Failing Paint on Roof and Hood

I have a 2018 Yukon Denali. The paint on the hood and roof appears to be oxidizing (or the clear coat) and looks terrible.

It’s the factory paint job.

The dealer body shop gave me an estimate of $6000 to fix, filed a claim with GM and of course it was rejected.

My 30 year old 1995 Yukon has original paint on the hood and it looks better than my $80,000 car that is obviously much newer.

Anyone have any luck getting this issue resolved? It’s expensive enough maintaining a vehicle. This is an unfair and unnecessary expense!

I had this happen on my 2015. Both hood and roof like yourself.

I think I spent around 2k for just the hood to get resprayed and it looks way better, can’t really see the roof anyway.

Unfortunately, paints will break down and deteriorate with time and UV exposure. I'm starting to see hoods and roofs on this generation of trucks around here with paint failure. 2018 is still an 8 year old truck in 2026. Time flies. It doesn't help the EPA has been hitting manufacturers with stringent regulations either. If you can park in the shade or in a garage, that's the best thing to do to prolong the life of the paint.

I would get a quote from an independent paint shop. It'll still be expensive, but several thousand dollars less.

I repainted the hood/roof on my 04 Suburban. Paint and clearcoat had failed and truck had lived under the elements all it's life. Not a show quality job, but also didn't spend more than a couple hundred dollars on the materials but a ton of elbow grease. Maybe do as @ReaperHWK did and get the hood repainted only. Agree that the roof you can't even see...

known issue from paint process at GM plant. (or lack of, lol) i have seen on chevy, GMC & Caddy's

think i recall seeing 3 diff class action lawsuits for this paint issue


GM always rejects the claims via Dealers
& Dealers always play stupid about knowing about the issue & try to rip us off on fixing it.

took it by a paint detailer friend back in 2018 & he couldnt do anything w/ it.
he said he has had over 40 people come in since that are looking to get same issue polished out. he told them to contact GM or get in on the class actions


supposedly only White Diamond Tricoat & Silver do not have issue. i had a 2015 black burb & it was horrible.
but felt better when i saw an always garaged Escalade w/ worse issue.

My 2015 Champagne Silver Metallic is doing it bad as well. Drives me nuts

Just had my 2015 painted last summer. Definitely shop around, there are plenty of skilled body shops that will be below 6000

I had my hood and a rust spot elsewhere on the truck repaired/ painted for $2800

My roof is also failing but I chose not to do it, kind of wish I did now but meh.

Seen a lot of folkes putting bed liner on there roofs.

@atrex21, where do you live and is it parked outside?

sadly it’s not just the K2 platform. GM’s paint SUCKS! Anyways best friend’s parent shave a 2015 Escalade ESV that I detail for often and the clearcoat on the hood is thrashed. Super hazy and faded. The owner of the venue I teach line dancing at picked up a gorgeous 2018 Yukon XL Denali 3 years ago in pristine condition. In the three years she has had it up here in big bear under the sun, UV rays, and super dry air at 7,000 feet elevation her hood and roof has started to go. I wet sanded the hood a couple weeks ago when I detailed it, and then put some polish down behind the wet sand with an aggressive polish/pad combo on my high speed rotary machine, and it cleared up quite a bit. But hers was just lightly starting look faded/hazy which is why I was able to clear a lot of it up. The hood on 2015 Escalade ESV that belongs to my best friends parents wasn’t coming clear because it was super faded and hazy. So maybe saveable depending on how far it’s gotten, but maybe not if it’s pretty far into it. Definitely check out independent body shops for quotes. Dealer body shops are ALWAYS going to be stupidly expensive and not always the best quality work.