BMW to increase clear coat hardness

G

glen e

Retired Geezer
Just got back from a dealer meeting where I presented for BMW - for service staff - and it was announced that to keep the amt of RID's down in transit, BMW for 2013 was going to increase the hardness of the clear to the level of MB. All I know, but something to look out for...
 
Great! Those scratch resistant clear coats always seem really easy to scratch. They should call them scratch removal resistant instead because their a head ache most the time.
 
BMW's are one of those weird brands to 'guess' the clear coat hardness. In general it has been that Sapphire Black always had very very hard clear coat and Jet Black had soft clear coat. I have worked on some BMW's in Jet Black that had crazy hard paint.

When I inquired further, I was told that cars assembled in Germany tended to have harder paint while cars assembled in the US tended (minus Sapphire Black) to have softer clear coats.

Some of the BMW's I have worked on with harder paint have been much harder than any MB I have ever worked on. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
 
Todd Helme said:


When I inquired further, I was told that cars assembled in Germany tended to have harder paint while cars assembled in the US tended (minus Sapphire Black) to have softer clear coats.

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this is true, due to diff environmental regs here and there....
 
Todd Helme said:
BMW's are one of those weird brands to 'guess' the clear coat hardness. In general it has been that Sapphire Black always had very very hard clear coat and Jet Black had soft clear coat. I have worked on some BMW's in Jet Black that had crazy hard paint.

When I inquired further, I was told that cars assembled in Germany tended to have harder paint while cars assembled in the US tended (minus Sapphire Black) to have softer clear coats.

Some of the BMW's I have worked on with harder paint have been much harder than any MB I have ever worked on. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
Click to expand...

Very good point. Some alpine white BMWs (non metallic) are extremely hard while others not so much.

I have to be honest I prefer working on harder paints, not rock hard per se but I just find I worry less about towel marring and finishing down. I know on harder paints thats once my compounding stage is complete that I am pretty much on easy street. Withs softer clears its always a toss up.
 
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