Hardness of clear coat on Corvettes

[ratcals]

I'm a new guy to the forum and very particular about how my vehicle looks. I do all the detailing on my cars myself. I have a problem and hope to get some help.

I recently purchased a 2002 Corvette and it is black. The previous owner's wife had obviously taken it through a carwash. This is evident by the scratches on the car, mostly on the sides along with some spiderwebbing as seen in the picture:








And





I currently own a DA buffer made by Craftsman and have had good luck with it in the past but admittedly all of my previous cars were either brand new or recently resprayed. However, I wanted to try and see if I could make the car look better by hand so I followed the link posted here several times on how to remove swirls by hand.

Well I used the ScratchX and was very vigorous with it. In fact I put on 3 applications and did not see any difference. So I'm wondering is the paint/clearcoat harder than most?

I plan on trying the #80 and #83 next but not until my recently ordered PC arrives.

I'm way open to suggestions here. It's a very nice car and I got it at a good price. It's just unfortunate the previous owner did not treat it with the respect a Corvette deserves.

Mark

[Mike Phillips]

Hi ratcals,

Welcome to Meguiar's Online!

From my experience working on many, many Corvettes both new and old, original paint and factory paint, all of the paint on the newer Corvettes have had very hard paint.

If you're looking for a flawless finish on your black Corvette, your best bet is to figure a way to get a dual action polisher like our G100 into your hands.

By the way, after applying the ScratchX, did you apply any wax?

[ratcals]

Tlhanks for the welcome.

No, I did not apply wax- yet (ran out of time). The wife already thinks I spend WAY too much time cleaning our vehicles. I plan on doing so later but I figured the wax was only going to protect and maybe some swirl filling?

[Mike Phillips]

Originally posted by ratcals
Tl hanks for the welcome.

No, I did not apply wax- yet (ran out of time). The wife already thinks I spend WAY too much time cleaning our vehicles. I plan on doing so later but I figured the wax was only going to protect and maybe some swirl filling?

Polishing paint is a process, your final results are based upon all the products and their results as a whole.

All you did was apply a paint cleaner, at a minimum you should apply a wax also and yes the wax will help to take the results of the scratchX to a higher level. This is why I show all the steps in the how-to article.

How To Remove Swirls By Hand


Try applying two thin coats of the NXT Tech Wax, liquid or paste, over the area you applied ScratchX and then inspect.

[ratcals]

Okay, I will stop on my way home today and get some Deep Crystal Polish and NXT Generation Tech Wax Paste and see what that does.

I'll let you know.

Thanks.

[ratcals]

So I bought some Deep Crystal Polish and NXT Generation Tech Wax Liquid on my way home today. I applied the ScratchX three times, the Deep Crystal Polish twice and the NXT Generation Tech Wax Liquid twice and all by hand. I've only got two words for you- I'm sold.

I think flaws in the paint show up best in bright sunlight and that is a rare commodity here in England but I did manage these two shot before it went away for the day or quite possibly the year;

Before






And After





As you can see it did a great job of removing the swirls. It also made the paint a very deep dark black, no light escaping from my car. However, it did nothing to remove the scratches. I can't get the scratches to show up in a picture. They aren't deep, more of a hairline scratch. You can't even feel them when you run your fingernail across them, but in the right light they show up prominently.

Any suggestions on getting those out? Also are the 3 products I used already DA safe?

I plan on getting the #80 and #83 but unfortunately if you want it here you have to buy it by the case for a total of $150 per case. Way beyond my price range so the next time I'm in the US (a couple of weeks) I plan on looking for some.