newpony13

I am finding the clearcoat on my Deep Impact Blue to be extremely soft. Any of you finding the same problem? When I park my car in the garage it looks pathetic under the flourescent lights. Should the clearcoat scratch that easily? I used nothing but a microfiber hand mitt for washing and a microfiber cloth for drying. It looks great in normal light but noticed in placed where I used the microfiber cloth and rubbing alcohol to remove some tree sap there were scratch marks on the clearcoat. I'm OCD about cleaning my car and made sure I didn't use too much pressure to remove the sap, but it scratched to the point where I'm probably going to have to pay someone to wet sand it because it looks so bad. Now I'm not griping about that because I'm the one that screwed it up, but I think Ford should use a more durable/hard clearcoat on their cars. Does anyone here feel the clearcoat is pathetic?

the_bottomless_pit

yup, I'm in the same boat. was carfeul washing using MF mitt and MF towels to dry...still got swirls in the clearcoat

mine def needs some quality polishing and waxing

Overboost

Technique and products have a lot to do with it as well. If you're using the same MF for wheels and paint, you're promoting scratches. If you're using a soap with poor lubricity, you'll also run a higher risk of swirls.

25bduse

Go to Adamspolishes.com and watch the videos

MarcHarris

I'm very impressed by Ford's clear they have on the 2013's. I recently got the chance to take a look at the extremely hard to maintain jet black without stripes: https://themustangsource.com/f659/big-thanks-514435/

Average thickness readings in the range of 120-145 microns (brand new BMW's: 70-85, brand-new Audi's in the 65-85 range), aluminum hood slightly thicker (135-150 microns), and supplied plastic components with clear-coat thickness in the 50-65micron range.

The clear used seems to be about a medium thickness and while Meguiar's 205 on white did a good job of eliminating swirls and some lighter scratches, it didn't quite finish down with absolute clarity, so the owner and I made the choice to give it an extra step of 3M Ultrafine on a black pad to leave the finish looking truly more glossy and clear than new.

Your paint is good enough that defects on the clear can be easily spotted (unlike a VERY poor OEM paint job on a brand new BMW 335is I recently worked on), and softness does NOT equal bad. Harder clear is more brittle and susceptible to chipping. The clear on these cars is not what I'd consider soft, but rather a medium hardness with excellent thickness and clarity.

Stevedotmil

Good info Marc. Thanks for sharing.

the dudeness

Thanks for the link, these were some great videos as i have never looked into doing real deep cleaning on my own before (also never owned a car i planned to keep long enough for it to matter). But now i have the basics and theory to keep my car nice and shinning (once i take delivery that is).