Quote:
Originally Posted by TH0001  I think its important to note that for the most part we are buffing on clear coat. I know this is kind of basic, but think about this...
Most manufacturer's use the same clear coat over different base coats, so the only difference in color is in the base coat. The clear coat remains the same. (Of course their are obvious exceptions, BMW's harder clear on Sapphire Black and the stupidly soft clear on Jet Black).
This makes brings me to my point... Since a black base coat reflects the most light thru the clear coat, you can see maximum defect levels. Black most accurately shows the condition of the clear coat above it. So if foam is needed to finish out the clear coat to perfection on a black car, then it is really needed on every car to achieve perfection.
Obviously the benefits of finishing out a black car more completely are much more dramatic then finishing out the same clear coat over a silver car. In the black car you might see a 10% improvement, where as on a silver car you may be lucky to see 2%, for the same time invested.
In my experience with wool, you can never get a car 100 percent perfect with it because the fibers will instill light marring in the paint surface (or more light marring then a foam pad, because under a high enough magnification, nothing is perfect). Since this type of marring can be seen to diffuse the paint on black, then it is also diffusing the light on other color's as well. To get the highest gloss we must level the paint as flat as possible to get maximum light reflection. This law is true for all colors, regardless wether we see the defects or not.
So the achieve true maximum gloss on silver, we have to polish out defects that we cannot even see.  |
Great post Todd, and I certainly agree with the premise that if you need to finish down with foam on black paint to get the clear coat above it in close to perfect condition, you need to do the same with all colors to get the most out of them.
Regarding the statement that "black base coat reflects the most light thru the clear coat", it was my understanding that black actually reflects
less light than any other color?
I think that fact makes swirls/defects more noticeable than colors that reflect more light because you get less refraction. Does that make sense?
