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Super Member
Re: Self Healling Paint ?
I doubt there will be. You gotta think of self healing paint as essentially super soft elastic paint that won't cure for at least 2 years or so. Anything after that and it starts getting rockhard. The only time LSPs might have a durability issue on the paint is if you apply it over paint with a lot of light scratches and marring, and then put it out in the sun. Then with the reflow of the clearcoat, there will be sections of the clearcoat without any protection on it at a very tiny level. The way this paint works is the clearcoat itself is elastic in nature, as well there are tiny microscopic capsules of clear in the clearcoat itself. When there's marring or a light scratch, the capsules itself will erupt and the elasticity of the clearcoat tension will force the resin into the point of the scratch, conducting "self healing". It won't be perfect when you look at it through a microscope as there will still be a very tiny ridge (depending on level of scratch). Surface marring will probably go away but believe it or not most swirls will not. It's why Nissan stopped putting the self healing clear on the GTRs because they themselves had issues buffing out the panels. Of course overtime, all of these processes stop and you get a very hard clearcoat that is unlike the usual Nissan/Infiniti due to the free floating resins in the clearcoat finally hardening. It's also why you see a lot of swirled out "self healing" cars, whether its a Lexus or an Infiniti.
The reason you cannot let this get hot during polishing is because it's not necesarily a reactive self healing clear, it's a memory based self healing clear which is why it will not self heal 100%. It works based on an elasticity basis, as in the clear rebounds back as long the link inbetween the molecules in the resin have not been severed. So if you let the panel get hot during compounding or anything else, it'll look great until it cools down and you'll have achieved minimal correction essentially. It'll work against you both ways in regards to the elasticity. The only way to actually level the paint is to keep the panel as cool as possible, essentially you don't want any of the self healing features to be active when you polish. Due to the elasticity of the clearcoat, it's also why it's very soft. Realistically, you can probably use M205 or a non-diminishing polishing level liquid along with a cold panel to correct the actual clear.
Essentially, the heat speeds up the process. Heat of course causes molecules to move faster compared to colder temperatures, but that's why in a period of two weeks or so in normal temperatures, small scratches will clear itself up, at least to the human eye. It's an interesting system that still has a lot to be worked out. If I remember right there were even a few TSBs from Nissan for a few Infiniti models that this affected for refinishing where the Dealerships bodyshops were not able to re-spray the clear with the self healing clear and finish it off by sanding and polishing out the sanding marks. A few other issues were the fact that a lot of Infiniti certified bodyshops didn't even have access to the self healing clear and just re-sprayed a panel with a regular clearcoat they use. Like I said it has some issues that need to be worked out.
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Super Member
Re: Self Healling Paint ?
well I washed the car and gave it a complete once over with my halogen aka "the ugly lights" and found just two small areas that needed corrected. I went and got my heat gun on low and within 3 minutes both are now completely gone. this is probably the best and weirdest discovery I've come across and one that makes me very very happy. I went and visited the body shop at the dealer today and they shared with me the white paper write up on it. So long as the clear isn't "cut through" thus breaking the bond internally scratches will heal from the bottom up 100% and that's been the case thus far. None of the four marks that I've corrected with heat are visible even after cooling.
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Re: Self Healling Paint ?
Originally Posted by
TTQ B4U
well I washed the car and gave it a complete once over with my halogen aka "the ugly lights" and found just two small areas that needed corrected. I went and got my heat gun on low and within 3 minutes both are now completely gone. this is probably the best and weirdest discovery I've come across and one that makes me very very happy. I went and visited the body shop at the dealer today and they shared with me the white paper write up on it. So long as the clear isn't "cut through" thus breaking the bond internally scratches will heal from the bottom up 100% and that's been the case thus far. None of the four marks that I've corrected with heat are visible even after cooling.
Thanks for sharing your findings. Cool stuff, definitely.
Side note, I see you posting over on Q50.org. Glad you are enjoying your Infiniti!
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