Nissan introduces self-healing "Scratch Guard Coat" paint

The engineers at Nissan seem to have been swept up by those annoying pre-Thanksgiving Hulk promos on USA, as they've just announced a new kind of paint infused with a special resin that heals itself from scratches a la that green monster with a heart-of-gold. Although we doubt that cars coated with this new tech would weather a nuke as well as the Hulkster did, Nissan claims that most scratches will disappear in a day to a week, and that compared to regular paint, this new super-paint only suffers one-fifth of the damage from car washes. Marketed as "Scratch Guard Coat" (they better hope it works better than rustproofing), the new paint will debut in the near future on an unnamed SUV.

[Tots @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

The car is totaled, but the paint looks great!!

[Damo @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Do you thinkg 3M will sue: Scratch Guard ~ Scotch Guard?

[Dr. Atomicus @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Coming to an iPod Nano near you...

[olderty @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

They should market it to the people that make bathroom stall doors and walls. Better yet, ipod nano clearcoat!

They'd make brazillions!

[klwdallas @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

How much will the paint cost when you get in an accident? How much will insurance be?

[Dr. Atomicus @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

How do you make a Brazilian from car paint?

[mark davis @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

maybe they can paint to ozone with self repairing clearcoat.

[olderty @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

You tell me Dr.!

[Robert Aitchison @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Sounds like a great idea to me.

One of my biggest complaint about my Mazda3 is the terrible paint.

Mazda apparently went with an all new wet on wet painting system to reduce VOC emissions. The result was instead of several coats of paint you end up with ONE coat of paint.

Within 6 months the Mazda3 had far more chips in the paint than my 2000 Focus had in the 4 years I owned even though I had identical driving patterns & conditions (same commute, etc.)

Anything they can do to reduce all the little blemisshes in the paint will be welcome and definitely will improve the ownership experience.

[choco @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

What the hell type of car is that?

[Pinkerton @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

> What the hell type of car is that?

My guess is an early 80s El Camino, with the front of the car facing the camera.

http://www.bowtieclassic.com/pictures/80%20El%20Camino%20014.jpg

[Robert Aitchison @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Don't you mean:

What the hell type of car WAS that?

;)

[Michele Johnson @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Do they have the paint in flourescent green, so that the SUV's can see you in their rear-view mirror?!?!

mj
http://www.junglemungle.com

[Chris @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

I don't care how great the paint is, I would not buy an unnamed SUV.

[Conference Calling @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

wow...between this and the ding king i am set for life

[Geoff @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Looks like the el camino will need a bit longer then a week to heal.

[totalundone @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

Neat idea but there are many possible problems.

How hard will this be to apply to cars that need to be repainted because of extensive damage? How hard will it be to remove? How does it stand up to chipping? Will normal waxing/polishing work?

I don't remember the exact name, but I think Dupont had some type of car paint that was supposed to be very very resistant to scratching even look better than current paints but it required automotive companies to change out current painting machines.

Another thing, Mercedes has there ceramic clear coat (ceramiclear). I've been told it's trouble when dealing with a car with this coat. Much harder to sand down if a respray is needed, you need special polishes if you wish to polish (regular polishes don't work), and other things i can't think of now.

[Osman @ Dec 19th 2005 2:38AM]

I can see how the waxing issue would be a problem. I would imagine with something like this on the car, you wouldn't want to wax it at all. The wax will show and keep scratches, the paint will not.

There may be long term affects related to repainting / refinishing, but when there is new and better technology, people must adapt to it.