Clearcoat or Not?

Hmmm...don't forget about the Lexus tinted clear. I still am having a very hard time believing Mercedes still sells single stage paint.
 
ptaylor_9849 said:
..I fired off an e-mail to my auto body guy who has 25 yrs in the business and here is what he wrote back...



..that in 04 Mercedes had 7 different varieties of black. Only 1 doesn't have clearcoat (code 040 black)...my girlfriend's new car..[has].. 040 black.



I tried doing some correction work on it the other day with an orange pad and some SIP 3.02 via rotory. I was surprised to find that this paint is even harder to correct than my corvette..
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I'm more surprised to hear that the ss black is so hard than I am to hear it's an optional ss paint. Most ss black is very soft, so the technology for this 040-code paint must be something new.



I for one *really* like the look of high-quality ss, I like it a lot better than b/c; I bet I'd love how that car looks.
 
Accumulator said:
I'm more surprised to hear that the ss black is so hard than I am to hear it's an optional ss paint. Most ss black is very soft, so the technology for this 040-code paint must be something new.



I for one *really* like the look of high-quality ss, I like it a lot better than b/c; I bet I'd love how that car looks.
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I had thought that SS was being phased out of the market? Is it that you can only buy high-quality SS (expensive) paint now? I have yet to see anyone make a Black BC/CC look as wet and warm as Black SS. It just has this 3 dimensional soft glow to it, incredible.
 
grease said:
I had thought that SS was being phased out of the market?
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I dunno...I was under the impression that you simply can't get good ss, only crappy stuff like they use for $99.95 paintjobs.



We can't find any more ss lacquer for the Jag and can't even get companies to make some up (at any price). This Benz 040 stuff might be something entirely new :nixweiss
 
Spoiled Man, I did not get any color transferred to the pad while polishing and believe me, I spent hours on the trunk lid alone. Not exactly sure what this means but it is very hard to correct.



Patrick
 
It sure behaves like there is one. I was able to use more aggressive products on this car than my vette. Let me give you an example. Presta ultra cutting creme lite hazed the heck out of my vette with only a white polishing pad. Yet I was able to use Presta with an orange pad on the Mercedes and it did not haze at all. In fact, no hazing took place until I tried Presta and a foamed wool pad. Either way, I'm in for quite the challenge correcting this finish. I'll just do a panel here and there until done. Thanks for all your help and guidance everyone.



Patrick
 
David Fermani said:
By the mid 90's every car produced/painted via a production line was converted to 2-stage finishing.
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Wrong.



2001 BMW M coupe, Imola Red I, No clear. I just detailed one a few months ago and it red-ed my pad nearly as bad as VW Tornado red, non-clear coat which was used to mid 1999.



:werd:
 
I've seen a number of Lexus cars in solid black and some have a CC and some don't. It's just not safe to make a blanket statement on *all* cars having CC just yet.
 
Agrees. Most of the domestics will obviously come in clear. (meaning GM FORD CHYSLER) but as far as the imports go it's a crap shoot as to which converted to clear this year and said no the next. Or this color gets clear but that color dosen't.
 
Now I'm all intrigued about whether this Benz 040 stuff is b/c or ss....



No color transfer from black sounds mighty conclusive that it's b/c but I'm not ready to say that a painter looking it up would come up with incorrect info :nixweiss
 
ptaylor_9849 said:
Let me start by saying thank you to all of those who took the time to answer my question. However, this thread sparked so many opinions that I fired off an e-mail to my auto body guy who has 25 yrs in the business and here is what he wrote back.



Pat, my books say that in 04 Mercedes had 7 different varieties of black. Only 1 doesn't have clearcoat (code 040 black)



The rest utilize a clear coat and they are:

003 Mocca

025 Brilliant

197 Obsidian

182 Almodine

185 Melanite

189 Opal



You can guess which black came on my girlfriend's new car. You guessed it, 040 black.

I tried doing some correction work on it the other day with an orange pad and some SIP 3.02 via rotory. I was surprised to find that this paint is even harder to correct than my corvette. Here goes another month long project.



Patrick
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I was at Maroone Mercedes in Margate, FL today and their body shop manager insisted that the only single stage system used on any Mercedes is on trim, not on exterior sheetmetal. Code 040 is mostly used on door trim/moldings which isn't clearcoated. Huge difference. Another thing to consider is that most vehicle's inner sheetmetal (radiator core supports/jambs/uni-body structure) is single stage too, but not the stuff we're buffing.
 
FYI the 2002 and 2003 Mazda Protege5 in Vivid Yellow is a single stage paint. It is supposed to be some kind of single stage base and clear coat in 1, which I'm assuming just means they don't want people to freak out when they hear it has no clear.
 
I thought I heard someone saying that the Mitsubish Evolution Lancers had a few paint colors that was single stage.:help:
 
Now that I've done some more polishing on this car I can report back to everyone with what I've found. It appears that David Fermani is correct. All of the panels have clear but the trim pieces don't. I didn't get any paint transfer on my pad until I polished the trim around the windows. Then my pad orange pad turned black. Moreover, I am positive about the paint code as being 040 black. It is clearly written on the vehicle data sheet that came from the factory with the car. Thanks again for everyone's help and guidance.



Patrick
 
Color transfer is not always an indication that a single stage system was used. Tinted clear coats will also transfer color to your pads using a polish. Proper research on the specific vehicle are in order to verify presence of clear coat. For example, Cadillac CTS-V in Infrared has a tinted clear.
 
David Fermani said:
I..[found out that]... Code 040 is mostly used on door trim/moldings which isn't clearcoated.. Another thing to consider is that most vehicle's inner sheetmetal (radiator core supports/jambs/uni-body structure) is single stage too, but not the stuff we're buffing.
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Thanks for doing the detective work! Interesting that they're painted (window surrounds on the MPV are ss black too, but hey, it's just a Mazda minivan).



Yeah, a lot of out-of-the-way sheetmetal isn't cleared, though some of us *do* buff it up :D As delivered, such surfaces often have a rough texture that tends to retain dirt and moisture. It's a PIA to polish these areas, and you gotta be gentle, but it can be worth doing if you're as nutty about this stuff as some of us are.



ptaylor_9849 said:
Now that I've done some more polishing on this car I can report back to everyone with what I've found. It appears that David Fermani is correct. All of the panels have clear but the trim pieces don't...
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OK, thanks for the verification. Glad the mystery got solved :D Be careful...I'd tape those surfaces off. I've cut through on the MPV's ss black trim with only a few passes by PC and on the Jag's *by hand*...thin stuff!
 
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