Clear coat scratches... Idea maybe?

[Prometheus]

So, I was thinking this morning, and an idea suddenly came to me. Everybody has had those scratches in their clear coat that aren't quite through the clear but deep enough to warrent some caution for the fear of going through the clear. WEll, I may have an idea.

What if..... Every autoparts store has those aresol cans of clear coat. What if you took that clear and sprayed it on your existing clear really lightly around the scratch. It would effectively thicken the clear and make the scratch farther away from the base coat. You then could go at it with a PC (or whatever) and level out the scratch. Granted, most of the sprayed on Clear would be removed, but you would effectively raise up the bottom of the scratch farther from the base coat. Then you could just have at it with less fear of going through the clear.

Now, this is only a half formulated idea, so i dont know about a few things... like how well would the spray on clear stick to the existing clear? You're probably not going to take all the spray clear off, so would it change the appearance of teh existing clear at all? Just an idea, comments are welcome, good idea?, bad idea?, *** were you thinking? that kidn of stuff. Thanks in advance

[Bill D]

IMO probably not a very good idea, clear has to be applied by an experienced technician and some of us are still too picky for those that are.It may look very obvious you sprayed it over the spot. I suppose you could always try it on a piece of scrap first.

[Gonzo]

The tricky part would be making sure the scratch was COMPLETELY CLEAN so the spray on clear would adhere and fill the scratch. The next tricky part would be to ensure that during the overspray buff/cut off you weren't pulling the new clear out of the depression.

Don't ask me how I know to ask these 2 very important questions

[Bill D]

Yep, my old Maxima had dust contamination in the clear on part of the door

[Prometheus]

The idea wouldnt be to completely fill the depression, i was thinking of just adding more thickness to the clear and scratch as a whole so when you did buff out the scratch you wouldn't be getting so close to the base coat. I dunno, it was just an idea i had. Shot down in flames.

[Bill D]

I would just try it on a beater car or a scrap piece first before you do it on your own car. If it works for you, that's great

[ncal]

You can't 'spot clear' just like you can't spot paint an area. It's either reshoot the panel or nothing.

[Guitarman]

In theory, you have the right idea, there's a catch for the layman however;

Shaker cans of clear (and general 2k automotive clears for that matter) do not "melt-in" and blend with the exisiting oem clear, but rather sit on top of it. You will always have an edge or periphery of the new layer of paint no matter how well you wetsand, buff and feather it down. You will always see a "ring" or outline of the clear on top. To spray that much clear around a single scratch and compound away the rest, except for in THAT scratch, would be near impossible, and not practical, unfortunately. The result would be more or less the same as brushing some touch-up clear into the scracth to begin with then compounding.

Body shops DO have a special "cut-in " blending clear for spot work, but it requires special techniques and steps, plus some skill, and the custom engineered melt -in clear ( really a urethane blending solvent additive), to achieve, and it's not widely done. They will ALWAYS prefer to spot color (basecoat) in and then reclear the entire panel. That's the best way to get superior results at least.


These blending additives don't cross over to the DIY shaker can market, because of $$$ and the special skills and techniques required, not to mention shaker cans of clear aren't catalyzed like body shop paint, for curing.

Great idea, (in theory) though.

[Prometheus]

oh well, i tried. Too bad they dont blend, oh well.