When polished and waxed my black Evo looks great ("wet") for about three washes. Then the little scratches return. Its a daily driver and I want it to look better than it does without spending every free minute polishing . My black 300M goes for at least 6 months (really more) without this problem. Obviously the clearcoat and perhaps the basecoat on the Evos is poor. My question is has anyone sprayed a new clearcoat to reduce/eliminate the quick recurring scratch problem? How well did it work? Any suggestions as to what product line to use? Cost?
Thanks!

 

the amount to re-clear coat is marginal compared to the paint, in other words, it wont cost much more at all and if your going to sand down to re-clearcoat, you might as well repaint with a better, thicker paint, since your already masking, sanding and prepping.
and quality, they are all the same when it comes to standrard colors, they should all have lifetime warranties for fading, and peeling and cracking

and black is black, there are no different shades of black, ford black is mitsubishi black is mercedex black, its the only color that is the same..

 

actually i was talking to my friend you does body work and he informed me that swirlies like the ones we all have on our cars are NOT caused by ****ty paint (not to say that the paint is not ****ty) but rather from the finish of the steel when the painted the car. He says that usually cars with ****ty finishes on the steel will show the swirlies like we all have and can see on our dark cars. Mine are sooooooo bad i cant stand to look at it in the sun.

 

<Unnecessary Posts Deleted. Keep it on topic.>

 

This thread was truely getting out of hand...

Keep it clean guys

 

SuperchargedGTZ, if it's "bad metal" I don't understand why the aluminum and the steel and the plastic parts seem to swirlee just as fast even though they have got to have various degrees of surface impections (and why we can get rid of them with light polish). I still would think the problem is that the clear coat can't stand up to minor dirt abrasion when washed. Hence the reason for this thread. I did have a car re-clear coated with a different mix a long time ago when I wasn't happy with the original clear coat and it worked. But at that time I knew the coating manufacturer since I knew the guy who sprayed the original clearcoat. I was just wondering if anyone tried this with the Evo clearcoat....

 

maybe you should learn how to detail before you spend unneccesary money on a new clear coat.

 

Leif, no insult intended, but my sense is that washing 5 days of white salt road grime off a vehicle in Ohio is not the same as washing a couple of days of light dust off a vehicle in Calf. I've detailed cars for over 25 years (included 3 black cars) and haven't seemed to have a major problem until this car. Any suggestions you can give me to avoid swirlees after its been polished to look wet will be appreciated. I stand by my concern that the clearcoat is the underlaying problem.

 

I think the issue is that the paint has NO clear coat to start off with. I know that certain Evo colors are factually known to not be clear coated.

Take some fine compound wax and try a spot on your car. If the rag has any black on it when you are done, there is no clear coat.

But what mprtklr mentioned above is true. If you are paying to have a clearcoat applied, you might as well get a few layers of fresh paint put down while you are at it.

SC

 

i have heard that the red on evo has clearcoat mixed in with the paint instead of on top but others have said its pure rumor. i know definetly the silver has a clear coat or else silver paint would come off when i use rubbing compound on my scratches

 

Black must have a clearcoat as I have polished the car to a wet look 3 times with absolutely NO black on the rag. I was unaware that any mainstream manufacturer produces a vehicle without clearcoat as it is the good looking, simple way to achieve shine these days...

 

well, technically all paint has clearcoat, whether it be a one step or a multi-step. a one step is the clear and paint mixed together, a multi-step is a base/paint/clear procedure which yields better results, but costs more in material and time. so most manufacturers are going with a one stage to save on costs. paint by itself is not very smooth and "nice" looking, its rather drab, it looks like ond 80's era cars where the white stuff (clear) is flaking off and you have a drab color, thats the actual paint color.

 

In the same boat. Last summer I must have spent one weekend out of each month doing the clean, polish, and wax steps to get a good looking finish. Nothing works.

Recently I succumb to saving up for a new paint job if I keep the car for a long period or sell it. I've got better things to do than wax and polish the car every weekend.

 

=x my bad... didn't know your detailing history.

 

Well.. no matter what, the Evo's paint is gonna suck

Why dont you do what I plan on doing and repaint your Evo like an MR (Thunder Grey) in a couple of years after the paint shows its age.