Many of you have probably seen Mike Phillips article from way back at Meguiar's probably a decade and a half ago where he takes something like a white terry towel or a yellow foam applicator and puts some compound on it such as ScratchX (back in the day) and rubs a spot. If the towel turns the color of the car, you have single-stage paint... if not you have clear coated paint.
Well, I came up with an entirely new test accidentally... thanks to some children. This was an accident like the discovery of gun powder, but here it goes.
Background
This happened way back in 2014...
For detailing practice I have a test panel that I repaint time and again for practice. Normally, I paint it black, but I wanted to practice spraying silver in case I ever had to do a repair on my own car, so I painted it silver. When I went to clear it, my air compressor had died, so I never got to spray my 2K or 2-Pack clear. That said, I had several random 1K cans of U-POL clear, so I figured I would clear it with many coats of that then practice my wet sanding to remove orange-peal etc.
I finished, and the panel looked like liquid glass only silver.
Then the kids happened to take some dry erase markers and draw all over the test panel and the car, too. The car had completely factory 2-stage PPG paint.
Long story short, if dry erase marker wipes off, you have 2-stage, chemically hardened paint, so here is the test:
View attachment 65841
It wipes off at least 20 times better than most dry erase boards. Don't know why dry erase board manufacturers don't just clear coat them with automotive paint!
View attachment 65842
Here is the rub... on Single-Stage or really any 1K type paint, the dry erase mark will not wipe off. It takes the same effort to remove as a water mark that has etched itself into the paint!
Well, I came up with an entirely new test accidentally... thanks to some children. This was an accident like the discovery of gun powder, but here it goes.
Background
This happened way back in 2014...
For detailing practice I have a test panel that I repaint time and again for practice. Normally, I paint it black, but I wanted to practice spraying silver in case I ever had to do a repair on my own car, so I painted it silver. When I went to clear it, my air compressor had died, so I never got to spray my 2K or 2-Pack clear. That said, I had several random 1K cans of U-POL clear, so I figured I would clear it with many coats of that then practice my wet sanding to remove orange-peal etc.
I finished, and the panel looked like liquid glass only silver.
Then the kids happened to take some dry erase markers and draw all over the test panel and the car, too. The car had completely factory 2-stage PPG paint.
Long story short, if dry erase marker wipes off, you have 2-stage, chemically hardened paint, so here is the test:
View attachment 65841
It wipes off at least 20 times better than most dry erase boards. Don't know why dry erase board manufacturers don't just clear coat them with automotive paint!
View attachment 65842
Here is the rub... on Single-Stage or really any 1K type paint, the dry erase mark will not wipe off. It takes the same effort to remove as a water mark that has etched itself into the paint!
