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Clear Coat
Thoughts for Modern Automobiles
By
Lance Winslow
Sunlight problems from ultra violet are getting
worse now due to lessening of the Ionosphere
from natural pollution, green house or so we
have been warned. These UV rays can easily be
protected with clear coats, ceramic coatings and
a good wax job you car. If you were out in the
sun and the skin on your nose started to peel or
your eyes were becoming white blinded by the sun
you would no doubt put on some sunglasses, a hat
and perhaps some sun block. Today’s automobile
is ready and able to prevent this thru its clear
coating, but it must be cared for to do its job.
Swirl marks are caused by car washes or
untrained auto detailers, which are too
aggressive for the paint. Such swirl marks are
etchings in your cars clear coat. They reveal
damage to the paint. If you are waxing a car and
wonder if you have damaged the paint
there are ways to tell. How can
you tell when you have accomplished the task in
waxing your car correctly thus saving the paint
and creating a mirror finish? Take your watch
and tilt it sideways and then upside down and it
should look like a movie clip and then a mirror
as you spin your watch with no distortion. You
should be able to read the time in your paint by
the reflection. Another way is to take a
fluorescent light and see if it is crisp or if
you have any weird wave patterns coming off of
the paint in the form of distortion or
refraction of the light in any other direction
except directly into your line of sight. Before
going hog wild on the clear coat with Clay Magic
or any other materials, Check the clear coat
width. These units are from the old plating
industry and used in industry to test thickness
of substances. There are small units used by art
consultants and engineers;
http://www.qualitest-inc.com/positector6000.htm
but in the auto detailing industry they use
little hand hold units to check the number of
mils thick a clear coat has left on it after
battling elements for sometime. You can find
them on eBay cheap. Only serious auto detailers
carry these. A good clear coat is 5 mils or
more, but most manufacturers use 2-4 mils and
the substances are better than before. Color
coats are usually 3-5 mils and primer coats are
1-3 mils. Aircraft use more one step paints to
save weight and many manufacturers use less
paint to save cost and save steps by using
multi-step paints, some good and some not. Minor
oxidation can decay paint about 1-1.8 mils.
Surface scratches and shopping carts can cut
through clear coat and half way into color
coats, thus a filler wax is needed after
treatment is rendered and do not take a buffer
with a short wool pad to it either. I hope you
learned something here today.
By Lance Winslow
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/
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