Clear coat finishes are incredibly sensitive to scratches and swirl marks. Because the top layer is clear, light reflects through it and bounces back highlighting these scratches from behind. This tends to magnify defects making them easier for your eyes to see.
Although most clear coat finishes are much harder and more resistant to oxidation than traditional lacquers and enamels finishes, they still scratch very easily. For this reason clear coat paints should never be worked on with old-fashioned, harsh abrasive products like rubbing or polishing compounds
Even more than yesterday's paints, today's clear coat finishes look faded whenever the surface becomes contaminated by above surface contaminants, things like:
- Airborne pollution
- Acid rain
- Industrial fallout
- Rail Dust
- Airborne overspray
- Bug splatter
- Bird dropping
As contaminants build-up on the surface they reduce the reflective quality of the finish by creating a surface with somewhat of a textured-feel to it. This in turn acts to diminish gloss (which is a direct result of how smooth your surface is), thus causing the paint to look dull.
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