Clear coat - clear or tinted?

I just washed/clayed/etc... and noticed on my white pads a little bit of red. Er... I just realized how gross that could sound.

 

Anyway, I was wondering if Subaru has been known to use a tinted clear coat at all. I thought maybe it was some of the touch-up paint I used possibly transferring to the pad but I seem to recall this happening before.

 

Thoughts?

I've definitely never noticed any color coming off my GRP onto the pad. My dad's 87 911, on the other hand, definitely was single stage black.

 

I would have to believe it's the touch up paint. Either that, or the car was poorly repainted at one point.

It's been my car from day 1. No botched repaints.

 

Strange.

Clear coats are clear by definition. There isn't any reason to tint them at all. Subaru certainly doesn't do it. In fact, in 16 years of detailing hundreds of cars I can't say that I have ever encountered a factory paint job with a tinted clear coat. I've done some custom paint jobs where they have used different pearls and some "tinting" (not really accurate, but for the sake of argument...) but factory paint jobs either use single stage paint jobs or they use clear clear coat.

 

I don't know what the red was, but I will say this... Just because you have owned the car since day one doesn't mean the dealer didn't do some touch up before you took delivery. Cars get damaged in transit and on the lot all the time. Unless you saw them unload it, take the plastic off, and every step in between then you can't really say with certainty that the dealer didn't have to fix some damage at some point. Baring that, you could have had overspray on the car or something. Kind of hard to tell.

 

Brady, I didn't know your dad had an '87 911. That is one of my favorite cars ever just based on looks. I've got a regular who lets me take his out on the town once in awhile. I love driving that thing. Definitely single stage and definitely black. lol

OCD - I shared pics of that car with you several years ago (6-7 years ago). I detailed it while he was in Brazil, and on the left rear fender, the more horizontal surface, the brown primer was just starting to peek through in direct sunlight. You helped me diagnose the issue. He "blamed" me, rather than the 20+ years of poor care up to that point (he was probably the 4th, maybe 5th owner of the car). He wasn't really upset, but didn't trust that it had been there all along. That thing had so many swirls, it masked the fact that the paint was thin on the arch. With the swirls gone, it was a faint discoloration under direct sun.

 

Car had been damaged and repaired (poorly) before as well on the other side ... one side was single stage black, the other had clear coat (which was crackling all over). It looked good from a ways back, but up close you could see all the things that were not right.

 

He just sold it about a month ago. I'm sad to see it go, but I understand that he had the fun he wanted out of it and let it go to someone who is more interested in putting the time and money into maintaining it. One day I would love to get one for myself. It's a different driving experience, and one that I just found to be fun.

I probably expressed the same enthusiasm about it when you showed it to me the first time then. I'm sure I could dig back far enough and find it. Such a beautiful car.... I borrowed my friend's '86 a couple weeks ago and took it up around the back side of Park City and down into Salt Lake again. It was a really fun ride. Definitely a full body experience with the lack of power anything. lol

Either a single stage repair or you have an area where the clear has worn away.

FWIW, some manufacturers DO offer factory tinted clear coats, such as Corvettes in Millenium Yellow or Magnetic Red, or NSXs in Formula Red or Long Beach Blue Pearl. These are a tri-coat paint system with base, color coat, true clear coat, then a another clear coat layer with some tinted hue added. When polishing these paints you will have some color transfer to the pad and shouldn't be worried.

 

Although I'm not familiar with any Subaru tri-coat paint systems.