Hard clear, soft clear, what is the difference and how to spot?

[BimmerFerret]

Hey all,

I've noticed in a LOT of the polishing threads the mention of whether clear is "soft" or "hard." What exactly does this mean for polishing, and also, if you don't have one of those fancy clear coat readers, can you tell just by eyeballing the paint?

Sorry if its a repost.

John

[C. Charles Hahn]

Soft or hard clear has nothing to do with having a paint thickness gauge, and it's not really something to "spot."

What this is actually referring to is how easily the paint is marred, how easy or difficult it is to remove defects. The general rule of thumb is that the harder the clear, the more aggressive the polish/compound and pad combination will need to be to remove defects.

You should always start with a mild combination of product and pad anyway, but when you come across paint that isn't being corrected without moving to an aggressive combination, you know you've got a hard clear coat.

Note that neither of these conditions are a "problem," they are simply the normal trait of different paints.

[BimmerFerret]

I see. Thanks for your response, this clears it up for me! I really thought it was physically harder or softer to the touch!

[Mike Phillips]

Better terms than hard or soft are, polishable or workable.

I've seen soft paints that were not very polishable because they were so soft that just wiping them would inflict scratches, a good paint is a paint that is easily polished or worked on.

There's a sweet spot in-between too hard and too soft and paints in this range are a joy to work on. This doesn't take into account resin type as paint manufactures evolve new paints using new processes or new coatings materials, you won't know how polishable or workable the paint is until you go out into your garage and actually start to test out a few pads and products.

This is just one of the reasons I always recommend doing a test spot anytime you're working on a car in which you have never worked on before.


:)

[mcpp66]

I've seen soft paints that were not very polishable because they were so soft that just wiping them would inflict scratches, a good paint is a paint that is easily polished or worked on.:)

Mike, for paint jobs that are as you described above (not being polishable), how do you work on those? The paint on my Camaro may not be quite that unpolishable, but sometimes it feels like it is close to what you described above. Thanks.

[C. Charles Hahn]

Mike, for paint jobs that are as you described above (not being polishable), how do you work on those? The paint on my Camaro may not be quite that unpolishable, but sometimes it feels like it is close to what you described above. Thanks.

Based on what you're describing, I'm guessing you have a 2010 Camaro? I've found that for paint like those cars have, the usual 205 or 105 can take care of deeper RIDS and swirls just fine, but they may leave superficial marring behind.

As a result it can be necessary to follow these up with a much more mild finishing polish on a finishing-grade pad to take care of any haze. The other choice would be a non-abrasive "pure polish" like Meguiar's #3/5/7 as an alternative choice when there aren't any significant defects needing correction.

[mcpp66]

Based on what you're describing, I'm guessing you have a 2010 Camaro? I've found that for paint like those cars have, the usual 205 or 105 can take care of deeper RIDS and swirls just fine, but they may leave superficial marring behind.

As a result it can be necessary to follow these up with a much more mild finishing polish on a finishing-grade pad to take care of any haze. The other choice would be a non-abrasive "pure polish" like Meguiar's #3/5/7 as an alternative choice when there aren't any significant defects needing correction.

That's funny that from my description you were able to deduce that it's a 2010. Primarily I used Meg's UC, 205, and 85rd with white and gray LC pads and they did leave superficial marring behind (very small tick marks). With wax on the car you couldn't see them but as soon as I did the IPA wipe down you'd see them (with the help of the Brinkmann of course). I used the white pad with the UC and 205 and follow those with the gray pad and 85rd. Since the tick marks aren't visible with wax on the car I decided to stop there because I figured if I keep at it I'm eventually going to make it worse. It's a little frustrating that there's still small marring left behind, but since I can cover it up I just decided to move on with life.

[ScottB]

I have often found the paint "harder" if I have to go back and grab another or different polish. Not very scientific at all ...