Protecting Clear Coat

[Mikio]

My Solstice came with an added $900. clear coat and I wanted to put the same type of clear coat protection on my other car. What should I use?
Is it a spray on application or paste? Does anyone have the name and where I can get it?

Mikio...

[JewJenk]

Need more info,,,,,,
Are you talking about the clear bra, an extra coat or two, maybe three of clear paint, or a hand/machined rubbed in CLEAR PAINT PROTECTOR.....

It sounds as if you got $900 dollars of donkey dung.........

[Radio Doc]

Originally Posted by Mikio My Solstice came with an added $900. clear coat... Mikio...

Just curious -- was the clear coat on your Solstice a factory option or a dealer option?

[jonymac]

god I hope he doesn't say dealer option - that would be a crime...

[Mikio]

Originally Posted by Radio Doc Just curious -- was the clear coat on your Solstice a factory option or a dealer option?

It was a dealer option that I didn't have anything to say about.
I know I got F__Ked by my dealer. You wonder why GM is in the
situation they are in.

[Mikio]

Originally Posted by JewJenk Need more info,,,,,, Are you talking about the clear bra, an extra coat or two, maybe three of clear paint, or a hand/machined rubbed in CLEAR PAINT PROTECTOR..... It sounds as if you got $900 dollars of donkey dung.........

No, it's not a clear bra. I'm not sure what they did.

[MomsSol]

Originally Posted by Mikio No, it's not a clear bra. I'm not sure what they did.

What they did was a detail on the car ... wash and polish, treat the leather with some leather cleaner, shined up the wheels, etc. Same thing you could have done MUCH better by claybarring the railroad dust off the car, use a paint cleaner, add a couple of layers of nice synthetic polish. All for under $100 plus your labor.

This type of thing was added on the Solstices in the beginning .. just another way for the dealer to jack up the price to provide more profit for themselves.

[PAO]

Originally Posted by Mikio It was a dealer option that I didn't have anything to say about. I know I got F__Ked by my dealer. You wonder why GM is in the situation they are in.

thats an add on the dealer did....you didnt request, especially if you ordered the car..........he would have eaten that cost, another story if you chose it off the lot....a dealer profit is all it is......its a spray wax application they add on after detailing the car.....no better than the factory clear coat already standard with the paint....my dealer tried to pawn it off on my in 06......told him no thanks...

[LiquidPT]

Originally Posted by PAO thats an add on the dealer did....you didnt request, especially if you ordered the car..........he would have eaten that cost, another story if you chose it off the lot....a dealer profit is all it is......its a spray wax application they add on after detailing the car.....no better than the factory clear coat already standard with the paint....my dealer tried to pawn it off on my in 06......told him no thanks...

I agreed with you up to a point... Let's just clear something up though...

"Clear coat" is just clear paint. It's paint without the pigment in it. It's put on top of the color coat for a couple reasons: depth and more importantly so that light scratches don't take away color

Waxes and poly sealants (which are just synthetic waxes that last a little longer, but not years like dealers claim) are a sacrificial layer put on top of the clear coat to protect it. These things need to be reapplied every month to six months (depending on the product and the conditions) in order to be effective.

What the dealers sell (and for my Chrysler it was $300, before I knew better) is just a poly sealant. 3-6 months of protection. No need to "protect" this, since it's MEANT to be the sacrificial barrier. It does need to be reapplied though. Save your money and go to the local autoparts store and spend a couple hours one afternoon applying it.

I'm partial to Maguiar's NXT TechWax (which is a full synthetic poly seal), but others have their own preferences.

[I1ULUZ]

Originally Posted by Mikio It was a dealer option that I didn't have anything to say about. I know I got F__Ked by my dealer. You wonder why GM is in the situation they are in.

GM had nothing to do with that, it's all your local stealership's doing. GM might be a lot of negitive things but this is not one of them. And you could have said NO THANKS, started to walk away and that sonic boom would have them running to you saying OK, we'll drop that off the price.

Originally Posted by LiquidPT I agreed with you up to a point... Let's just clear something up though... "Clear coat" is just clear paint. It's paint without the pigment in it. It's put on top of the color coat for a couple reasons: depth and more importantly so that light scratches don't take away color Waxes and poly sealants (which are just synthetic waxes that last a little longer, but not years like dealers claim) are a sacrificial layer put on top of the clear coat to protect it. These things need to be reapplied every month to six months (depending on the product and the conditions) in order to be effective. What the dealers sell (and for my Chrysler it was $300, before I knew better) is just a poly sealant. 3-6 months of protection. No need to "protect" this, since it's MEANT to be the sacrificial barrier. It does need to be reapplied though. Save your money and go to the local autoparts store and spend a couple hours one afternoon applying it. I'm partial to Maguiar's NXT TechWax (which is a full synthetic poly seal), but others have their own preferences.

I agree Maguiar's NXT 2 is great product, I use it on my cars. Goes on easy and comes off really easy if you have mircofiber towels.

[NavyKnight]

Dude,

Your dealer really F#$%ked you over on that one. Clear coat is actually applied by the manufacturer and comes standard with Solstices. It's not even an option you can ask for from the pontiac.com website. Just go back to them and be straight up about it and tell them how they cheated you on $900 and ask how they will try and rectify the situation before you blast their reputation on local and national newspapers, internet forums, facebook and other media outlets. Also have business cards from reporters and say to the dealer you have scheduled interviews from these reporters if they decide not to rectify the situation. Maybe you can get 15 free Synthetic oil changes or maybe a free GMPP Tune for your ECU. I would fight it until the bitter end if I was you. THis kind of SH$%#$%#T would just keep me awake all night. Maybe I am obsessive, but my blood boils when I hear this SH$%#$%T. I would have felt like I just discovered I got slow raped repeatedly after waking up after 6 years like Uma Thurman on Kill Bill.
Good Luck.

[gz9gjg]

When I was shopping for my '08 last August, all of the cars on one dealer's lot had "Auto Butler Premier Protection" clear sealant added for $397, plus "Vehicle Theft Registration" for $198. I also got a really hard sell on the GM Protection Plan warranty.

I went to another dealer - told them up-front I wouldn't pay for any add-ons or the GMPP. I financed through my credit union at better rates, and I got the car I wanted with no BS add-on costs.

[rob the elder]

In doing my research for paint, I learned that automotive paint generally all come in a color coat, which is flat, and clear coat. The clear coat has to adhear to the surface, so the color coat is flat and provides good adhesion with the clear coat. The clear coat tend to be hard and resist anything sticking to them, like more paint. So when they do a proper repair, they first sand off all the clear coat.

The clear coat is there to protect the color coat and to provide the highly reflective surface shine.

[CalDreamin']

speaking of clear coat paint...I know ours is pretty thin.Does it seem feasible to have several coats of clear added for more protection/visual depth? Any idea of what something like that would run in Socal?