to clear coat or not...

ajayclicks · 13th March 2007, 17:57

I have a black swift that keeps getting scratched and dented.

I got some amount of it repaired and painted from a local garage around 10 months ago, and for a while it was fine, but lately its looking quite dull.

A friend says that it is probably becoz the garage did not clear coat it. In some other post, Vikram also mentioned that unless one clear coats, the shine doesnt come through.

Now my question(s) is:
is it fine to get it clear coated now (after 10 months)? maybe get it rubbed and polished to remove the outer oxidised layer, and then apply the clear coat. Even if i get some amount of shine back, its fine with me. If it is, any idea as to what the costs could be. Or is it advisable that I wait for some more time, and get this done the next time i get my car painted.

Cheers
Ajay

nitroxx · 14th March 2007, 05:07

ajay to save your car especially since its black get 2 liters of platinum laquer(standox) clear coat which is a standard procedure for mercs and other bigger brands and make sure you get 2000 grade cutting paper as well coz its hard to cut through and the procedure is buff the car then apply the platinum clear about 2 hours later from the 65 degree booth take the car out and cut the coat out for final polishing which you can do after a break of 2 hours and voila you'll have a clear coat that would even withstand keys..
cheers!

Rudra Sen · 14th March 2007, 07:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by nitroxx

and voila you'll have a clear coat that would even withstand keys..

nitroxx, isn't a clear coat part of 2K paint process?

It would be really nice if you could describe the whole painting process. I feel lot of us here have wrong or no understanding on 2K paint process. And yes, I agree that baking chamber is a must for new gen paints.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

adnan · 14th March 2007, 09:07

nitroxx how long will the whole procedure take...and what will its total cost be...even my car got lots of small scratches,
and is this some kind of 3m polishing stuff?? cos all that stuff does not last for a long time over here..

nitroxx · 14th March 2007, 10:19

yeah rudra they are but what I've mentioned is to remove half of the previous company coat and then start. baking chambers a must for sure,you see what happens is you already have a clear coat (the final lacquer coat that protects the paint and gives shine) on your car all u have to do is sand the layer down with high grade paper till you take all the dirt off and have a smooth finish,n then apply the clear coat on it and its done.If its a complete procedure then first scrape down the body (bare metal) then level it with a product like body soft (putty) spray a coat of red primer to see where the levels out,correct it then go for a final primer coat after which you select your color and spray it(base coat,second coat and final if you need an extra.now,if you wanna do this outside and dont have a paint booth,use an air drying clear coat like (airtech 440) fast drying 90 min air dry (we use it to increase productivity times if we have a lot of cars with minor damages,to finish up quick.(I've stripped ,painted and put my car back on the road in 8 hours flat.)or else use a general high gloss lacquer,OR use the platinum finish (mercs,jags,rolls,beemers, standard finish)and finally sand the first coat to a thin layer then apply the second one cut it a bit to smoothen it out and then use 3m diamond shine with a polishing machine and you get a mirror finish + youre done.cheers! (for company colors nowadays theres a software called Genius V3.0 that has all company shades from fiat to ferrari with the quantities and tinter details so you can make them at work all you need is a weighing scale,the tinters and get the same finish as a subaru blue or skyline blue or scaglietti blue(blues are my fav)

I'm serious if you ever need details on a particular color in a car brand lemme know I'll look it up for you when I'm there.or if you wanna go matt then use a matting agent in the clear (tinter#008) from standox to go without gloss. CHEERS! hope to be of help if you need more info.

nitroxx · 14th March 2007, 10:29

Oh by the way while I'm mentioning this,you can get crazy effects on your paint job by mixing a few pearl tinters in your laquer as well,for instance if you need a shiny aqua peraly effect on a white car all you do is in the lacquer (clear coat) add P 829(aqua tinter) 3 grams of it only in the final coat and watch the aqua tint in the sunlight on your white car.

ajayclicks · 14th March 2007, 10:50

Hi Nitroxx,

A lot of it went above my head. If i have got it right, I can still get it clear coated. Also no complusion that the person should have one of those sophisticated paint booths. As long as he follows the procedure that you have described above....

Bangalore members, any recommendations?

Cheers
Ajay

nitroxx · 14th March 2007, 11:57

yeah ajay see the original clear coat is weak thats the reason scratches affect easily,what you need is to sand that coat and then go get platinum clear and use a paint booth to spray for sure for the platinum lacquer .only the touch up jobs for normal lacquers are done outside.procedure takes a day or 2 max and then u have a car that withstands minor key scratches also.so later once done if u have a slightly deep scratch which is highly unlikely unless scraped hard,all u do is use 3m diamond shine to get rid of the scratches @ adnan :dude this is a clear coat procedure the 3m is used only for shines and buffing.

vijaycool · 14th March 2007, 12:15

@nitroxx: can we do the same process for the bikes also. my 180 ug3 black pulsar has lots of minor scratches.
bike paint seems to be so soft compared to cars.

theMAG · 14th March 2007, 12:36

A clear coat is highly recommended and the norm for cars coming out of their factories. But you'll need to maintain the clear coat too. Its not a do-it forget-it type of thing - do keep in mind that clear coats are basically clear/transparent resins applied on top of the paint and are scratch-sensitive.

lohithrao · 14th March 2007, 15:16

Hey nitrox some great info there....now anyone knows who can do this in bangalore??

nitroxx · 14th March 2007, 15:39

contact shreyas in bangy I'm sure he'd know someone for sure

joe_mclaren · 19th April 2007, 14:31

hi nitroxx, well was looking at you painting writeups.. and im tryin to decide colors here.. in fact therez this gun metal color that dupont provides...
u can check it up in the below site

Hot Hues by DuPont...
goto Hot Hues paintshop on the right by pressing More

is it possible to get colors like tat here. im repainting... so wud i need to scrape down and restart or ??
an estimate would also be nice. its for a zen

13th March 2007, 17:57	#1
ajayclicks BHPian Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 613 Thanked: 423 Times	to clear coat or not... I have a black swift that keeps getting scratched and dented. I got some amount of it repaired and painted from a local garage around 10 months ago, and for a while it was fine, but lately its looking quite dull. A friend says that it is probably becoz the garage did not clear coat it. In some other post, Vikram also mentioned that unless one clear coats, the shine doesnt come through. Now my question(s) is: is it fine to get it clear coated now (after 10 months)? maybe get it rubbed and polished to remove the outer oxidised layer, and then apply the clear coat. Even if i get some amount of shine back, its fine with me. If it is, any idea as to what the costs could be. Or is it advisable that I wait for some more time, and get this done the next time i get my car painted. Cheers Ajay
	() Thanks

14th March 2007, 05:07	#2
nitroxx Awaiting Email Confirmation Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: DXB Posts: 816 Thanked: 31 Times View My Garage	ajay to save your car especially since its black get 2 liters of platinum laquer(standox) clear coat which is a standard procedure for mercs and other bigger brands and make sure you get 2000 grade cutting paper as well coz its hard to cut through and the procedure is buff the car then apply the platinum clear about 2 hours later from the 65 degree booth take the car out and cut the coat out for final polishing which you can do after a break of 2 hours and voila you'll have a clear coat that would even withstand keys.. cheers!
	() Thanks

14th March 2007, 09:07	#4
adnan BHPian Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Mangalore Posts: 45 Thanked: 0 Times	nitroxx how long will the whole procedure take...and what will its total cost be...even my car got lots of small scratches, and is this some kind of 3m polishing stuff?? cos all that stuff does not last for a long time over here..
	() Thanks

14th March 2007, 10:19	#5
nitroxx Awaiting Email Confirmation Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: DXB Posts: 816 Thanked: 31 Times View My Garage	yeah rudra they are but what I've mentioned is to remove half of the previous company coat and then start. baking chambers a must for sure,you see what happens is you already have a clear coat (the final lacquer coat that protects the paint and gives shine) on your car all u have to do is sand the layer down with high grade paper till you take all the dirt off and have a smooth finish,n then apply the clear coat on it and its done.If its a complete procedure then first scrape down the body (bare metal) then level it with a product like body soft (putty) spray a coat of red primer to see where the levels out,correct it then go for a final primer coat after which you select your color and spray it(base coat,second coat and final if you need an extra.now,if you wanna do this outside and dont have a paint booth,use an air drying clear coat like (airtech 440) fast drying 90 min air dry (we use it to increase productivity times if we have a lot of cars with minor damages,to finish up quick.(I've stripped ,painted and put my car back on the road in 8 hours flat.)or else use a general high gloss lacquer,OR use the platinum finish (mercs,jags,rolls,beemers, standard finish)and finally sand the first coat to a thin layer then apply the second one cut it a bit to smoothen it out and then use 3m diamond shine with a polishing machine and you get a mirror finish + youre done.cheers! (for company colors nowadays theres a software called Genius V3.0 that has all company shades from fiat to ferrari with the quantities and tinter details so you can make them at work all you need is a weighing scale,the tinters and get the same finish as a subaru blue or skyline blue or scaglietti blue(blues are my fav)I'm serious if you ever need details on a particular color in a car brand lemme know I'll look it up for you when I'm there.or if you wanna go matt then use a matting agent in the clear (tinter#008) from standox to go without gloss. CHEERS! hope to be of help if you need more info. Last edited by nitroxx : 14th March 2007 at 10:24.
	() Thanks

14th March 2007, 10:29	#6
nitroxx Awaiting Email Confirmation Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: DXB Posts: 816 Thanked: 31 Times View My Garage	Oh by the way while I'm mentioning this,you can get crazy effects on your paint job by mixing a few pearl tinters in your laquer as well,for instance if you need a shiny aqua peraly effect on a white car all you do is in the lacquer (clear coat) add P 829(aqua tinter) 3 grams of it only in the final coat and watch the aqua tint in the sunlight on your white car.
	() Thanks

14th March 2007, 10:50	#7
ajayclicks BHPian Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 613 Thanked: 423 Times	Hi Nitroxx, A lot of it went above my head. If i have got it right, I can still get it clear coated. Also no complusion that the person should have one of those sophisticated paint booths. As long as he follows the procedure that you have described above.... Bangalore members, any recommendations? Cheers Ajay
	() Thanks

14th March 2007, 11:57	#8
nitroxx Awaiting Email Confirmation Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: DXB Posts: 816 Thanked: 31 Times View My Garage	yeah ajay see the original clear coat is weak thats the reason scratches affect easily,what you need is to sand that coat and then go get platinum clear and use a paint booth to spray for sure for the platinum lacquer .only the touch up jobs for normal lacquers are done outside.procedure takes a day or 2 max and then u have a car that withstands minor key scratches also.so later once done if u have a slightly deep scratch which is highly unlikely unless scraped hard,all u do is use 3m diamond shine to get rid of the scratches @ adnan :dude this is a clear coat procedure the 3m is used only for shines and buffing.
	() Thanks

14th March 2007, 12:15	#9
vijaycool BHPian Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: chennai Posts: 309 Thanked: 111 Times	@nitroxx: can we do the same process for the bikes also. my 180 ug3 black pulsar has lots of minor scratches. bike paint seems to be so soft compared to cars.
	() Thanks

14th March 2007, 12:36	#10
theMAG Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: May 2006 Location: Avon, CT Posts: 7,217 Thanked: 1,807 Times View My Garage	A clear coat is highly recommended and the norm for cars coming out of their factories. But you'll need to maintain the clear coat too. Its not a do-it forget-it type of thing - do keep in mind that clear coats are basically clear/transparent resins applied on top of the paint and are scratch-sensitive. Last edited by theMAG : 14th March 2007 at 12:38.
	() Thanks

14th March 2007, 15:16	#11
lohithrao Senior - BHPian Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Kudla/Mangaluru Posts: 3,204 Thanked: 225 Times View My Garage	Hey nitrox some great info there....now anyone knows who can do this in bangalore??
	() Thanks

14th March 2007, 15:39	#12
nitroxx Awaiting Email Confirmation Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: DXB Posts: 816 Thanked: 31 Times View My Garage	contact shreyas in bangy I'm sure he'd know someone for sure
	() Thanks

19th April 2007, 14:31	#13
joe_mclaren BHPian Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: TRIVANDRUM Posts: 103 Thanked: 0 Times View My Garage	hi nitroxx, well was looking at you painting writeups.. and im tryin to decide colors here.. in fact therez this gun metal color that dupont provides... u can check it up in the below site Hot Hues by DuPont... goto Hot Hues paintshop on the right by pressing More is it possible to get colors like tat here. im repainting... so wud i need to scrape down and restart or ?? an estimate would also be nice. its for a zen
	() Thanks