Dealer says No Clear Coat On My Car - Is this true?

Rui Z

No, our cars already come with clear coat. However, in other countries they do have a factory option to get a self healing clear coat.

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TypeOne

Man they sure do screw you over, don't they?

TropicZ

Hi all, thanks for your replies. I took delivery of my car yesterday. I did a once over (well, many times over actually) and found that it was glossy and nothing at all like the week earlier when it was still in film and that dirty dull sticky stuff. There was leftover fine white powder residue visible on some areas which was indicative that they probably machine-polished off some wax or sealant. I was intending to have the paint protected in a clear wrap - Llumar paint protection film... so I asked the sales person to confirm if clear coat had been sprayed on the paint work. I told the sales person that my understanding is that cars get a layer of primer followed by color and clear coat at the factory. So, why would a layer of clear coat need to be applied?

The sales person reconfirmed with the workshop manager and apparently they ship the cars in bulk from Japan and yes they do come with clear coat from the factory. Sometimes they are left for a year or more before someone buys one. During the period of being exposed to the elements, if they find that they cannot polish the car back to a factory lustre, they send it for a layer of clear coat. All this is free. For the life of me, I couldn't find any evidence of a recent application of clear coat. I checked the edges, panel lines, under the weather seals, around corners and joints such as the side skirts, bumper-to-body gaps etc. and found no evidence of recent clear coat. Also, there was no smell of paint which you normally get if you re-spray or clear coat the body. I think at the end of the day, something was lost in translation. Not everyone speaks English here... Perhaps they meant they applied a layer of sealant on the clear coat.

kenchan

sounds good. that's smart to look at the edges and corners and smell for paint. you will DEFINITELY be able to smell paint if they sprayed something over which I highly doubt they do. they probably just polish a little bit and apply polymer sealant.