Tree sap can also kill through the clearcoat. Either pay for expensive protectors that harden over the paint or give up on it.

 

To combat that particular and very frustrating issue, I use and along with many here, I believe,

https://aerolon.com/pages/aircraft-quality-detailing-products

Its great stuff and it works.. Your car may get bombed on but it wont stick. Just follow the directions and you will be good to go. The product is called Tech shine.

 

Lots of modern OEM basecoat paints are going water based vs the previous solvent based. More efficient, cheaper, and more environment friendly, but IMHO, not as protective. In some cases, even waxes and polishes have managed to damage some water based coatings. Read up a little bit on water based care, because both certainly have their pros and cons.

 

As you said, waterborne basecoats, that doesn't mean waterborne clears. Waterborne clears do exist, but mostly in refinishing shops in Europe. There are none used anywhere in the US that I'm aware of, even on OEM applications. Waterborne basecoat doesn't affect the clear whatsoever, so unfortunately the people who may be selling products or services related to newer water base coats are just selling snake oil.

This is why the whole concept of the big push to switch shops to water basecoat systems was pointless, because they're all topped with standard solvent clears, so the VOC output of these shops is barely changing. I used to spray NEXA Aquabase Plus and PPG Envirobase (both PPG, both near identical systems). It's the system I was certified on, and I spent a few weekends at the PPG training center in Glen Burnie, MD. The running joke was that it's all pointless regulation BS that PPG even had to develop it, since we were spraying normal DCU2021 and other types of clear right over it.

As for more efficient - meh.. more time is spent air drying the base between coats, even in an OEM robot application process. It's certainly not cheaper either. Refinishing shops are spending nearly double on a lot of colorant materials vs their solvent counterparts.

So yeah, I can't say it enough - waterborne doesn't mean the tried and true standard solvent clear is weaker. Waxes and polishes are not damaging any waterborne coatings, because they never come in contact with anything waterborne because that part of the paint system is under the clear. It's just not how any of it works.

 

Rantlers, I wont even start to claim to know everything about waterbase, thus why I mentioned the OP to read up on it.

I am an old school polyurethane/isocyanate testicle-death guy, heh. I was mostly a PPG guy when I worked at stealerships, but went Glasurit and HoK when I bailed over to more custom shops. Never even messed with waterbase, only solvent. I was unaware of the clear NOT being waterbased as well. Knowledge is power!

I have been in Subies since '05 (6 of them now) so I CAN say without a doubt that their paint is very thin. Minimal mils to be certain. If the clear is that thin, the simplest of impurities will get to that basecoat before you know it. Probably one reason why the salesmen REALLY push protective paint coatings (of course, other than the $$ heh).

Thanks for the info, always learning!

 

@VXSS When I switched from solvent to PPG waterborne they told us "forget everything you know about painting, and just absorb everything we tell you". As an example, you know that mottled, cloudy look that metallics can get when you screw them up? Pressure too low, or maybe sprayed far too wet? When spraying water, that's specifically what you want to do when spraying anything, especially metallics. :icon_eek: They call it the "puppy paws" effect, like a puppy with muddy paws just jumped around on your work. Solid blacks spray out as greenish blue. Whites spray cloudy and somewhat yellow. Hit it with the air dryer for a few seconds and it smooths right out. It's wild to see it work.

There's no question that their clears are thin. Modern cars all seem to have super thin clear. That seems to be the money saving part, not the switch to water. These manufacturers are probably saving a few bucks on application time and materials on each car, and multiplying it by thousands of cars to see more profits. Anyone who knows how Maaco or any other bottom of the barrel shop works knows this - reducer is cheaper than clear, and reducing clear at 25% and hitting it once looks just like three wet coats of clear with no reducer at all! It's sad, really.

On my own Forester I just painted (see build thread if you're interested), I hit some of the OEM clear with 400 DA paper and burned through near instantly. I know the car is an '06, and it's seen a hell of a lot of miles, but that's not the way it should be at all. I can usually hammer it with 400 with an interface pad and not burn through except on edges. Subaru must use next to no clear on these things!

I do know that there has been a huge push for upsells of protective coatings in recent years, you're definitely right. I always chalked it up to the fact that they cost next to nothing in time and materials and they're marking those services up like crazy. Easy money if they can get the sale.

 

Yeah, I had considered wetsanding and buffing my old '15 STi at one point, but the thought of defeating the already thin clear put me in my place, heh.