PDR Technician: A Journey Through Clearcoat Maintenance For The Detailer Part VI

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3-clear-coat-differences

Now that I have you hooked on the somewhat scientific proof by using a window analogy, let’s get you back to the window.

For a new car, the clearcoats protection from ultra-violet rays, keeps the car from fading the way the older cars do. So essentially, if you have a newer model vehicle that has this heavy duty clearcoat, then what you essentially have is a ‘solar window.’

Now it’s your responsibility to keep that solar window clean to maintain the color finish, which the industry calls Distinction of Image (DOI). Basically, the DOI is the deep gloss that you are trying to maintain in your vehicle’s finish.

Now that I have explained this I want to tell you how you can check this on your own vehicle. Take a newspaper or magazine over the finish, if you can read it from its reflection in the finish, then you have depth in clarity in the finish. You will get this same result when you are polishing or waxing the clearcoat, you look into the finish for a reflection of yourself. If there are any detailing or clearcoat flaws, they will show up in your reflected image as wavy or imperfect.

When you are detailing a car, obviously what you are looking for is a slippery wet finish. When you see one of the street racing cars, where so much work has gone into the looks, and of course the engine, the color is quite amazing. Very shiny and wet looking, almost as if you could put your hand into a pool of water. What you are looking at is the window of the clearcoat finish. This amazing look is very difficult to explain, if for instance you were on the phone trying to describe it. What you are left with though, is the result of the clearcoat finish and, if the words are lost in the description, then all you have to do is to look at it to see the beauty that is the clearcoat.