Had the local panel beater remove spoiler, respray the boot, and do a cut and polish to remove swirl marks on the rest of the body.

Anyway, I mentioned something about the clear coat and he said "There is no clear coat" I said "WTF are you on about", his reply was "it's just a baked enamel finish, no clear coat".

He also said metallic finishes will have a clear coat, but not my White '99 TH Magna Exec.

Is he off his guts? Can anyone provide evidence that Magnas do have clear coats?

mines metallic n definatly does have a clear coat

weight reduction!:D

I was told only metallic paints have clear coat, as my TR had clear coat (metallic blue) but my TJII doesn't (flame red).

Its quite possibly a 2-pack paint.

clear coat is not always needed, no.

White cars usually aren't clear coated.

hehe yea, no clear coat for you :P no need for it

hehe yea, no clear coat for you :P no need for it

not exactly true....

my father has been spraying cars for 30 years - and he has found from trial and error that using a clear is far superiour to not having it...only if used in the right way....

spray the base coats in the normal manner - then for the final top coat/s - MIX colour and clear coat at a 50/50 ratio......gives the paint (especially red for some reason) a very lusterous look and adds alot more "depth" to the paint - it actually appears as though you can look into the paint....awsome effect!....also, as a spin off - everytime you polish your car, you take off a little bit of colour with the clear coat, always leaving your cars paint looking brand new!

not exactly true....

my father has been spraying cars for 30 years - and he has found from trial and error that using a clear is far superiour to not having it...only if used in the right way....

spray the base coats in the normal manner - then for the final top coat/s - MIX colour and clear coat at a 50/50 ratio......gives the paint (especially red for some reason) a very lusterous look and adds alot more "depth" to the paint - it actually appears as though you can look into the paint....awsome effect!....also, as a spin off - everytime you polish your car, you take off a little bit of colour with the clear coat, always leaving your cars paint looking brand new!

your father is a genius that is just the info i needed for my black jobbo :D

if its white 2k solid then does not need clear coat it has its own gloss, and it works excactly the same as a clear coat so worrie about it unless his buffed through.

usually only mettalic paints have clear coats on them. the metallic/pearl coat is applied and then a 2 pack enamel clear is put down. 2 pack paints need a hardener to catalyse and set,(like resin) so the clear coat is mixed X parts paint to Y parts hardener. solid colours like white, red and yellow have the hardener mixed in with them also, so no clear is needed. it is possible to put clear over solid colours and it does make them look deeper and cleaner, however you will find not many, if any, smash shops do this as it uses excess product. just remember that clear is essentially a solid colour like red or white etc. If you want clear put over your solid colour when getting parts painted you really need to request it at the start, however they will probably charge you extra for it as it is using extra product.

Thanks for the replies! :D

The same guy said "you'll never get rid of the swirl marks"

So I'm just gonna try and polish the shizer out of a small section to see if he's right or not.

Then take it back and show him. :P

Completely and utterly swirl free - yeah, that's bordering on impossible.

Practically swirl free? If I can do it, it can't be that hard :P

Swirl marks can definitely be polished out. Just needs some TLC which panel shops aren't bothered to do. They usually just use a buffer at high speed and cutting compounds which work fast but don't finish up nicely.

if u cant get the swirls out try cutting it back with some 2000 wet dry grit paper then buff it again properly this time, mix some polish with the compound.

if u cant get the swirls out try cutting it back with some 2000 wet dry grit paper then buff it again properly this time, mix some polish with the compound.

And don't forget to add water, best way to get rid of them