Camaro Clear and my take...

[Crazy Amos]

Turned out great Mike-Im surprised the paint isn't dripping off! Very deep and liquidicious!

[mdb917]

Beautiful results Mike.

[Michael Stoops]

Boy, if ever there was an example of "not all paints are the same", this is it. We have a regular attendee at Meguiar's Thursday Night Open Garage sessions who bought a new Camaro when they first hit the streets. His is Victory Red, and gorgeous non metallic shade of red, and we've found the paint to be very easy to work on and not particularly hard at all. Admittedly, his is from a very early build date, so who knows how things may or may not have changed in the intervening months.

[Mike Phillips]

Boy, if ever there was an example of "not all paints are the same", this is it. We have a regular attendee at Meguiar's Thursday Night Open Garage sessions who bought a new Camaro when they first hit the streets. His is Victory Red, and gorgeous non metallic shade of red, and we've found the paint to be very easy to work on and not particularly hard at all. Admittedly, his is from a very early build date, so who knows how things may or may not have changed in the intervening months.

This is why it's so important to do a Test Spot anytime a person is working on a paint system that they are unfamiliar with or have never worked on before.

Paint System = The paint on a car

Paint systems vary between manufactures and even car models as car manufactures can and do change paint systems as new technology is introduced.

There's a thread about this on MOL here,

Paint Workability - The Hardness or Softness of your car's paint

"You don't how hard or soft your paint is until you go out into your garage and work on your car"


This article is going to show you that two cars, from the same car manufacture, one year apart have totally different factory paints as far as hardness and softness goes.

Heck I've been polishing paint as long as many and longer than most on forums and I always do a Test Spot on anything I've never worked on before to see how the paint reacts.

I'm definitely not a big fan of making broad or blanket statements that all paints on such and such cars is hard, or soft because of the change factor.

Corvettes are one of the few models of cars that have remained constant in the hardness factor but I would still do some testing before going over the entire car.

[silverfox]

They're a LOT of fun to drive...I get a thrill every time I'm behind the wheel...and the rubber necking that goes on. Its kind of crazy because these 5th generation Camaros have been out a couple of years now. My neighbor is a car nut, and when he saw mine sitting in the driveway after I brought it home, I thought he was going through a religious moment...

...the neighbors probably think a 58 Y/O man should be driving a Buick....well this car drives as comfortable as a Buick, and when I want her to talk...she will really talk. I think saying that 5th generation Camaro owners love their cars ..is probably an understatement

[Michael Stoops]

Paint systems vary between manufactures and even car models as car manufactures can and do change paint systems as new technology is introduced.

Without a doubt - I can't tell you how many times I've heard "BMWs have really hard paint, what did you use to correct this one??". While I've seen BMWs with incredibly hard paint, I've also seen some with paint that was super easy to correct. With BMW building vehicles in different facilities and in different countries, countries where regulations regarding differ enough that the paint itself differs so much, it's no wonder that some are easier to buff out than others.

Corvettes are one of the few models of cars that have remained constant in the hardness factor but I would still do some testing before going over the entire car.

And yet..... yep, there's an exception to everything it seems! Last summer we had a gentleman bring his C6 Corvette to one of our Saturday Classes and he was complaining about the bird dropping etch mark in the middle of his hood. We managed to get it out pretty easily with just a D/A and Ultimate Compound. We didn't use speed 6 or even use a cutting pad, instead sticking to "proper usage and technique" and it came out in a couple of passes. Yes, it was factory paint. Obviously there was nothing out of the ordinary with the products and processes used, it was simply a case of the paint on this particular car being relatively middle of the road with regard to hardness.

All of the "evidence" given on discussion forums can maybe give you a good starting point to consider for your test spot on a car you've never seen before, but it isn't a guarantee.

[Mike Phillips]

All of the "evidence" given on discussion forums can maybe give you a good starting point to consider for your test spot on a car you've never seen before, but it isn't a guarantee.

Great summary point...