Clear Coat Hardness

[ToddG]

I hear you, I was a Chem major for a little while so I was all wrapped up in the scientific method and analytical reasoning as well. I don't have a paint depth gauge so I guess I'll work my way from the least aggressive method up to test. Any other ideas Todd?

I think you should post my questions on your Detailing University board and see what people say. I'd be curious about their responses. I'll wager nobody knows the answers.

I seem to recall back in the mid 1990s Nissan (Infiniti actually) was advertising a tougher clearcoat on cars with lighter finishes (whites and off-whites mostly, no dark colors). I looked at the patent for the clearcoat once and it turned out to be a clear product that had a higher degree of crosslinking than previous clearcoat products (higher crosslinking resulted in a harder, tougher finish). Now I'm not sure if degrees of crosslinking are a standard way of measuring hardness (you can calculate that), but I suspect that's what most people mean when they refer to "harder" clearcoats. How that translates into what polish to use is an open question.

As far as next steps, I agree, use the least aggressive products and methods first and go from there. IMHO, you can't go wrong with 3M Imperial Hand glaze and Meguiar's NXT Tech Wax.

 

[KD00LS]

Yeah that's not a bad idea, I'll post the questions. Paul Dalton from Miracle Detail in the UK is a member on there so he definately has to know. The traffic is a little slow on there. I know a lot of the guys on there like Imperial Hand Glaze. I think there's a new Tech Wax out.

As far as the different polishes, I think that the abrasives are probably the same but more persistent maybe, more time to be broken down. Think of it like aluminum vs. titanium as far as strength or something. This should be interesting.