Clear Coat Sealer Addon by Dealer?

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FlatwaterMG

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Joined
Feb 21, 2010
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9
In the last stage of purchasing a 2009 Winnebago Outlook, the dealer has offered a clear coat finish called Final Coat that uses hot air blowers to heat the exterior of the MH then a clear sealer is applied to all of the surfaces.  What your thoughts and has anyone had this applied to their coach?  By the way this rig is part paint/part decals.
 
Welcome to rvforum and congrats on your upcoming purchase of the Outlook - great choice.  We have been very pleased with our Horizon for over 50k miles.

Personally I consider all of those dealer applied protection options a flaming waste of money.  There is a Winnebago service tips publication and for full body paint, I don't think they recommend polishing a new rig for the first six months (then they recommend a paste wax.)  Not sure if the Outlook is decals, partial paint, or full body.
 
Ranks up there with dealer-applied undercoating on vehicles. A waste of money.
 
Yeah, there are varieties of this stuff available in exchange for your $$$!  Don't know that I have heard of this one, but all the others I have seen are just expensive wax jobs ...add heat, and it's a hot wax job!!  I would just follow Winnebago's recommendations for the finish the coach has.
 
  A clever marketing scheme. The heated finish is supposed to help the silicone base adhere to the paint. In reality it's designed to separate you from your money.
 
 
I would somewhat disagree with others here as to the waste of $.  It all depends upon what you are paying for it.  How much will you be willing to pay for a regular wax job?  If it is anywhere near what they want it may well be worth it.  I wax my rig myself (35' class A) and sometimes wonder while I am doing it how much would I pay someone else to do it.  If I could actually get the paint shield to last a couple of years, and it was a couple of hundred, maybe it would be worth it.  The hot wax job is a new twist, although it does not sound feasible that the wax would penetrate  the paint.  It should just cover the paint.
 
Auto and RV dealers all market a variety of products affectionately known in the industry as "mop and glow".  Some of the products are applied by hand by dealership employees or contractors, some by a carwash-like machine and some (like the example I saw at an RV dealership some years ago, where the dealer just handed his customers a box of two or three small bottles and a buffing rag for $1200!) you do it yourself.

In any case, they are all just various forms of wax and/or emulsified plastics or silicone.  None that I have ever encountered (and I was in the car business for some time) provide any protection beyond what you get with a good wax job - many much worse.  They are mostly designed to give the inside of your wallet a smooth and slippery surface in the finance office.  Save your money and get your rig waxed once a year.  If you can't or don't want to do it yourself, using a good qualified detailer will still save you money.
 
I'm like mphy98.  Now my experience is 17 years old, so I'm sure products have come and go; but when we bought our 93 Chevy dually truck, I had the clear coat put on it.  It took them a day to put it on and I don't remember how it was applied.  In the 12 years I had that truck, I never waxed it.  It shinned like a silver penny when it was wash and dried and it was not under cover and was in the hot California sun.  I do think it made a difference in keeping the truck looking good for lots of years.

A couple of years ago we bought a new Chevy truck and asked to have the same stuff put on as an after product.  They told us the new paints used now a days have something added so that the paint doesn't fade and continues to have the great shine even without waxing; and it does.

Marsha~
 
As a former Finance Director, Marsha, I'm glad you were satisfied with your mop & glow. I'm just saying, there's no such material that will protect an automotive painted surface for much longer than a wax job.  Can you imagine what an advertising advantage a manufacturer would have if its products all looked like new after ten years?  Every car coming off the assembly line would be so coated. 
 
Why not tell the dealer to throw it in as part of the deal!  Then you will evaluate it and let him know if its any good.  I was in the car business for 25 years and sold that stuff by the gallons.  It works for about 3 weeks then its downhill from there.  Think about it!!!!
George
 
Every car coming off the assembly line would be so coated. 

Actually, Talyho is right: Clearcoat IS the 'sealant' the manufacturers use to keep paint jobs looking new for years. 

The best quality paint sealant I was ever involved with was sold by a dealer in So Cal.  It sold as a two-application per year program for three years for $695 - about the cost of six regular details.  It was a product that cost the dealer around $19 per application and took about 2 man hours @ $10/hr to apply.  This adds up to a dealer cost of $234 over the three years.

The point is, even as good a quality a product as it was, testing by the manufacturer of the material showed that it was gone from the paint job before a year - hence the twice-a-year application.  And, yes, cars traded in after the three years looked generally better than most, but would have looked just as good if they had been waxed 6 times. 

 
Clearcoat is the same resin as the basecoat less the color pigments - it is often referred to as two stage paint system. Clearcoat needs to be maintained (waxing) but if not will often still survive for a number of years looking fairly good; is dependent upon pollutants,UV exposure, etc in the cars location.
 
As Leo has described, "Clear coat" is part of the modern paint process (called base coat + clear coat) and different than the aftermarket finish protection products applied by dealers and detailers.
 
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