2017 Kia Forte, hard or soft paint?

[Icarus]

I wanted to give my moms car a clean up as its covered in swirls from her car wash run thrus, lol...
Anyone know off-hand if these cars (2017 Kia Forte) have hard or soft paint?
Thanks!

[glen e]

Mid-soft…..

[Klasse Act]

I too would say mid-soft. I have a 2018 Hyundai Elantra Sport and when I did paint correction last June before applying paint coating it was easy to make perfect[emoji931]

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[Icarus]

Cool good to know, thanks all. I'm still learning this stuff so a base line for me to go from and what I can expect before I do a test spot etc is great, thanks!

[Icarus]

Well, I cleaned my moms car and started on correcting it a bit.

I started with a medium cut B&S orange euro foam pad and Meguiars Ultimate Compound. Tried a test spot on the roof and it didn't do much at all to the swirls and nothing to the random scratches in the paint, only a bit to the common spider web swirls.
So I stepped up to a supposed heavy cut B&S yellow euro foam pad and the same UC and it got rid of more of the swirls (maybe about 60-65% total,) but still almost nothing to any of the scratches. You can still see lots of spider web swirls. The scratches seem minor, I can't feel the vast majority of them with my fingernail at all. She did brush a bush on the one side and I know the ones I can feel I most likely won't be able to get rid of, but hoped it still might do better then this. :( I even tried some of the Sonax CutMax I just got on the yellow pad and still didn't do much better, only a bit better then the yellow pad and UC... I usually use speed 4 on my GG9 when doing my own Chrysler 300, and even tried bumping it up a lil to 5...

Is it the pad I'm having issue with? I would have thought with the heavy cut yellow pad and the UC or Cutmax it would have been better. I used the orange pads and UC on my 300 and it turns out great!?! I gave up for the day. Maybe I'll have to order a few microfiber cutting pads instead of the foam ones?

Any suggestions would be great!
Thanks.

[Klasse Act]

I'd suggest switching to a microfiber pad but keep the speed the same. The UC is a pretty solid product actually[emoji118]

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[Icarus]

Yes, I've had great luck with the Megs Ultimate line on my 300, so figured it would be fine for my moms Kia well, but it seems to be proving to be harder to correct then my car...

Any suggestions for microfiber pads to try?
Thanks!

[Icarus]

Some pics. These are not the same spot on the car. The first is the hood with nothing done (just cleaned, ugh!), the second is the test spot on the roof after using both the yellow and orange pads and UC and Cutmax (about 6-7 passes of each+) :( I didn't bother with polish or anything else yet, just did the roof so far. I dunno where all these came from as she doesn't wash it unless I do for her and I use the same stuff as my 300 and don't have any issues...

https://i.imgur.com/YT0pdRlh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/A5u88SPh.jpg

[WRAPT C5Z06]

For heavy defects, MF pads are by far the best! Nice pics! This paint looks to be on the harder side, as I don't really see micro-marring/haze after you compounded.

[Icarus]

Should I get some Lake Country Microfiber Cutting, or LC Purple Foamed Wool pads?
Thanks all!

[dwaleke]

Should I get some Lake Country Microfiber Cutting, or LC Purple Foamed Wool pads?
Thanks all!

Microfiber Cutting for free spinning DA and LC Purple Foamed Wool pads for gear driven DA.

[Icarus]

Microfiber Cutting for free spinning DA and LC Purple Foamed Wool pads for gear driven DA.

Wouldn't we want to do that the other way around? From all I've read microfibers grab more and heat more, so wouldn't the gear driven be better for it?

Its the short nap (low profile) purple foamed wool one I was looking at made for DAs.

I was reading this and figured the purple foamed wool might be best:
The DA Cutting Pad Show Down (https://www.autopia.org/forums/the-detail-institute-presented-by-autopia-carcare-com/43194-da-cutting-pad.html)

[dwaleke]

Gear driven (Flex 3401/XCE/Rupes Mille) do not work well with microfiber pads and are not recommended.

Way too grabby.

[Icarus]

Gear driven (Flex 3401/XCE/Rupes Mille) do not work well with microfiber pads and are not recommended.

Way too grabby.

Ah, I didn't know that. Thanks for the info. I have a GG9, so either pad will do well from all I've read (the low profile PFW or regular MF)...?

[Icarus]

I don't know if I should get the low profile PFW or Microfiber :(