I don’t think a Neon would exactly strike fear into the local criminal element.
Imagine Batman showing up driving an AMC Pacer woody wagon instead of the Batmobile. Or Superman arriving in a landau-roofed Cordoba…”Oh, my cape was at the cleaners so I borrowed Herb Tarlek’s car.”
Peeling paint is nothing new. Light blue 54 Chevy hoods peeled revealing black primer. Metallic silver and light blue 66 and 67 Fords peeled all over. There were others but these I remember well
Metallic silver and light blue 66 and 67 Fords peeled all over.
That was “Brittany Blue”, Apparently the primer failed too as I saw a 66 wagon at the Ford dealer in 72 that looked like it had chicken pox: 2-3″ wide rust patches all over it, My 67 Thunderbird was “Gunmetal” and the panel at the base of the windshield went from fully painted to fully peeled between 72 and 73.
Lately, Ford has been having trouble getting paint to stay on aluminum body panels like hoods. This will be interesting as the body of their new F-150 is almost all aluminum. Will we be seeing roads full of leprous Ford pickups in two years?
GM had a lot of trouble with that silver-blue paint in 1965. An uncle had an Olds 88 2 door that was a beautiful car but for the rusty primer all over the horizontal surfaces.
A friend of mine was a body and paint guy in the 80s (pre-clear coat or water based paints.) He told me that metallic paints that had a high proportion of clear in the formula would fail quickly if they got a lot of sunlight. I was told that the UV rays would transmit deeper into the paint because of the lack of pigments to reflect it back out. The combination of sunlight and the aluminum particles would cook the paint from the inside out and completely dull and ruin the finish. This was why, he said, dark colors weathered so much better than those that were close to silver. It seems that these lighter colors also delaminated more, and I wonder if it is the same phenomenon.
Just saw this and was reminded of this comment.
This was a paint supplier issue back then. Both Dupont and PPG I believe. Something to do with the “new” primer/sealer not actually sealing and also not being friendly with the top coat of color after the UV rays got to it.
Had a Silver 89 Grand Prix and a 93 Lebaron Sedan that both had this problem. Managed to get GM to repaint the Grand Prix in 1995 because of this, free of charge.
The Lebaron got Maaco job after I spent a few hours with a orbital sander getting it down to bare metal.
The test to see if you car was affected by this…put a piece of duct tape on the roof and pull. The solution? Scrap the top coat off (which was actually pretty easy to do with razor) and seal the bad primer and repaint.
It was not a problem with the primer it was the top coat that was the issue. When my brother first started working in the body shop profession it was at a GM dealer. His job was to prep all the vehicles for repaint. They had some chemical stripper to remove the top coat but not affect the primer that was used on most areas of the vehicle. In other places he sanded off the top coat but was not supposed to breach the primer.
Ford had the same issue with one colour out here nearly 10 years ago.
Mind you there are a lot of cars the age of this Neon with peeling clear coats
Have seen very few, if any, Neons with peeling paint in Ohio. I see a number of running first gen Neons every day, and most all of them still look factory fresh. Have definitely seen a number of the Spirit and Acclaim, as well as some GM cars, with peeling paint. As I say, the first gen Neons still look good to me. I’m tempted to find an R/T or one in one of the rare and unusual colors. Although I’m especially fond of blue or red ones. Of course, I only want one with a stick.
Yes that is an intercooler in the front bumper of my neon. It’s running a Hahn Racecraft turbo kit under the hood.