Clear Coat Toughness

[SuperBee364]

Very good idea... I tried the same thing (without the fancy chart though :p) on another detailing forum but there were maybe 3 responses... so this is great for me as I always thought it would be neat to have some sort of chart to go by, before doing a detail.

I have one suggestion before I post my experiences... from my experience and from hearing others', it seems like different years and sometimes even different models within the same year and from the same maker, have different hardness in their clears... I would suggest you leave the chart soft, medium, hard (in my post on the other forum I put 1-5, 1 being softest) but in addition to the chart, people should post all the info on the vehicle, such as year, make AND model...

with that said...

2003? Nissam Altima SE-R... very SOFT
2002 Audi A6 4.2L... HARD as a rock, just like all audis I've done
1999.5 Audi A4 1.8t.... HARD like above
2004 Porsche 996 GT3... MEDIUM, on the softer side though
1998 BMW M3 E36... HARD, like most BMWs I've done
2004 BMW 530i E60... HARDer than the E36 M3 but close
2005 Audi S4... HARD as well
2006 or 7 (I forgot) Nissam Maxima... SOFT... very soft
2003 Jeep Liberty... MEDIUM
2002 Toyota Camry... SOFT
2005 Toyota Corolla.... SOFT

Yeah, I was very surprised that your idea didn't take off over there. Great idea, man, glad to see it's finally happening somewhere.

[Adde]

2000 Dodge Durango (My) HARD
2005 Dodge SRT-4 Medium (Friends)

[m4gician]

Volvo, I'm not really sure. I think it's a soft-medium coat. On my S40 it seems to be medium maybe even hard at times but I don't know how to be sure.

[D]

05+ King Ranch- medium
03 Toyota Solara- hard
00 VW Cabriolet- hard
06 Freestyle- medium

[Jimmie]

Just posting to share info. I right clicked the chart that Dan made in his original post; scrolled to "print picture", select. It printed his chart only for future reference.

[Adde]

S60R (Medium)

[D]

Just posting to share info. I right clicked the chart that Dan made in his original post; scrolled to "print picture", select. It printed his chart only for future reference.

Thats a good idea. Ill probably print it out and post it in the garage.

[Ivan Rajic]

05+ King Ranch- medium
03 Toyota Solara- hard
00 VW Cabriolet- hard
06 Freestyle- medium

That's weird... My father's 2002 Camry has one of the softest paint I've ever worked on... what did you use on the Solara, products & process? If you don't mind sharing

[D]

XMT and Edge orange hardly put a dent in the swirls.

[Adam Brooks]

lincoln is hard thats for sure, they just dont put a lot of clear on the car. xmt #3 and LC CSS orange pad mabey made a 50% improvement in the paint of my continental. id probaly have to step up to a yellow pad and xmt #4 to get it totally fixed

[SpoiledMan]

My 2 pennies.

There are newer Honda/Acura products out that don't seem to have such soft clear coats. TL's ('04 and up) and the current generation ('05 and up) Odyssey's seem to be in that camp. I can't vouch for any other just yet.

[Ivan Rajic]

My 2 pennies.

There are newer Honda/Acura products out that don't seem to have such soft clear coats. TL's and the current genereation ('05 and up) Odyssey's seem to be in that camp. I can't vouch for any other just yet.

So 106ff won't take off too much cc from those 2 ? :p

[SpoiledMan]

Lol!

[D]

So 106ff won't take off too much cc from those 2 ? :p

Cmon now.

[Nica]

First of all wicked topic. Here is my little bit of info hopefully someone else can verify/confirm it.

I have a 1995 Volvo and I found the clear coat to be soft, I used XMT 3 and XMT 1 with the PC. This was the vehicle that started it off for me, I know Pirex has done lots of Volvo's maybe he will join in and confirm.

That's all I got :D

Wicked idea Dan, I'll be printing a copy of it too and keeping it in my garage :righton: