:: Working With Soft Paint ::

[CM8 6MT]

Whats up guys, CM8 here. This time I'm going to be talking about working with soft paint. For those of you who own cars with soft paint, you've become all too familiar with how finicky and delicate these paint systems are. If you can master achieving a swirl free finish on soft paint, you can work on any paint type. Lets get to work!


Soft Paint
Owning a car with soft paint has its pros and cons. The pros are that you can correct down defects that otherwise would require much more aggressive pads & compounds. The cons however, are that your paint is so soft it easily scratches & marrs. Cheap MF towels can marr your paint, even lightly swiping your finger across your paint will cause micro marring. As a matter of fact, I think my paint is marring on its own as I write, I'll take care of that later. With this in mind, in order to achieve a swirl free finish on soft paints you will need the following:

• High Quality Compounds & Polishes
• Premium Microfiber Towels
• High Quality Pads
• An Understanding Of Your Products

High Quality Compounds & Polishes
Many favor Menzerna products, but I find that they are too pricey for my taste, especially when I can achieve the same results FASTER with American products. Sure their a great product line, but my observation (at least on AGO) is that some Menzerna users are online detailers only. Detailers that only talk about detailing online but have no idea what their doing or dont actually detail in real life, but their the first ones to tell you how much better Menzerna is than X brand. Anyhow, I will be using Meguiar's products for this showcase, and yes there are some paint systems that DAT abrasives do a much better job such as Ceramiclear paint.

Premium Microfiber Towels
In my extensive testing recently, I found that the BEST MF towels to use for soft paint is Meguiar's & Cobra Towels. I'll be using Meguiar's Ultimate Wipe, & Cobra's Gold Jr & Deluxe Jr 600. Even after wiping down with IPA, these left absolutely NO micro marring of any sort when others performed horribly.

High Quality Pads
Pad selection is critical. Buy pads from well known brands such as Lake Country, Optimum, Meguiar's, Buff & Shine. Its also important to KNOW which pad type will work with the kind of defects your trying to remove. I will be using the Meguiar's 4" polishing pad. Its the mini version of the W8006, one of the most versatile pads IMO. It will cut or finish down as good as you want it to by varying pressure & product type.

An Understanding Of Your Products
I don't claim to know it all, no one does. Although what I do claim is that I KNOW my Meguiar's products very well. I love reading threads replies from kids who have no idea what their talking about, yet give new members to the forum their "expert advise" on products they've never used themselves. Often times I have to correct the Menzerna fans about their own product, which is hilarious and makes my day. The important thing to know regardless of what brand you prefer, is to KNOW how it works. Understand the abrasives being used (DAT/SMAT) and how they work on paint. Very often I see many members trying to use SMAT products from Meguiar's like a DAT product, and then wonder why their results were not great. The key factor to remember is that SMAT abrasives don't break down like DAT products. They simply become ineffective after a while and start to dust. I often see people state "you need to break down the product", while that may be true with Menzerna products, with Meguiar's you will be able to cut as much as the product permits in 2-3 passes. There is no need to continue to polish. This is one of the errors many new comers to the detail game do, and blame Meguiar's products for their crappy results.

Lets Get To Work
Enough of my rant, lets take a look at what well be working on today. Below is few snap shots of some horrid scratches that were caused by a friends stupid dog. The scratches are all over my drivers side door & quarter panel. Apparently the dog thought it was a good idea to set its claws on my door as I was getting out.




Tacking The Problem
Needless to say when I hit my paint with my Streamlight LED, I was TICKED OFF. I couldn't tell the severity of the scratches because the dog scratched my paint at night. When I got home, I wanted to explode. Right away, many people would use the 105/205 combo, or FG400 from Menzerna. Sure, they will work and remove all the defects, but you could of done the same thing with a much less aggressive product & remove LESS paint. I did a small test spot in the area, and started out with Scratch X. Why Scratch X? Even on soft paint, M205 would not touch these bad boys. Scratch X is a consumer line product from Meguiar's, designed mostly for Average Joes who want to take care of isolated scratches by hand. Although with a DA, this product performs exceptionally well. It has less cut than Ultimate Compound.

The Correction Process
1.I began by washing the panel with Meguiar's Ultimate Wash & Wax Anywhere, a water less wash. Im only correcting down the affected panels, so washing the entire car would be a waste of time, since I will have to wash the car at the end anyway.

2. I clayed the area. It didn't need much claying, but none the less you always want to start clean with any correction process.

3. I went ahead and primed my 4" pad with Scratch X, using a GG6 DA with a 3.5" LC pad. I did about 2 passes on speed 5, sprayed with Griots PreWax Clenser,and wiped away with Meguiars Ultimate Wipe to ensure the defects where actually being removed.


As you can see, the results are GREATLY IMPROVED. Just 2 passes on speed 5, and the majority of the scratches are gone. If you look closely, you can see the paint is now Micro Marred. Which is NORMAL, your using an abrasive compound that will leave micro marring especially on soft paints. Many new members dont understand the fact that you have to finish down the paint with a fine polish in order to achieve swirl free results.

There were still a deeper scratches remaining, for this I will have to step up to the next level of aggressiveness, Ultimate Compound. I hit it with about 2 passes with Ultimate Compound, it got rid of the deeper scratches. Still, you can see some micro marring left, which is normal. If it were not for the deeper scratches, Scratch X would be the only product required.


4. Next, its time to remove this micro marring with a fine polish. I used Ultimate Polish, about 4 passes. My first 2-3 passes where on speed 5, with my last pass was on a much slower speed 3. Why speed 3? The nature of the DA spins in orbital and random motions. At higher speeds, the DA spins in eratic motions, at slower speeds this is minimized, allowing your pad to rotate more smoothly. Remember, at this point your not REMOVING defects, your bringing the paint to a high gloss finish by burnishing the paint using slow arm speed & rotating pad. Here are the final results:




What Scratches?
As you can see after I wiped down with Griot's Pre Wax Clenser removing all polishing oils, the paint is FLAWLEESS. Id estimate about 95% correction. There are some very small rids in the area, but this is now a show car level car, and attempting to remove these would take off unnecessary levels of paint. IMO the results came out rather well.

5. Final step was to seal the paint. I went ahead and used Meguiar's Paste Wax, which is a very long lasting sealant. I applied it with a 4" soft foam pad.



6. I also washed the entire car in order to remove the minimal dusting that occurred during the compounding process. I used Optimum ONRWW & dried with Mothers Drying Towel. Pinnacle Tire Onyx for the tires with an Eagle One applicator.


Overview
So there you have it gentlemen. You don't need expensive polishes or to spend a fortune to get top notch results. Fortunately, skill & talent is something you cant buy, but with the right products & practice you can improve upon your own skills & talent. Remember work clean, use high quality products & microfiber towels and understand your products.


Additional Info
Below is a snapshot of the products I used & talked about in this article. Also, an aggressiveness level chart I created when using Megs products. Thanks all for reading!

[MrCleanit]

Great write up and awesome job too! God, that red pops out so nicely on your Accord. Makes me wish my own was in red.

[Marc08EX]

SWEET article Aaron!!! I enjoyed reading every bit of it. I love the images you create!!! It shows how much effort you put in these.

I can't believe ScratchX was hazing your paint LOL! And UP cleared it up clearly! My paint is also soft as you know. I hate how easily it scratches. But thanks to your article, I know that it should correct very easily as well.

How do you like UPW? Your ride is looking sweet. The red is wet looking and very deep. AWESOME job as always!

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Now that is one heck of a write up Aaron. Very well done sir.

I agree with you on product choice as well as the knowledge to use them.

I may really enjoy my Menzerna/German products but there is no arguing the fact that Meguiar's produces similar results for less money.

[Marc08EX]

I would also like to add experience to the list of things you can't buy.

[Pureshine]

Great wright CM8 I have that wax and was really impressed with it.

[Lim3]

Great write up

[psynx]

eres chingon guey te la jalas lol

[CM8 6MT]

Great write up and awesome job too! God, that red pops out so nicely on your Accord. Makes me wish my own was in red.

Thank you. What gen Accord do you have? Theres a 6 speed V6 under that hood

SWEET article Aaron!!! I enjoyed reading every bit of it. I love the images you create!!! It shows how much effort you put in these.

I can't believe ScratchX was hazing your paint LOL! And UP cleared it up clearly! My paint is also soft as you know. I hate how easily it scratches. But thanks to your article, I know that it should correct very easily as well.

How do you like UPW? Your ride is looking sweet. The red is wet looking and very deep. AWESOME job as always!

Thanks Marc! Yeah when I first used UPW, it was the liquid version. Im really liking the paste, thanks alot for convincing me to give it a second shot. Also agree 100% with you, you cannot buy experience.

Now that is one heck of a write up Aaron. Very well done sir.

I agree with you on product choice as well as the knowledge to use them.

I may really enjoy my Menzerna/German products but there is no arguing the fact that Meguiar's produces similar results for less money.

Thank you Mike, im glad you enjoyed reading my article!

Great wright CM8 I have that wax and was really impressed with it.

Thanks Pureshine, yeah this sealant works really well.

Great write up

Thanks for reading Lim3!

eres chingon guey te la jalas lol

LOL thanks for reading Psynx!

[david11g35]

Great detailed article. I havent used scratch x in about 4years way before I found autogeek or knew anything about a da. Going to have to add it to the arsenal

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