Apply a small amount of a cleaner wax or abrasive polish to an applicator and rub onto a hidden spot of paint. If the color shows on the applicator, you have a single stage nonclearcoat paint job. If you see no color, you do indeed have a clearcoated paint job.
A mild cleaner wax like this one will do the trick as well. Choose an inconspicuous area to test like a door jam, inside a wheel well or the lower part of a bumper. Apply one of these products by hand and see if the towel stays clear or turns the color of the car. If it remains clear, you have a clear coat.
What Is Vehicle Clear Coat? The vehicle clear coat is the final coat of paint applied to your car, going over the primer and the pigmented paint. It's a transparent, glossy coating that is meant to enhance the look of your paint and to provide some protection from the environment.
It's simply a layer of clear resin that is applied over colored resin. Almost 95 percent of all vehicles manufactured today have a clear coat finish.
Your Guide to Applying Clear Coat
Without the extra layer, paint can peel away and cause rust damage. However, applying clear coat can be tricky if you have not done it before. Here are some tips and tricks to guide you through the process.
Without a layer of clear coat, your vehicle will have a dull or matte finish to it. Your car's clear coat can also start to fail and chip if it's not properly washed and waxed and will usually lead to the clear coat peeling, exposing your base coat of paint.
The clear coat is polyethylene paint without color pigmentation. Thickness usually ranges between 1.5–2.0 mils (35–50 microns).
Your Older Vehicle May Not Have a Clear Coat
As consumers grew more focused on the cosmetic aspects of their cars, multiple paint layers that preserved color and shine gradually replaced single stage paint jobs.
If the finish is not glossy, you may not have applied enough coats, or enough clear coat to flow. There is some technique involved here, as too little clear coat will appear dull, and too much will stand up like a bead of glue and take a long time to dry.
In theory, you could then respray just the clear coat. In reality, the pigment layer will be sanded through to the primer in a lot of places. So, the color coat will have to be resprayed as well.
Unfortunately, there's no way to restore a clear coat once it has begun peeling. You'll need to have an auto body shop strip and repaint your car. If your clear coat has been neglected badly enough to peel in some areas, you'll still need to have the entire car repainted so that the color and finish match throughout.
A clear coat that comes with the car applied by the manufacturer can last up to 15 years if cared for properly. Dirt, grime, snow, mud, leaf stains are the usual suspects that can eat away your car's clear coat. So, in short, the better you care for your car's clear coat, the longer it will last.
Regularly waxing a car is essential because it helps preserve the clear coat over a vehicle's paint. That clear coat is the layer that protects the paint from corrosive elements, including snow, rain, street salt, ultraviolet rays, bird droppings, and tree sap, among other contaminants.
Polyurethane clear coat is widely used as a top coat for automotive paint base coats. Top Coat Paint - Now we get to top coat paint. Top coat paint is a colored finishing paint that is used for a decorative or protective finish.
Washing your car thoroughly, including removing embedded contaminants from the clear coat, is necessary prep work for paint restoration. Likewise, waxing your car isn't a restorative measure, but car wax does help to protect your car's paint finish after you've corrected it.
In the late 1970s, a new type of finish, called "basecoat/clearcoat," was developed. Basically this type of paint consisted of a pigmented enamel basecoat followed by an ultra-hard clear enamel top.
Clearcoat instructions
Apply 2-3 coats of clearcoat using a light dabbing motion waiting 10-20 minutes in between each coat. Be gentle with the brush because you do not want to disturb the undercoats. Clearcoat should be dry to the touch in 1-2 hours, but will completely dry overnight.
For a small- to medium-sized car, you'll need 1 gallon (3.8 L) of primer, 3 gallons (11 L) of base coat, and 2 to 3 gallons (7.6 to 11.4 L) of clear coat. For larger vehicles, double those amounts.
How much clear coat does machine polishing remove? Using a medium abrasive polish on a polishing pad with a rotary machine polisher around 2.5 – 3 microns (µm) will be removed.
If you over-polish your car, you will eventually thin out the paint and in extreme cases can cut through the clearcoat and the paint right through to the undercoat! The diagram below illustrates various types of paint defects. Polishing removes material from the top layer – in most cases this will be clearcoat.
As the name implies, the clear coat is a colorless resin that is applied over the top of the base coat. It's the layer that makes your car look glossy and shiny.
With lighter polishes such as a finishing polish, it is possible to use these on your car many times without worry, as the amount of clear coat they will remove is such a small amount it would be very very hard to polish through.