Autopia.org - View Single Post - Interesting Answer to a Clear Coat Question

Intel486 · 07-02-05, 10:46

Clear coats on vehicles aren't thick in general at all. The paint is really there to help protect the metal. Paint shops when they repaint will apply clear coat thick but that's to give them room to sand it down. A few mils of clear really doesn't really help out that much. The UV inhibitors would still migrate and concentrate in the top layers of the clear.

If you make the clear coat thick, then it is more prone to cracking as it goes through temp changes. Think of all the temp changes your vehicle goes though. The people with high end show cars with many coats of clear have to worry about this cracking.

Also, the way they apply clear coat on modern vehicles, if they make the coat thicker, then they would have even worse orange peel than what already comes standard on most vehicles these days. They'd probably have to start having to hire people to wetsand and buff out vehicles.

07-02-05, 10:46	#5 (permalink)
Intel486 Resident Ford Man! Intel486 is offline Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Red Stick/Nawlins Posts: 2,964	Clear coats on vehicles aren't thick in general at all. The paint is really there to help protect the metal. Paint shops when they repaint will apply clear coat thick but that's to give them room to sand it down. A few mils of clear really doesn't really help out that much. The UV inhibitors would still migrate and concentrate in the top layers of the clear. If you make the clear coat thick, then it is more prone to cracking as it goes through temp changes. Think of all the temp changes your vehicle goes though. The people with high end show cars with many coats of clear have to worry about this cracking. Also, the way they apply clear coat on modern vehicles, if they make the coat thicker, then they would have even worse orange peel than what already comes standard on most vehicles these days. They'd probably have to start having to hire people to wetsand and buff out vehicles. __________________ 2005 F-150 Reg Cab Flareside 5.4L Chemical Engineers: More refined than the rest.