I have a 2002 XLS, silver. The front of the hood and front of the quarter panels have a plastic coating that developed cracks years ago.

I've had this Montero for 8 years and unfortunately, 5 of those years, it lived in the hot central Texas sun.

Has anyone else experienced a similar problem?

Does anyone know of an easy way to peel this coating off?

 

This looks like a repair job from a collision perhaps. I have the same thing happening on the top of my 2001 Limited. The know from Carfax that the vehicle was involved in a rear-end collision at one time. I checked with a paint and body shop who told me that the car may have had a cargo-carrier on the luggage rack that came loose and damaged the roof sheet metal. The paint is cracking and peeling at the repair site. Since its on top and difficult to see, I haven't done anything about it yet. But it is getting worse.
So, not sure you can "peel" it off. May have to have the whole hood repainted.

 

I have to agree with haynes this definitely looks like a repair job gone wrong. I would get an estimate and opinions from several different body shops and go from there.

If you wanna go cheap cover up, spray some plastidip on there and be call it a day. Sure its not permanent but it would work for a while.

Keep us updated!

 

This Montero has never been in a collision, never had any body work. My dad owned it before I bought it from him, so I know its history.

It is not paint that is cracking. It is an adhesive backed clear plastic film that Mitsubishi applied at the factory. It's designed to protect the paint like a bra/bug shield.

The darkness of the cracks is due to dirt, dust and pollen getting into the cracks and sticking to the adhesive.

It can be peeled off, but the adhesive is very strong and it would take hours and hours. If you look carefully at the second photo, you can see a very small section that was peeled off where the hood meets the front quarter panel. Peeling that small section took about 45 minutes.

I think I need some sort of solvent that will dissolve the adhesive, but won't harm the paint.

 

I can't imagine that Mitsubishi would do something like that to their vehicle. I wonder if this might be a dealer added "improvement". Never had to deal with this type of material, but it reminds me the stick on labels used on motorcycles and snowmobiles. Those come off if you heat them gently with a heat gun. You can try it on a small spot to see if heating it up will soften up the glue and allow you to peel it off. I think you will need rubbing alcohol to wipe the remaining glue after that.

 

I know it would suck and probably take a full day...or two but I would just start pealing and like hunter said use some rubbing alcohol to remove the sticky junk.

 

It's possible that it was a dealer added option.

 

It does look like a clear bra was added somewhere down the line - try heating up a small area with a hair dryer on the highest setting if you don't have a heat gun and see if that helps. You can get some adhesive remover called Goof Off at Home Depot/Lowes that works great for removing adhesive after you've removed the clear bra.