A cleaning question to the budding detailed detailers !

[Woody100]

Good morning all,

I have a question that has been bugging me since i refurbed my wing mirror bases, I'm fairly new to this whole car thing so painting the mirror base was my first auto paint job and to be honest they came out great. The process i adopted was to prep the mirrors, undercoat which I did 6 times, then top coat which I did again about 6 times then clear coat about 3 times. If I haven't bored you yet then I will be quick and cut to my question !

So my questions is: If a car when leaving the factory kind of goes through a similar process then after many years (13 years for my car for example) when I compound it back am I not removing the clear coat to get to the paint ? And why don't we top up spray our cars with Lacquer (clear coat) to replace what we have rubbed off ?

Or is this a stupid question am I having a moment !

 

[Summit Detailing]

When machining polishing paintwork you are removing a minute amount of clearcoat to level it out basically which would result in a defect free finish. You aren't looking to "get too the paint" under the lacquer, this would mean a 'strike through' of the clear - not a good thing. You don't need to top up the lacquer as there is plenty on the car to happily polish for years.

Chris

 

[Woody100]

I was kind of aiming that question at you Chris ! Many thanks I can now happily polish away without worry !!

 

[Summit Detailing]

No worries. Carry on..........and make sure your hard work is shared with the forum in the form of some pics!