Jerry991

I would agree that clear coat is a type of paint but since it does not have any color and it is the only surface that you can actually treat, there is a limit of how much you can do to make it look better. Cars used to be painted with multiple coats of lacquer or a coat of a baked enamel. The lacquers certainly looked better and had no clear coat so they could be very smooth and looked fabulous. I firmly believe with today's base color coat/s followed by clear coat you simply do not get as good a job with most car companies as they just don't do enough sanding, etc., of the color coat to get out the orange peel which is so often seen today. That being said, you are limited as to what you can do with the finish of the clear coat. With older paint jobs if the color began to fade or haze you could directly compound or sand the color to bring out the original quality paint but not so with clear coat. All you can do is remove any scratches or swirls and any haze or cloudiness. Sure, you can get better reflection off the clear coat, etc., but you cannot get it to look any better than what the factory did and if the color has orange peel or other imperfections you cannot get to it. Some polishes will also fill in the fine scratches but proper preparation will get rid of those fine scratches and it is nearly impossible to remove too much of the clearcoat if you are using a random orbital polisher with a swirl remover. A regular high speed polisher with an abrasive compound is very aggressive and should only be used by an expert so the clear coat is not damaged. All that being said, I would say that the most important part of keeping your car looking good is washing it properly by hand using the proper method to avoid any swirl marks which really hurt the look of the paint.

kosmo

ok, i think i cracked a rib laughing so hard!!!

doubleurx

Sealants are not even in the same category as cleaner waxes, which are abrasive? Seriously just do some research on the products.

There are plenty of sealant products that have no more abrasive qualities than pure carnauba wax.

chuck911

In my book they belong in the same category. The category of unnecessary items.


Jerry- color sanding is a major reason those old lacquer paints looked so good. Color sanding levels out and removes orange peel yielding a glass-smooth surface. Only custom paint shops do this any more because its so labor-intensive. The better manufacturers like Porsche use incredibly sophisticated automated paint systems that are able to apply paint with virtually zero orange peel. I got a chance to talk with someone about this once and was amazed at the depth they go into. With metallics for example, the metallics align depending on nozzle position. In order to look right its not enough that the paint be applied over the right primer (Porsche uses I think 7 different primer colors on the 991) because light reflects off the primer back through the paint, and that the color coat be precisely the right thickness (to within fractions of a mil) across every part of the car, but it also must be applied so that the metallics all align uniformly across the whole car. I've seen cars that were painstakingly multi-lacquer-coated and color sanded, and they do look good, but the new Porsches are drawing awful close, and would even be ahead if you factor in durability and color. But then I LOVE those Porsche colors!

THPorsche

I was thinking the same thing.

draxa

I wonder how many of us are still around from those days - '06 onwards was it? - there was definitely a friendly edge to a lot of threads.

Jerry991

Chuck: I agree with you that Porsche does better than most others although sometimes I have visited showrooms and the cars on the floor are loaded with swirls which sort of kills the qualitity. Mercedes and BMW are notorious for orange peel in their paint yet no one seems to care; I guess ignorance is bliss.

THPorsche

Most of us just bought the "new" 997.1 and I believe he was gone around the time 997.2 came out.

chuck911

Swirls had to be put there by the dealer. When I talk about quality I'm talking about Porsche. Could not care less how the makers of riding lawnmowers do it.

jlanka

OK I'm using this:



which looks to me like the right thing to use (based on the recommendations of another poster on this forum).

Whew!

stealthboy

A few days ago I was getting some service done so I looked over the cars in the showroom. Both black 911s had disgusting amounts of swirls. The overhead lighting they use made them blatantly obvious, too.

It was a half an hour later that I saw the "truck washing" van in the lot, with one guy spraying each car with a pressure washer (on a high setting), and another guy following with a single dirty rag "drying" them all off.

It was painful to watch. This is why I always put a "NO WASH" sign in my car when it's in for work.

Jerry991

We had a Porsche Club get together today at a Porsche dealer and I looked at the cars on the showroom floor and they all had incredible amounts of orange peel but people today just accept it as there really is no alternative.

bboerit

Been using Zaino for 20 years, first on black and now on Guards Red. Cars have always looked brand new. Would never use anything else. Highly recommend using it.

chuck911

I've never seen orange peel on any Porsche factory paint. There will always be a very slight mottled look. Only way to eliminate that is color sanding. Technicians probably have a term for the fine surface undulations people are seeing. As I said before, the technology is incredible. Dr Evil can't get a fricken laser-mounted shark but we got laser-mounted orange peel detectors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_peel_(effect)

Maybe someone can find the word we're looking for. Meanwhile, here's a pic of truly "incredible amounts of orange peel". The showroom cars looked like this, you say?

Jerry991

Chuck: It sure looked like the color paint and not the clear that had the orange peel. Now it wasn't real bad but it was definitely noticeable if you looked for it.