Older paint Better than today?

Frupal · 08-24-2020, 11:59 AM

At the moment I have two cars. My beloved 2016 640i GC, and my gorgeous little Magma Red CLK430. The Benz has only 31k on the clock and she looks it, inside and out. The thing is, I wash and wax them with the same products, good ones, and today I washed the Benz and noticed that it was basically ALLERGIC to the water. For some reason it seems to bead up and off much faster than the Beemer. Did they use different paint back in the day 20 years ago? Of course they did. Was it better? Or is this just a factor of a more steeply raked hood. Or perhaps I’ve completely lost my mind. Your thoughts?

Opie55 · 08-24-2020, 02:41 PM

Paints - or clear coats- vary somewhat from maker to maker in term of hardness. Detailers will often say that such and such brand has a hard or soft clear coat. In my experience, BMW seems softer than MB. It takes less time and effort to polish out scratches. And occasionally a particular color will become notorious for peeling clear coat. The non-metallic MB red did that. But mostly I think paints have been of similar quality in recent years. But none of the above would affect water beading. That's really a factor of things like slope, how recently wax was applied, where the car has been parked since it was applied, whether it has been rained on or washed since, etc.

Mennaf06 · 08-31-2020, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frupal

At the moment I have two cars. My beloved 2016 640i GC, and my gorgeous little Magma Red CLK430. The Benz has only 31k on the clock and she looks it, inside and out. The thing is, I wash and wax them with the same products, good ones, and today I washed the Benz and noticed that it was basically ALLERGIC to the water. For some reason it seems to bead up and off much faster than the Beemer. Did they use different paint back in the day 20 years ago? Of course they did. Was it better? Or is this just a factor of a more steeply raked hood. Or perhaps I’ve completely lost my mind. Your thoughts?

Paints have changed from solvent based to water based. Bmw tends to have a dryer finish (more orange peel) but should technically hold up the same. I suggest a good ceramic coating. It will get the water affect your looking for as well as being that deep colour out/ make the paint last longer

08-24-2020, 11:59 AM	#1
Frupal Mad Fiddler 792 Rep 991 Posts Drives: 2016 BMW 640i GC Join Date: Apr 2019 Location: Los Angeles iTrader: (1)	Older paint Better than today? At the moment I have two cars. My beloved 2016 640i GC, and my gorgeous little Magma Red CLK430. The Benz has only 31k on the clock and she looks it, inside and out. The thing is, I wash and wax them with the same products, good ones, and today I washed the Benz and noticed that it was basically ALLERGIC to the water. For some reason it seems to bead up and off much faster than the Beemer. Did they use different paint back in the day 20 years ago? Of course they did. Was it better? Or is this just a factor of a more steeply raked hood. Or perhaps I’ve completely lost my mind. Your thoughts?
	Appreciate 0 Tweet Quote

08-24-2020, 02:41 PM	#2
Opie55 Colonel 1195 Rep 2,906 Posts Drives: '15 650i Convertible Join Date: Apr 2018 Location: US iTrader: (0)	Paints - or clear coats- vary somewhat from maker to maker in term of hardness. Detailers will often say that such and such brand has a hard or soft clear coat. In my experience, BMW seems softer than MB. It takes less time and effort to polish out scratches. And occasionally a particular color will become notorious for peeling clear coat. The non-metallic MB red did that. But mostly I think paints have been of similar quality in recent years. But none of the above would affect water beading. That's really a factor of things like slope, how recently wax was applied, where the car has been parked since it was applied, whether it has been rained on or washed since, etc.
	Appreciate 2 MMMM6GC275.00 Frupal791.50 Quote