I wish every car had a hard clearcoat!!!

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Sure, it might be tougher to remove defects, but for me, it's not near as tough to remove polished induced micro-marring. I've mostly come across soft paint, but the few hard paints that I've worked on have been much more satifying. Finishing down marr free on soft paint has been very difficult for me.

[A4 1.8tqm]

I know what you mean, micro marring can be a pain. Have you tried Poorboy's PwS? That stuff finished beautifully... the one time I used it, on a black Acura Integra Type-r.

[ScottB]

I had this discussion thru PM with another forum member for Vettes, its rather funny that a hard coating is harder to correct yet seems so easy to scar and scratch.

[Meghan]

I think it is crazy that so there are so many cars out there that their clear coat ranges so much... makes it a challenge for detailers to master all the cars and what kind of softness or hardness they are working with.

[Mike Phillips]

I had this discussion thru PM with another forum member for Vettes, its rather funny that a hard coating is harder to correct yet seems so easy to scar and scratch.

This is where the term scratch-sensitive evolved from.

Modern clear coat paints are harder than traditional single stage paints but they still scratch easily. Because these paints are physically harder, it is more difficult to remove small particles of paint which is how defects are removed, in other words the paint is abraded to level the upper most surface with the lowest depth of the defects you're trying to remove.

Modern clear coat paints are harder than traditional single stage paints but they are scratch-sensitive, thus a person must do everything they can to reduce the potential in order to prevent instilling or inflicting swirls and scratches into these types of coatings. This means anytime the paint is "touched", it needs to be touched with the best quality products you can obtain for any procedure being performed.


Just to note and for what it's worth, whenever I talk about the hardness of modern clear coats I frame it in the context of single stage paints for the purpose of comparison from how paints used to be to how they are now.

Cars showed up in the early 1900's, the Model T was introduced in 1908, so if we use that as a "general" starting point from when mankind got off the horse and into the car, that would mean here in 2010 that cars have been used by "most of us" since the recored history of man for about 100 years. In the context of history, that's not very long.

Out of the 100 years cars have been around, clear coats like we have today on our cars were introduced starting in the early 1980's, that means compared to the history of single stage paints, modern clear coats haven't been around near as long.

A lot of car owners today have never worked on a car with a single stage paint so they have nothing to compare to when talking about the "hardness" factor of modern clear coats.

• 1900 to 1980 = 80 years for single stage paints
• 1980 to 2010 = 30 years for basecoat/clearcoat paints

Ive' worked on both styles of paints a lot in my life and can speak from first hand experience and that's why I alway type about the hardness of modern clear coats in the context of both single stage paints and clear coats.

While Mark, the OP, makes a point, my personal preference is for a happy medium, that is a sweet spot in the spectrum of too hard and too soft.

It's too bad paint manufactures don't create paints that fit all the criteria auto manufactures ask for AND also make them user friendly for the average person that wants to do their own car care.


And here's a related article...

The practical differences between single stage paints and a clear coat paints

[WRAPT C5Z06]

I know what you mean, micro marring can be a pain. Have you tried Poorboy's PwS? That stuff finished beautifully... the one time I used it, on a black Acura Integra Type-r.

I have not. In your case, did PwS actually remove the micro marring, or did the sealant fill and cover the marring?

[WRAPT C5Z06]

This is where the term scratch-sensitive evolved from.

Modern clear coat paints are harder than traditional single stage paints but they still scratch easily. Because these paints are physically harder, it is more difficult to remove small particles of paint which is how defects are removed, in other words the paint is abraded to level the upper most surface with the lowest depth of the defects you're trying to remove.

Modern clear coat paints are harder than traditional single stage paints but they are scratch-sensitive, thus a person must do everything they can to reduce the potential in order to prevent instilling or inflicting swirls and scratches into these types of coatings. This means anytime the paint is "touched", it needs to be touched with the best quality products you can obtain for any procedure being performed.


Just to note and for what it's worth, whenever I talk about the hardness of modern clear coats I frame it in the context of single stage paints for the purpose of comparison from how paints used to be to how they are now.

Cars showed up in the early 1900's, the Model T was introduced in 1908, so if we use that as a "general" starting point from when mankind got off the horse and into the car, that would mean here in 2010 that cars have been used by "most of us" since the recored history of man for about 100 years. In the context of history, that's not very long.

Out of the 100 years cars have been around, clear coats like we have today on our cars were introduced starting in the early 1980's, that means compared to the history of single stage paints, modern clear coats haven't been around near as long.

A lot of car owners today have never worked on a car with a single stage paint so they have nothing to compare to when talking about the "hardness" factor of modern clear coats.

• 1900 to 1980 = 80 years for single stage paints
• 1980 to 2010 = 30 years for basecoat/clearcoat paints

Ive' worked on both styles of paints a lot in my life and can speak from first hand experience and that's why I alway type about the hardness of modern clear coats in the context of both single stage paints and clear coats.

While Mark, the OP, makes a point, my personal preference is for a happy medium, that is a sweet spot in the spectrum of too hard and too soft.

It's too bad paint manufactures don't create paints that fit all the criteria auto manufactures ask for AND also make them user friendly for the average person that wants to do their own car care.


And here's a related article...

The practical differences between single stage paints and a clear coat paints

Absolutely.