Acid etch resistant film-forming compositions and composite coating compositions

A multi-component composite coating composition comprising a base coat deposited from a pigmented film-forming composition and a transparent top coat applied over the base coat in which the transparent top coat is deposited from a clear film-forming composition comprising:

• A) a polymer having a weight average molecular weight of about 5000 to about 15,000 as determined by gel permeation chromatography using a polystyrene standard, and having a glass transition temperature of at least about 20° C., said polymer prepared from the following ingredients:
• 1) about 10 to about 70 percent by weight, based on the total solid weight of monomers used to prepare the polymer, of a reaction product of an ethylenically unsaturated acid functional monomer and an epoxy compound containing at least 5 carbon atoms which is not polymerizable with the ethylenically unsaturated acid functional monomer;
• 2) about 5 to about 50 percent by weight, based on the total solid weight of monomers used to prepare the polymer, of an ethylenically unsaturated, hydroxyalkyl functional monomer;
• 3) about 15 to about 40 percent by weight, based on the total solid weight of monomers used to prepare the polymer, of a vinyl aromatic monomer;
• and
• 4) about 10 to about 60 percent by weight, based on the total solid weight of monomers used to prepare the polymer, of an alkyl ester of acrylic or methacrylic acid containing from 1 to 30 carbon atoms in the alkyl group;
• B) an etherified aminoplast crosslinking agent, which is etherified with one or more alcohols selected from the group consisting of methanol, n-butyl alcohol, and isobutyl alcohol;
• and
• C) an adjuvant curing agent in an amount up to about 20 percent by weight based on the total weight of resin solids in the clear film-forming composition.