I looked through the archives, but didn't come across anything relevant to this problem.
There's one thing about my HHR (2007 LT 2400) that really detracts from her appearance is how the paint and/or clear coat has failed in a few spots on the front bumper.
Yes, the car is 15 years old and has probably lived outside for her entire life, but I wanted to ask if anyone knew of any products or processes short of repainting that might
return some of the sheen, diminish the flatness of the color below the crystal coat and boost the little car's overall appearance.

 

The biggest villain is automatic car washes, they strip the clearcoat off of the center line then do the same to the color coats.
Nothing but maybe wax. A professional respray would obviously be the best. You can buy spray cans of clearcoat, that might work with proper prep.

 

Pictures of the damage will help.

 

UV damage has only one solution. Re-coat.

 

As requested.

 

A light sanding with 400 grit , then spray it with clear coat, Duplicolor products are great for this , your paint colour is 37 Imperial Blue Metallic, these guys have a very good colour match , if you sand through the colour coat

https://www.automotivetouchup.com/to...07/all-models/

 

You better be good at sanding or you will go through the color coat. Best to just do it all or let it go.

 

Thanks for the advice gentlemen.
When the weather breaks in a couple of weeks — 90°F and more here in SE PA for the past week — I'll give the sanding & re-coating a try.
Will be in touch.

 

Do you need to sand off all the clearcoat or will the new clearcoat hide the margins where the original clearcoat is gone?

Have this same issue, thinking about starting with 600 or 800 just to be safe because the original base coat can be pretty thin.

 

The pros can feather the clearcoat. I would just sand the rough edges down and rough the color coat with fine sand paper.