What are the characteristics of soft and hard paint?

[Oldschool1975]

Hello, I've searched and searched and can't seem to figure out the characteristics of either soft or hard paint. I've corrected a few Dodges with WG Total swirl and Uber Compound products fairly easy. One a dark blue, the other my orange Challenger.

Then there have been two German cars, an 07 black BMW, and a 12 black Audi. They haven't been so easy to get swirls out of. I'm guessing these paints are different from one another, but would like to know what I've been working on? Which one is soft, and which one is hard? If this is even the case. Correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks,
Michael

[FPEvo]

I may be wrong. But if memory serves me correctly, most german (BMW, Audi, Merc) all have ceramic clear coats, which is why you are probably finding them harder than normal to correct.

I have used the MF system with slow arm speed with good success on these.

[Oldschool1975]

Thanks. I guess I could mention that I've only ever used Lake County CCS pads.

Michael

[FPEvo]

You can stick to the CCS pads and maybe some FG400 as well. Couple different combinations will work.

DA or rotary?

[DetailKitty]

I don't think BMW uses ceramic. But it is hard.

[FUNX650]

Somewhere out there is a Mike Phillips' article titled:
Paint Workability - The Hardness or Softness of your car's paint

In this article he states:
"You don't know if the paint on your car is hard or soft, or in better words,
you don't know if the paint on your car is workable
until you go out into your garage and work on your car".

"And by the word work, we mean the cleaning process, or the defect removal process".


He also states the following:

"Here's another true statement... Anytime you're on a forum...and you read some forum member making a post like this":

'Subaru's have soft paint'
or
'Fords have hard paint'

"Disregard what this person has said, (remember their forum name and in the future question anything they post)..."


IMHO: Sound advice.

:)

Bob

[statusdetailing]

This is very generally and not always the case, but soft paint tend to correct very easy but not finish so easy (Prone to micro marring).
Really hard paint tends to not correct very easy. If you do any sanding, the sanding marks can be difficult to remove. Once all defects are removed the finishing steps tend to be a little easier. For example, in many cases, a heavy to medium compound will finish almost lsp ready. Note that I said almost, because I always recommend a polishing step if budget allows.

[DetailKitty]

Somewhere out there is a Mike Phillips' article titled:
Paint Workability - The Hardness or Softness of your car's paint

In this article he states:
"You don't know if the paint on your car is hard or soft, or in better words,
you don't know if the paint on your car is workable
until you go out into your garage and work on your car".

"And by the word work, we mean the cleaning process, or the defect removal process".


He also states the following:

"Here's another true statement... Anytime you're on a forum...and you read some forum member making a post like this":

'Subaru's have soft paint'
or
'Fords have hard paint'

"Disregard what this person has said, (remember their forum name and in the future question anything they post)..."


IMHO: Sound advice.

:)

Bob

Yeah, good advice :D

[Rmd]

You can stick to the CCS pads and maybe some FG400 as well. Couple different combinations will work.

I've found FG 400 really responds well to flat pads as opposed to CCS when using foam. Not that you can't use CCS, I used it with those initially, but flat produced a much better result. I have also heard others say similar in this forum previously.

I was wofking on BMW paint, but as stated above, that doesn't mean your BMW paint will be the same.

I think you wrote that the BMW paint was black (typing on phone and can't scroll back up to check), and the jet black BMW paint is notoriously soft and difficult to finish. Search around the forum for posts on this much loathed color. There is also a metallic black (sapphire) that is more consistent with other BMW metallics, usually on the hard side. As always, impossible to make absolute statements, but it's extremely likely that the jet black will be soft and the sapphire metallic will be a harder paint

[Challynger]

Somewhere out there is a Mike Phillips' article titled:
Paint Workability - The Hardness or Softness of your car's paint


Link: Paint Workability - The Hardness or Softness of your car's paint (http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?21064-Paint-Workability-The-Hardness-or-Softness-of-your-car-s-paint)

[Oldschool1975]

Link: Paint Workability - The Hardness or Softness of your car's paint (http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?21064-Paint-Workability-The-Hardness-or-Softness-of-your-car-s-paint)

Thanks for the link. I never did run across that during my searches. I'll get to reading now :-)

I'm using a Porter Cable.

Thanks again guys for the input,
Michael