Self Repairing Paints

[jer428]

Question on what detailing will become?
What do you think these new type of paints coming out will do to the detailing world of compounds, polishes and waxes. Will there be a need for these type of products that we use today with these new paints coming out? Links below

http://autos.canada.com/news/story.html?id=f86ddd52-ba7e-48d8-9aad-e80db01ce3f2

and

http://www.aquaphaseauto.com/

Just wondering what your thoughts are on these new paint systems.
Thanks

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Self Repairing Paints

First, seeing this is your first post to the forum,

Question on what detailing will become?



Just wondering what your thoughts are on these new paint systems.

Thanks

Welcome to Meguiar's Online!


As to your questions...

There are so many cars on the road right now with traditional paint systems that there will be plenty of need for the products available today, as these new paint technologies emerge and go mainstream, if new products are required to work on them then we're confident our R&D department will be bringing out new products to fill the need.

Personally, don't think self healing or self repairing paints will meet everyone's expectations, that is don't think that these paints will maintain a show room new finish over time by themselves. It's a great idea, but knowing how dirty, scratched, swirled stained, etc. paint gets on the average daily driver, there's no way any surface coating is going to stay flawless on it's own.

If this is true, that means we're going to need products to work on these paints but more important, the paint manufactures need to make sure these paint can be worked on, not just by a Professionals, but by the average person.

This is where clear coat paints have really failed the consumer market, most people don't possess the knowledge and skills necessary to diagnose paint defects in their car's finish and then choose the appropriate products to correct the problems as well as knowing the correct techniques to apply and remove these products whether by hand or machine.

That's why forums like these are popular and that's why our Thursday and Saturday classes are so popular, people are primarily coming to these classes to learn how to work on their car's paint.

Compared to traditional single stage paints, like the one below, modern clear coats are much more difficult to correct when they have problems.

Before



After




While single stage paints tend to oxidize and turn chalky and dull, (and this is fairly easy to fix if you know the right products to use), modern clear coats don't really oxidize nearly as easily or quickly. The problems with clear coat finishes is the paint itself is often times harder than single stage paints but still scratches and swirls fairly easily, then when you go to remove the swirls and scratches, because the paint is harder it's harder to remove them because removing swirls and scratches means removing small particles of paint in a controlled manner and most people don't know to do this kind of work.

This is primarily why the consumer struggles with clear coat paints, they can't prevent the clear coat paint on their car from becoming swirled and scratched and they struggle with removing swirls and scratches after they build-up to the point where the owner decides they need to take action.

Pro Detailers and Body Shop Technicians struggle with the same issue.

A simple indicator that this is true is to look at how popular the dual action polishers like our G110 and it's predecessor, the G100 which was a re-badged Porter Cable Dual Action Polisher have become over the last 15 years.

The machine has the ability to remove small particles of paint faster and more effectively than the human hand. The Internet, and specifically discussion forums have done a great job of disseminating information on these tool and the chemicals, pads and techniques for using them and hundreds of thousands of car owners have crossed the line from working by hand to working by machine.

Back to the matter at hand...
We're excited for the changes coming in paint technologies for the future, but lets hope the paint manufactures not only take into consideration the needs of the car manufactures and the collision industry, (two entities that apply paint), lets hope they also do their research into insuring the average person can work on and take care of these new paint systems that will be on the cars of the future.

Just some insights after teaching hundreds of Saturday classes and working with people from all walks of life and from all these classes having a full awareness of the frustration the average car owner goes through trying to figure out how to work on their car's clear coat finish.

The pictures below are also an indicator of the frustration people experience trying to take care of the clear coat finish on their cars. We have a constant demand for these classes and the primary reason people come to Meguiar's is to learn how to remove swirls and create the show car finish they dream of for their pride and joy.


An average Saturday Class



Learning ow to work on their car's paint












Seeing the results from the head knowledge they gain in the classroom and
the hands-on training they gain in the garage.



Sorry, we somehow didn't get the "After" shots but you can trust that what these people are looking at is what all our attendees look at and that's a show car finish after learning how to evaluate the finish, choose the right products and use good technique to apply and remove the products.


So lets hope the paint manufactures remember us, the people that buy the cars and trucks and want to be able to take care of them without having to have a degrees in chemistry and engineering.

[jer428]

Re: Self Repairing Paints

Thanks for the quick reply Mike, found it very interesting. Site rocks, lots of info and everyone seems very friendly and no bashing.
Thanks again.