2011 mitsubishi lancer..SOFT PAINT!

[tomsteve]

welp, i think my camera took a poop and lost the pictures, but i think words should be enough.
my son owns this '11 lancer. hes in the army and in afghanistan until september. car was parked at his moms for about 8 months until march...outside.. lovely michigan winter. picked it up and brought it back to my shop for an insane sound system install(kids these days..he has more $$ wrapped up in one subwoofer than i have spent on stereo equipment my entire life!).
waiting for all the components to come in for the install, i decided to make the car all nice and purdy. after washing, there were tons of swirls and some pretty serious scratches/scuff marks. clay barred it. then started with my pc7424, orange lake country pad, and 205. needed lil more so went to 105. im not a pro, but i do quite a few cars a year. this is the softest factory paint i have seen!! it didnt take much work with the 105! i started on the roof, went to trunk lid, then down both sides. when i got to the hood and front bumper, i couldnt believe the chips in the paint! the car only has 15k miles on it and my 96 taurus with 236k has less, and my taurus has seen a lot worse care!
so, what im sayin is, if ya get a mitsubishi, be careful! it is very soft paint! the outcome was awsome and it took less time than one bedside of a 98 silverado i had in about 2 months ago.
now to get onto that sound system install. cant stop shakin my head at these subs!!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: 2011 mitsubishi lancer..SOFT PAINT!

Darn nice of you to be taking care of your son's car like this while he's off serving our country.

Don't confuse stone chips with soft paint, however, at least not as the term "soft paint" is used to describe how easily a paint can be corrected when it comes to swirls, etc. The mechanical act of leveling paint versus chipping it is vastly different, and there are cars out there that are a breeze to polish but have very few chips (my daily driver is one) and others that will chip easily but are a real bugger to buff out. And besides, really soft paint wouldn't even need M105 to remove swirls from - in fact, M105 could badly haze really soft paint. Still, it is nice when you get hold of a car that looks really bad but ends up being really easy to correct, as your son's Lancer apparently is.

Godspeed to your son, and please thank him on our behalf for his service. And thanks to you, as well, since it can't be easy having your son so far from home under those circumstances.