Help in Determaning hard paint

[ALLMAN BROS FAN]

Hey Guys Will somebody give me an example situation of when I know when I'm dealing with hard paint instead of normal or delicate . This would help me alot in assessing this Lexus I'm dealing with now.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Help in Determaning hard paint

Hard paint is just very resistant to correction. Let's say you do a test spot with Ultimate Compound on a W8207 yellow polishing pad, speed 5 on the D/A and proper technique and you see virtually no change in the finish at all, you've got fairly hard paint.

Where a lot of new users get tripped up is when they're dealing with soft paint - they do a test spot and the finish looks far from perfect so they get the impression that they need to get more aggressive. What they fail to realize, fail to observe, is that even though the finish may not look all that great, it looks quite different from where they started. They've traded out one set of bad defects for another, usually really bad hazing.

Really hard paint will rarely haze like that, it will just sit there and not respond at all to your input. Of course, there are varying degrees of hardness. Crazy hard paint will not change visually even after one very aggressive pass with a serious pad/liquid combo. Very hard paint will show a slight to moderate improvement after a couple of passes (still no bad hazing, however) and so on.

Paint is really interesting stuff. Some paints will correct with a single pass of Ultimate Compound and look incredible, ready for wax even. Others will correct just as easily but leave a hazy appearance that needs to be cleaned up with a less aggressive follow up - SwirlX or M205. This clean up step to remove the haze is usually very quick and painless, which is nice! Neither of these paints would be classified as being really hard or soft, but the one that hazes a bit is certainly more delicate.

It's the really soft stuff that can drive you bonkers though because no matter how you touch it, it just doesn't want to give you that clear, deep reflection. The swirls will removed very easily, but it just looks dull and flat no matter what you do. A very gentle approach is called for in those cases, including possible hand application of a cleaner wax with an applicator that uniformly spreads pressure across the applicator.

[ALLMAN BROS FAN]

Re: Help in Determaning hard paint

Hey Michael Thanks for the very clear definition, the things you explain to me are really beginning to make me read the paint with a lot more clarity . I'm so very much further along than just two weeks ago.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Help in Determaning hard paint

You're definitely asking a lot of really good questions that show us that you are really thinking things through as you go. That's great and should serve you well as you gain knowledge, skill and confidence.

Keep it up!!