Hard or Soft??

JRivers

JRivers

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Hello,

How can I determine if my car/suv paint is hard or soft?

Thank you
 
if it's an American car or German car, it's likely hard

Japanese cars are usually on the softer side..

your test spot and the polish/pad combo you have to use to get good results should tell you for sure.
 
Seeing that title pop up as the first post sent my dirty mind a runnin and now I can't stop laughing.
 
I would chose a test spot, polish it, remove the polishing oils and place the car under direct sunlight (there shouldn't be any swirls). Then take your softest towel and using the same pressure you use to wash and dry your car, wipe the test spot and look to see if you were able to mar the paint. If you weren't, it may not be that soft. You can also test your wash mitt and drying towels by wiping over the test spot too (using the same pressure you would normally use to wash and dry your car).

I just polished a black car with seriously soft paint and I used the towel test I mentioned above. I polished the section to perfection, stripped it of polishing oils and wiped the spot with my softest towel, the Cobra Jr's 600. I checked for marring using a LED light. I was not able to notice any marring. I also tried my 1" boar's hair detailing brush over the my test section and that did in-fact mar the paint. I used light pressure throughout.
 
embolism said:
if it's an American car or German car, it's likely hard

Japanese cars are usually on the softer side..

your test spot and the polish/pad combo you have to use to get good results should tell you for sure.
Click to expand...

It's a Mitsubishi Endeavor 04 I did try an orange LC flat pad with PB Professional Polish applied with a PC at #6, and removed most of the swirls and light scratches, but it still needs correction, so is the clear coat hard or soft? :dunno:

You can see more pics in here:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/show-n-shine/39261-endeavor-04-1st-detailing.html

I was hoping for a cheaper option than to test a bunch of products and pad combos... I guess, I'll have to oblige :D

:buffing:
 
kronos said:
I would chose a test spot, polish it, remove the polishing oils and place the car under direct sunlight (there shouldn't be any swirls). Then take your softest towel and using the same pressure you use to wash and dry your car, wipe the test spot and look to see if you were able to mar the paint. If you weren't, it may not be that soft. You can also test your wash mitt and drying towels by wiping over the test spot too (using the same pressure you would normally use to wash and dry your car).
Click to expand...

Thanks Kronos that is a great tip :xyxthumbs:
 
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