Comments on: Still Musing

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 04:19:07 +0000

Polyurethane is wonderful stuff for protecting wood, and a lot better now than the first time I dealt with it. That first time it bubbled and it was hell sanding out the bubbles and applying a cover coat. Once it dries it will stand up to the local quartz sand on wood flooring.

I knew they must have improved it because the Honda is still holding up after 8 years.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 02:29:59 +0000

The core problem was that the EPA forced the auto manufacturers to go to water-based paints for environmental reasons, but the technology wasn’t there yet to make that actually work. The end result was paint jobs that peeled early and often. The clear coat was an attempt to deal with that by putting a protective layer over the paint, but that was half baked technology too, they could make it last 5 years, no more, the moment it hit 6 years it peeled off. The average car now lasts over 10 years, so clearly that wasn’t sufficient. But the latest multi-part polyurethanes seem to be doing *much* better…

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 21:38:08 +0000

The really annoying part of the early clear coat problem was that, like undercoating, it was an extra cost option.

Down here, white is the predominate color choice because of the sun. The Honda is an oven if you park in the sun, a kiln in air temperatures above 80.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 06:27:01 +0000

The clear coat problem is indeed solved. It seemed like every car from the mid 80’s to mid 90’s had that clear coat problem, the clear coat would start peeling within five years, but they figured out by the late 90’s how to make clear coat last. No more peeling clear coat.

They have these new polymer waxes that bond with the clear coat, too, and make it additionally resistant to clouding and peeling. But one advantage of a white car like the Whale is that you can’t tell that it’s clouding anyhow, ’cause cloudy white over white is, uhm, white — thus why I bought the Great White Whale rather than the Great Black Whale, heh.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 04:57:18 +0000

When we had water shortages in San Diego in the 1980s car washes required to recycle their water to stay in business. Car washing at home was outlawed, so only outlaws had clean cars.

You have so much salt in the air that you would have to wash it at least every few months or the clear coat would cloud up and peel. I assume they have done something about the clear coat problem by now.

I have to go wash off the Honda as soon as it gets warm because it is coated with pollen. Fortunately we don’t have a water problem.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Sat, 28 Mar 2015 23:50:28 +0000

It’s 76F outside right now. I just finished washing the Whale, after I rest a little and let my back stop twinging so badly I’m going to go out and wax it. Since this is the first wash / wax it’s gotten in six months time I don’t feel too bad about the water needed to wash it, you have to do something every six months or so or else the paint job starts degenerating, especially with bugs spattering all over.