Do luxury brand cars have more paint coatings?

sito

New member
Joined
Jul 5, 2014
Messages
346
Reaction score
0
Do luxury brand cars have more paint coatings than non luxury?
Do they use higher quality paint?

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using AG Online
 
that is extremely subjective.

but in a simple way to describe it, mercedes and others like that offer things like cermicoat i believe.

but you can still get paint coatings installed from the dealer directly if that dealer offers those coatings. anything from toyota, to ford, to chevy could offer other coatings. and depending on who you are talking to it might or might not be a "high end" coating.


unless you are talking paint in general, in which you would mean to ask "do luxury cars have more clear coat"

and that still is subjective. the quality of paint isn't something that is easily discernable, typically a high quality paint is something that is only applicable to the people painting the car, because some will lay down easier, some will layer easier, and some will come out with next to no orange peel comapared to others in the same condition.

after the paint is on there, you can expect the only difference between them to be the hardness, most clear coats are going to offer the same protection via uv rays. although durability can differ, i doubt youd be able to notice unless the car went through complete hell.
 
Sito, I am probably going to take a lot of flack for this but, yes, generally, they do use more expensive paints AND clearcoats.
I was detailing my brother-in-law's vehicle and I was talking to him about paints because he works at PPG (about 30 years). He quickly started to lose me with some fancy lingo, but what I gathered is clear coat usually is thick as 3-5 sheets of paper. This is a lot thicker than the post-it note thickness for base and clear thickness that i keep hearing about. Secondly, quartz is used in some clears making it exceptionally scratch resistant. This helped me to understand, maybe, why some abrasives will or will not work, and why different products need to kept in my arsenal.
 
Part of that question relates to what you consider a "luxury car". For me a lincoln or lexus isn't going to cut it.True luxury cars are often very high quality paint if your talking about the paint itself. As to the actual painters it seems to be hit or miss, while I love polishing on Ferraris they have some of the worst quality paint from the factory I've seen. It's nice paint and polishes up well but I've had to correct everything from runs, to overspray, to terrible orange peel over the years on them.
 
Sito, I am probably going to take a lot of flack for this but, yes, generally, they do use more expensive paints AND clearcoats.
I was detailing my brother-in-law's vehicle and I was talking to him about paints because he works at PPG (about 30 years). He quickly started to lose me with some fancy lingo, but what I gathered is clear coat usually is thick as 3-5 sheets of paper. This is a lot thicker than the post-it note thickness for base and clear thickness that i keep hearing about. Secondly, quartz is used in some clears making it exceptionally scratch resistant. This helped me to understand, maybe, why some abrasives will or will not work, and why different products need to kept in my arsenal.

OH OK.
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using AG Online
 
Sito, I am probably going to take a lot of flack for this but, yes, generally, they do use more expensive paints AND clearcoats.
I was detailing my brother-in-law's vehicle and I was talking to him about paints because he works at PPG (about 30 years). He quickly started to lose me with some fancy lingo, but what I gathered is clear coat usually is thick as 3-5 sheets of paper. This is a lot thicker than the post-it note thickness for base and clear thickness that i keep hearing about. Secondly, quartz is used in some clears making it exceptionally scratch resistant. This helped me to understand, maybe, why some abrasives will or will not work, and why different products need to kept in my arsenal.

this isn't necessarily true though.

cars go through different processes.

and it isn't quartz, it's ceramic particles that are used in clears to make them super scratch resistant.

and just because it looks like a first class finish doesn't mean it has 5 layers of clear coat on it.

mercedes are going to have maybe 3 at the most, but on that third they put down the layer of the cermiclear if that option was chosen.. and then there are cars like the gtr that go through their paint process and receive a full correction and buff to flatten all the clearcoat out before they ever leave the factory. the guy that does it is part of the assembly line.


and bmw is different from the other two mentioned. they all have different processes. just depends on their total amount of time they want to spend on their cars in that department.

if you compare a toyota paint to a cadillac escalade, the escalade has tons of orange peel compared to the toyota, but it doesn't mean that the paint is a lower quality. their processes vary, drying times in the booths, the robots that lay the paint down are programmed differently. etc.

unless you got a list of every single plant, and compared all of their paint, and all of their processes. you won't be able to really find out whether or not its actually a higher quality paint, or its just more time being spent to make it perfect.
 
My coworker has a lexus es which he claims to have multiple paint layers. He only does simple wash without claying or waxing at all. He said it still looks shiny

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using AG Online
 
I've never seen a car that was painted that didn't have multiple paint layers. Keep in mind your co-worker may have a different idea of "shiny" than most detailers do.

Also refer to my previous post, Many don't generally consider an off the lot lexus a "luxury"car. Other than a few distinct models they are just a fluffed up Toyota with slightly better quality control.
 
My coworker has a lexus es which he claims to have multiple paint layers. He only does simple wash without claying or waxing at all. He said it still looks shiny
Most OEM vehicles receive multiple layers such as :
an e-coat, base-coat, and a clear-coat.

Sure:
Your co-worker's Lexus ES will look shiny, with just a simple wash...
Until the top-coat paint film incurs enough blemishes to not allow it to have the best of possible: Distinction of Image (D.O.I.)---some % of the mirror-like finish will be lessened.
It'll then be: Polishing Time...at the very least.

But...
Most vehicles' "paints" are like this...not just his!

Bob
 
My coworker has a lexus es which he claims to have multiple paint layers. He only does simple wash without claying or waxing at all. He said it still looks shiny

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using AG Online

and it will looks shiny as long as it's wet.

but because he doesn't use any kind of protection on it, that paint won't last forever.

eventually it will begin to turn white, and fade, and then peel once that layer has broken down completely. the clear coat is resistant, but not completely protected, which is why we wax and seal the clear coats. it isn't just to make them look shinier, but to protect as well, a paint job to fix damaged clearcoat that is beyond simple repair, can run anywhere from 2000 up to 9000 depending on the vehicle, paint, and work involved.

and realistically you should only have to clay a car once in a very long time as long as it's protected, so don't assume that is a commonplace thing when cleaning. after it's been clayed once, and polished, then protected, that protection can be kept up indefinitely as long as the user is diligent. and you won't have a need for clay on that vehicle unless something extreme happens.


don't let his ways dictate your own. do your own research, regardless of the brand of paint, the brand of the car, or whether it's luxury or daily commuter. it all needs protection the same.
 
Part of that question relates to what you consider a "luxury car". For me a lincoln or lexus isn't going to cut it.True luxury cars are often very high quality paint if your talking about the paint itself. As to the actual painters it seems to be hit or miss, while I love polishing on Ferraris they have some of the worst quality paint from the factory I've seen. It's nice paint and polishes up well but I've had to correct everything from runs, to overspray, to terrible orange peel over the years on them.

I recall working on Ferraris back in the "old" days (e.g. 50s) and they had more filler than aluminum in the bodywork!

<TED>
 
Back
Top