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How To Test for a Clearcoat or Single Stage Paint Finish
Before working on a Special Interest or Custom car, it's a good idea to first establish what kind of paint is on the car unless the owner can definitely tell you what type of paint is on the car. Older cars and sometimes special interest, and often times original older cars will have a single stage paint job. At the same time, if these cars have been repainted recently the painter may have sprayed a modern Basecoat/Clearcoat paint system onto the car. If the owner doesn't know or isn't sure what type of finish/paint system the car has then before you work on it you want to find out exactly what kind of finish is on the car. You can do this by testing the panels on the car using a paint cleaner like ScratchX or Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner cleaner and either a clean soft wax applicator pad or a piece of terry cloth toweling.
Note: 99.9% of all new cars have a basecoat clearcoat paint system. Clear coat paints were introduced in the early 1980's and as each year went by more and more manufactures switched their entire line of cars to clearcoat paint systems. So if you're working on a newer car and it has the factory finish, chances are pretty good it's a clear coat paint system, if you want to, it never hurts to check anyways as there are a small percentage of new cars that have single stage paint systems and there are some cars that have what are called "Tinted Clears". So when in doubt, simply check to find out what type of paint system you're working on before starting the paint polishing process.
To test a car to find out if it has a clear coat finish or a single stage finish you want to use a paint cleaner and a white cloth of some type, if you're working on a white car then you'll want to use a dark colored cloth because if the car is in fact a single stage paint then you won't be able to see the white pigment you're removing on white cloth, so use a dark colored cloth when testing white cars.
It' also important to check for paint type on a number of different panels, and if you want to be 100% sure then check all the panels. It's possible to have one type of paint on one panel and another type of paint on a different panel. You can see we checked multiple panels when we did the 1956 Cadillac Eldorado's Show Car Makeover.
Since we had to test this car's paint before working on it we took the liberty to capture how to do this using pictures...
For this example we're going to use Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner with one of our Even Coat Microfiber Applicator Pads. You could also use ScratchX as both ScratchX and Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner are both white in color and work very well for checking for a clear coat paint or a pigmented or single stage paint.
Apply some of the Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner to the face of the pad.
Next you'll want to rub the paint cleaner to a number of places on the car to check and make sure the entire car is using the same type of paint system. It is possible to have a car in which some panels are clear coated and some panels have a single stage paint depending upon whether or not it's been repaired and how it was repaired. Yes, it is possible in this day and age for some body shops to spray a repaired panel using a different paint system than the rest of the car, for this reason you need to inspect or test a few different panels to get a good idea of what you're working on, in some cases you may want to check each panel on the car.
After rubbing the paint cleaner against the paint turn the pad over and inspect it. If you find color on the pad this is an indicator that the paint you're working on is a single stage finish and the color you're seeing is the pigment transferring from the paint to your applicator pad.
As you can see from the test, this 1956 Cadillac does in fact have a red, single stage paint finish.
Over the summer we buffed out a 1956 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud and upon checking the panels we discovered all of the car to be clear-coated EXCEPT the Trunk Lid which was painted with a single stage white paint.
1956 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud - Clearcoat finish except the Trunk Lid which has single stage paint.
(Photo taken in front of Bob Hopes first house in Palm Springs, California)
Here's what my buffing pad looked like after buffing the trunk lid. If you see the color of the paint
on your car building up on the face of your buffing pad.
So whenever you're working on something important, to either you or your customer, and you're unsure of the paint type, take a few minutes to do the above simple test.
Before working on a Special Interest or Custom car, it's a good idea to first establish what kind of paint is on the car unless the owner can definitely tell you what type of paint is on the car. Older cars and sometimes special interest, and often times original older cars will have a single stage paint job. At the same time, if these cars have been repainted recently the painter may have sprayed a modern Basecoat/Clearcoat paint system onto the car. If the owner doesn't know or isn't sure what type of finish/paint system the car has then before you work on it you want to find out exactly what kind of finish is on the car. You can do this by testing the panels on the car using a paint cleaner like ScratchX or Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner cleaner and either a clean soft wax applicator pad or a piece of terry cloth toweling.
Note: 99.9% of all new cars have a basecoat clearcoat paint system. Clear coat paints were introduced in the early 1980's and as each year went by more and more manufactures switched their entire line of cars to clearcoat paint systems. So if you're working on a newer car and it has the factory finish, chances are pretty good it's a clear coat paint system, if you want to, it never hurts to check anyways as there are a small percentage of new cars that have single stage paint systems and there are some cars that have what are called "Tinted Clears". So when in doubt, simply check to find out what type of paint system you're working on before starting the paint polishing process.
To test a car to find out if it has a clear coat finish or a single stage finish you want to use a paint cleaner and a white cloth of some type, if you're working on a white car then you'll want to use a dark colored cloth because if the car is in fact a single stage paint then you won't be able to see the white pigment you're removing on white cloth, so use a dark colored cloth when testing white cars.
It' also important to check for paint type on a number of different panels, and if you want to be 100% sure then check all the panels. It's possible to have one type of paint on one panel and another type of paint on a different panel. You can see we checked multiple panels when we did the 1956 Cadillac Eldorado's Show Car Makeover.
Since we had to test this car's paint before working on it we took the liberty to capture how to do this using pictures...
For this example we're going to use Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner with one of our Even Coat Microfiber Applicator Pads. You could also use ScratchX as both ScratchX and Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner are both white in color and work very well for checking for a clear coat paint or a pigmented or single stage paint.
Apply some of the Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner to the face of the pad.
Next you'll want to rub the paint cleaner to a number of places on the car to check and make sure the entire car is using the same type of paint system. It is possible to have a car in which some panels are clear coated and some panels have a single stage paint depending upon whether or not it's been repaired and how it was repaired. Yes, it is possible in this day and age for some body shops to spray a repaired panel using a different paint system than the rest of the car, for this reason you need to inspect or test a few different panels to get a good idea of what you're working on, in some cases you may want to check each panel on the car.
After rubbing the paint cleaner against the paint turn the pad over and inspect it. If you find color on the pad this is an indicator that the paint you're working on is a single stage finish and the color you're seeing is the pigment transferring from the paint to your applicator pad.
As you can see from the test, this 1956 Cadillac does in fact have a red, single stage paint finish.
Over the summer we buffed out a 1956 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud and upon checking the panels we discovered all of the car to be clear-coated EXCEPT the Trunk Lid which was painted with a single stage white paint.
1956 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud - Clearcoat finish except the Trunk Lid which has single stage paint.
(Photo taken in front of Bob Hopes first house in Palm Springs, California)
Here's what my buffing pad looked like after buffing the trunk lid. If you see the color of the paint
on your car building up on the face of your buffing pad.
So whenever you're working on something important, to either you or your customer, and you're unsure of the paint type, take a few minutes to do the above simple test.
does it have any effects like the paint is not good or other kind?
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