Beemerboy
Just One More Coat
Looking at a thread about polishing clear coated rims, made me think what are they clear coated with? seems like they don't scratch that easy as clear coated paint....any ideas?
Clear Coated Rims???
- Thread starter Beemerboy
- Start date
budman3
Detail time!
Or maybe another question is why is it only used on wheels and not on the rest of the car?
Beemerboy
Just One More Coat
I was thinking the same thing...the clear on rims doesn't scratch to speak of..so if that was on the paint it would be more durable
budman3
Detail time!
I really don't have any answers. But from dealing with many wheels, the clear on them seem to be much thicker than typical paint... Maybe it is just a thicker clear that wouldn't be flexible enough to use on other body panels.
Just out of curiosity, I checked with my friend with the body shop.
1. He doesn't do wheels so he isn't terribly familiar with what the clear is like.
2. He is pretty sure that some wheels have a coating that seems closer to a plastic coating than paint.
3. He does think that the wheels may have more clear on them than the body panels.
4. It still sometimes lifts/peels.
5. He feels that in general, factory clear is more durable than people give it credit for.
6. There definitely is a lot of difference in the hardness or resistance to scratching between different manufacturers. Sometimes between different vehicles from the same manufacturer. Just a guess, but probably from different plants.
7. There are several different clears available with varying degrees of hardness.
8. He uses two coats of clear when doing either a repair or repaint.
9. The clear he uses is very hard and it is not easy to sand through other than on a ridge.
10. In his opinion, the original factory paint job is probably as good as your vehicle will ever have. Even though it's what he does for a living, he would repaint only as a last resort. Polish, wet sand, touch up as needed and unless the flaw absolutely drives you crazy, live with it.
11. His common statement, "What the heck, the minute you drive it off the lot, it's a used car".
Addendum: He thinks I'm crazy.
1. He doesn't do wheels so he isn't terribly familiar with what the clear is like.
2. He is pretty sure that some wheels have a coating that seems closer to a plastic coating than paint.
3. He does think that the wheels may have more clear on them than the body panels.
4. It still sometimes lifts/peels.
5. He feels that in general, factory clear is more durable than people give it credit for.
6. There definitely is a lot of difference in the hardness or resistance to scratching between different manufacturers. Sometimes between different vehicles from the same manufacturer. Just a guess, but probably from different plants.
7. There are several different clears available with varying degrees of hardness.
8. He uses two coats of clear when doing either a repair or repaint.
9. The clear he uses is very hard and it is not easy to sand through other than on a ridge.
10. In his opinion, the original factory paint job is probably as good as your vehicle will ever have. Even though it's what he does for a living, he would repaint only as a last resort. Polish, wet sand, touch up as needed and unless the flaw absolutely drives you crazy, live with it.
11. His common statement, "What the heck, the minute you drive it off the lot, it's a used car".
Addendum: He thinks I'm crazy.
Reddwarf
New member
I agree. I think it is a much heaver coat on the wheels.
vwgtivw
Don't diss the FAST!!
The clear coat on rims is actually a clear powder coating and it is baked on.
:bigups:bigups:bigups
And that explains a lot of things.
budman3
Detail time!
I wasn't sure if there was clear powder coating or not ... very cool! I also didn't know that you could powder coat over existing paint. Now I wonder why we haven't heard of anyone powder coat a whole vehicle. It would definitely be a lot of work to disassemble, powder and bake a vehicle piece by piece but talk about protection...
That brings up an interesting question.
How is that done?
Powder coating requires a lot of heat. This one line was copied from a Wickepedia definition.
Will paints stand up to 390 degree temperatures?Wickepedia said:
Maybe the powder coating is used on bare aluminum wheels and not on those that have some painted areas.