Are coatings flexible?

As I recuperate from back surgery, I have had the chance to listen to a lot of podcasts involving Kevin Brown. He brings up the fact that paint is a structure which is flexible and as such expands and contracts with temperature changes. Which make me think with all this time on my hands, are coatings flexing also? Modesta shows how hard it is by showing cubes of products, all kinds of claims of 9h hardness and the ever popular lighter strikes. So if they are that hard, are they still flexing with the paint? How would you tell? Just thinking!

I think we would have seen issues by now if the coatings weren't flexible enough for their application. As noted above, a think 1-3 micron layer vs. a solid cube is a big difference.
 
Ive had it happen on 4 straight black cars a few weeks ago

two lexus, a bmw, and a cadillac

I polished with a D300/orange combo and the finish was completely clear of defects, then we polished it out to damn near perfect. Two shots of eraser, then 2 layers of Finest. Put the IR lamp on it and BAM, water spots all over the heated section. Moved the IR lamp to a different section, and more spots appeared. I was blown away and lost a $1800 job because even though I did the 3 step correction, I couldn't charge for the condition of the paint in the end.

So, on the next few black cars, and every black/whatever color car comes in with water spots, we do a complete correction, then IR lamp the panel prior to proceeding with the rest of the car. Just a precaution, but it has saved me 3 more wasted efforts.
 
I too listened to the Podcast.

None of this makes sense to me.


If the water that left the minerals behind was applied while the paint was hot and theoretically "expanded"; why would the water spot magically disappear when the paint was cooled and theoretically "contracted".

Aren't water spots actually damage to the clear coat? So expansion and contraction should only make the spot microscopically larger or smaller.


I would be be interested to see a more detailed description of the scenario where paint was measured while hot and then cold, with the hot measurement being thicker than the cool measurement.


The Defelsko meters are accurate to +/- (1/10 of a mil +3%), but in my experience, even trying to measure the exact same spot often yields different numbers.
 
Envious Eric,

Please help us answer this Mystery.

Apply your IR to your freshly polished panels, prior to coating to see if the spots re-appear.


This is will eliminate the coating as the Culprit.



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