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Talked to a retired insurance adjuster at a diner in Toledo and he said something about clear coat that stuck with me.
He was having coffee next to me and saw my shop shirt. We got talking. He said, 'You know, I spent 30 years writing checks for repairs. The shops that got the most repeat business and the fewest callbacks weren't the fastest or the cheapest. They were the ones who treated a clear coat blend like a surgery, not a band-aid.' He said he'd seen too many shops rush the blend area, skip the extra de-nibbing pass, or use a cheaper mid-coat to save twelve minutes. Those cars always came back to him with issues a year later, and the customer never went back to that shop. Made me look at our blend procedure on a Civic fender we did yesterday. Are you guys seeing more problems now with these newer water-based clears holding up in blend zones over time?
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richardfox1mo ago
It's the same with everything now. People skip the boring steps that actually matter.
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charlesj461mo ago
That line about treating a clear coat blend like surgery is dead on. I read a forum post last week where a guy was having his blend fail on a two year old repair, and the shop tried to blame the new paint formulas. But @richardfox is right, it's skipping steps. The water based stuff might be less forgiving, but that just means the boring prep work matters even more now. Are shops just getting lazy, or is the time pressure from insurance making it worse?
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