From what I know of painting (which isnt too much even though I have repainted the whole front end of a car), everything automotive-wise has a clear coat because that is what protects the paint and makes it shiny. Without a clearcoat you have a flat black paint that at most is a semi-gloss. Now there are a couple of different paints out there. There are a few cheap paints that are 1 stage in that they have the clear mixed in with the paint and there is only one spray step needed. They usually turn out with a lot of defects. There are a couple high end 1 stage paints out there that have just emerged on the market from BASF. They are pretty cool in that the color is sprayed with the clear, but the paint is somehow "heavier" than the clear and the paint falls in behind the clear giving it a very deep depth look. Normally most people clear over this 1 stage type paint again if they want good results. There are 2 stage paints which is what most factory paints are and what most people use. Thats a coat or two of paint and a couple coats of clear. Then you get into 3 stage and 4 stage paints. 3 Stages are your pearls and your metallics, etc. 4 Stage paints a lot of time are your color shifting paints or paints with 2 or more "effects" on them. Like pearl/flake etc.

Anyways I dont know any cars since the very early 50-60's stuff that dont have some type of clear coat across the top. The clear coat is the protective covering for paint and without it you would have some sever oxidation fairly quickly and whenever you got a decent size scratch in the paint you would immediately see metal under it. So anyways, it sounds like TTurboPimp knows what he is talking about so maybe there is something else Toyota/Lexus does to the Supra and GS, but there has to be something. I know the Toyota Camry's, Avalon's, Corolla's, etc are all clear coated. The vehicles you see driving around that dont seem to look like they are shiny any more are vehicles that are missing their clear coat. They might still have their color, but it just looks dull overall.

Jeremy
P.S. The color of the car I painted was Super Black which is a Nissan color, and it required a clear coat also.

 

Well you better hope so....

 

what the? i thought my car had a clear coat lol my front bumper which i'm gettin' repainted has a clear coat 'cause i can see it flaking off since i get so many rock chips, i'm gonna have to invest in a clear bra as well haha but yeah i think there's a clear coat, good thread, helped me out a bit myself

 

The single stage Black Onyx lexus cars are painted with urethane enamel. The basecoat/clearcoat Lexus cars are also painted with urethane enamel. They are chemically ONE IN THE SAME. The difference is the clearcoat has NO pigment in the topcoat.

The single stage paint will oxidize faster because the pigment is in the topcoat, however, it will also show swirls and scratches a bit less because when the clearcoat on a base / clear system is scratched, the scrach appears white (clearcoat resin abrades white) and when you scratch pigmented single stage, the scratch will be in the color black itself, thus not appearing as apparent or obvious. i.e. white scratch against black background = obvious

...black scratch against black background= harder to see.

This is one guess as to why lexus chose to use single stage urethane enamel on the black cars for many years. You can scratch them up a bit and they hide those scratches well, whereas a scratched clearcoat screams out a lot more, due to the white color the clear resins turn to when abraded in the same way.

According to the database we ran in the detailing forum last year, somewhere around the model years 2000- 2001 were the years lexus started using clearcoat on the black cars. If your car is 2001 or newer, and has basecoat, it's possible that it was damaged during shipping and resprayed. Not as uncommon as you might think, as transit damage occurs on a surprisingly widespread basis.

The majority of the respondants with 2000 + cars claimed clearcoats on their cars, so that's the best we have to go on at this point. Cheers.

 

Polyurethane is a liquid plastic. This is one of the most durable paints. I painted aircraft for Continental Airlines back in the day, and that is what we used. I don`t think I have clear coat on my black SC 400. I am in the process of restoring the paint, and some black comes off on the towel.This is a sign of no clear coat.
Dave