The clear coat paint on the Z appears to be as soft (and scratchable) as the paint was on my 2002 Z06.

One of the best places to see exactly how many hairline scratches your paint has is a well lit parking lot at night. For some reason, the incandescent lighting seems to bring them out as much or more than sunlight. My PPW had few, put on by the dealer's "detailing" job. I have since polished them away and the paint now looks flawless (almost no orange peel at all), however I now know how careful I have to be when washing and waxing.

My wife has a 2002 Audi A-6. For the last year, she has taken it to a car wash (ugh!!) at least once a month, and I've only waxed it a couple of times. I took it to a lit parking lot last night to check the paint, and there is not one hairline scratch.......anywhere. The paint is f**king perfect. I was blown away. The way it has been treated, it should be in dire need of a major polishing, but it looks factory new.

So what's the secret?? Do the Germans have a harder, more durable clearcoat?

 

Wow. I've always thought Audis have sharp looking paint. This is a really interesting question.

 

What are you talking about? Clearcoats along with almost every automotive paint is a very hard and durable surface. Don't start posting things on the site saying the clearcoat is soft because your detailer put some scratches or swirl marks in your paint because he used an old and dusty buffer pad rather then spending $2 on a new one.

 

I have spoken with a couple of very experienced professional car detailers, and they have both told me that in recent years, as most manufacturers have gone to a waterborne paint system, the clearcoats have gotten much softer, making them far more susceptible to scratches incurred while washing and waxing. These detailers work on many different cars everyday and have done so for more than 20 years each. Even technicians at GM confirmed this fact to me when I had concerns about the softness of the clearcoat on my 2002 Z06 Corvette.

Perhaps you, Ohio350z, should make an effort to be more well-informed before you criticise someone else's post. That way, you don't look like an idiot. Check out how many posts there have been about people who have hairline scratches on their Z's(mostly black paint, where scratches are the most visible).

 

Pat Goss - stated that most new cars are hitting our shores far faster than in previous years... and as such the paints have not fully hardend.... This process can take up to 3-6 months after build... Also, the new packaging of vehichles does not allow for the paints to breath i.e. hardend during shipping or while sitting on car lots awaiting purchase........