Quote:

---

QUESTIONThe "scratch/nail test". Is this being done with your finger nail? or an actual nail? I remember reading about it a while ago..

---

Its done with your finger nail. Try to avoid doing it until the entire paint job has had a full opportunity to cure and harden. Just remember that each new bath of paint will 'potentially' soften the layer you are painting over.

That is why it is important to let each coat reach a good level of curing before splashing on the next coat.

There is a gentle way to try the nail test... ie just push down with your finger nail and see if it leaves a discernable dent in the paint.

The nastier way of test is to actually scratch your finger nail along the paint. The risk is that if you try this too early and before it is fully hardened, you will possibly get a jagged scratch or patch of paint that 'might' come off ( where you have successfully managed to separate the adhesion of the multilayers of paint from the original body surface that you painted over.

But to be quite honest... if I took you over to MAACO or most other paint shops that don't have the factory capability of 'baking the paint'... the odds are that we could sneak around their backyard and by just using our fingernails we could scratch their paint off the body surface.

One thing folks tend to forget is that at the factory, the body parts that are painted DON'T have rubber and plastic trim on them. Hence the factory can BAKE that surface a heck of a lot HOTTER then an aftermarket paint shop can.

Some full tilt hot days under a baking sun... really can do wonders to approximate the heat of a factory baking. But the paint shot 'baking over' is sort of limited because they don't want to melt or warp your rubber or plastic

.

.