Clear Coat Toughness

[Rsurfer]

At the end of 2003, Mercedes Benz put into production a new scratch-resistant clear coat lacquer made up of nano-sized ceramic particles, which are baked and hardened in the paintshop oven, just like you’d bake pottery in a kiln. This process results in an extensively cross-linked, very hard paint finish that stands up better to mechanical car washes and day to day abuse. This clear coat, called CeramiClear from PPG, is the only nanotechnology clear coat used on Mercedes production lines and is approved for the repair of Mercedes and Nissans.

Here is what I found.

 

[D]

Well lecchilo worked on an 03 and 06 or 07 and said they were both soft, so I dont know.

 

[Ivan Rajic]

Well lecchilo worked on an 03 and 06 or 07 and said they were both soft, so I dont know.

That's true... the 03 was very soft and was corrected to perfection in about 4 hours via rotary 2-step polish... I honestly don't remember what exactly I used but I think it was #83/orange then #82/white
The 07 was a quick 1-step via PC which I didn't leave perfect due to time restrictions, and my friend, who was also the client, simply wanted a very quick job just so it looks better... it went from horrible to 85% perfect with 1 pass of #83/orange via PC.. and it finished LSP ready

 

[RPM06]

I just put this together. Ill update it as people post in here.

Great info! I always wondered why someone hadn't posted this in the past.

:cheers: :awesome: :cheers:

 

[gator1]

The lambs clear is hard ,i had to correct the paint on a 05 had to use lamb wool on it.
hope this help-es

 

[BetaB]

Where would the VW CC qualify?

i've worked a 96 jetta, and it seemed a lot harder than my toyota. So, i would say hard. I found out the hard way.......

I really had to dig into the car to get out the 10 years of damage, and then all of the sudden, i was working the back end of the car and the paint started to RIPPLE!!! OMG!!! I could not figure out what was wrong, but later i found out that the car had been rear ended and painted....pretty bad to, i'm surprised i didn't catch it at first. So factory VW paint seems pretty hard.

 

[FMINUS]

what are the advantages of a SOFT clear?

 

[dgoff07]

what are the advantages of a SOFT clear?

Someone told me that it reduces rock chips at high speed because it absorbs some impact or something. i think domestic paints have always been somewhat hard (lower speeds) and german paints used to be soft (autobahn), but now are the hardest. ????????? I really dont know what to think of that idea, but i thought i would share it.

 

[P1et]

I love working with Ford paint. So nice...

 

[SuperBee364]

2006+ (and possibly earlier) Dodge is really hard. Don't know about previous years, cause an 06 is the earliest Dodge I've worked on. This stuff is rock hard.

 

[SuperBee364]

Very good idea... I tried the same thing (without the fancy chart though ) on another detailing forum but there were maybe 3 responses... so this is great for me as I always thought it would be neat to have some sort of chart to go by, before doing a detail.

I have one suggestion before I post my experiences... from my experience and from hearing others', it seems like different years and sometimes even different models within the same year and from the same maker, have different hardness in their clears... I would suggest you leave the chart soft, medium, hard (in my post on the other forum I put 1-5, 1 being softest) but in addition to the chart, people should post all the info on the vehicle, such as year, make AND model...

with that said...

2003? Nissam Altima SE-R... very SOFT
2002 Audi A6 4.2L... HARD as a rock, just like all audis I've done
1999.5 Audi A4 1.8t.... HARD like above
2004 Porsche 996 GT3... MEDIUM, on the softer side though
1998 BMW M3 E36... HARD, like most BMWs I've done
2004 BMW 530i E60... HARDer than the E36 M3 but close
2005 Audi S4... HARD as well
2006 or 7 (I forgot) Nissam Maxima... SOFT... very soft
2003 Jeep Liberty... MEDIUM
2002 Toyota Camry... SOFT
2005 Toyota Corolla.... SOFT

Yeah, I was very surprised that your idea didn't take off over there. Great idea, man, glad to see it's finally happening somewhere.

 

[Adde]

2000 Dodge Durango (My) HARD
2005 Dodge SRT-4 Medium (Friends)

 

[m4gician]

Volvo, I'm not really sure. I think it's a soft-medium coat. On my S40 it seems to be medium maybe even hard at times but I don't know how to be sure.

 

[D]

05+ King Ranch- medium
03 Toyota Solara- hard
00 VW Cabriolet- hard
06 Freestyle- medium

 

[Jimmie]

Just posting to share info. I right clicked the chart that Dan made in his original post; scrolled to "print picture", select. It printed his chart only for future reference.

 

[Adde]

S60R (Medium)

 

[D]

Just posting to share info. I right clicked the chart that Dan made in his original post; scrolled to "print picture", select. It printed his chart only for future reference.

Thats a good idea. Ill probably print it out and post it in the garage.

 

[Ivan Rajic]

05+ King Ranch- medium
03 Toyota Solara- hard
00 VW Cabriolet- hard
06 Freestyle- medium

That's weird... My father's 2002 Camry has one of the softest paint I've ever worked on... what did you use on the Solara, products & process? If you don't mind sharing

 

[D]

XMT and Edge orange hardly put a dent in the swirls.

 

[Adam Brooks]

lincoln is hard thats for sure, they just dont put a lot of clear on the car. xmt #3 and LC CSS orange pad mabey made a 50% improvement in the paint of my continental. id probaly have to step up to a yellow pad and xmt #4 to get it totally fixed