Continued...
Soft Paint versus Hard Paint
Generally speaking, modern clearcoats are harder than old school single stage paints with the exception of single stage white paint. Yes I know there are exceptions to the rule and any detailer that has been detailing for a while, like myself, has come across modern cars with soft clearcoat paint. Besides the exceptions, I'll say it again, generally speaking, modern clearcoats are harder than old school, solvent-evaporation single stage lacquers and enamels.
The softest paint
Generally speaking, (and from experience), antique, single stage
black paint is the softest paint there is to work on in the history of "the car". When it comes to paint hardness or paint softness, this characteristic is affected by both the resin and the pigment. Paint is at it's core, some form of resin. To give paint or resin color, pigment is added in the mixing stage. Now follow me, some pigments are very hard, some pigments are very soft and of course, some pigments are in the middle. The hardness or softness of the pigment will alter or modify the hardness or softness of the resin.
Examples of hard and soft paints
Single Stage White Paint
When it comes to white paint, the pigment used is a very hard mineral called
Titanium Dioxide. Adding this mineral in a powdered form to any type of resin will make the resin very hard. In fact, for the most part I would NEVER take on a job to wetsand and buff a single stage white paint job where the paint is already cured. Why? Because I'll never be able to remove 100% of the sanding marks. Sanding is easy, that's putting scratches INTO the paint. Heck, anyone can wetsand a car. The tricky part is removing the sanding marks.
Single Stage Black Paint
To make black paint,
Carbon Black powder is used. Carbon Black in simple terms is soot, like in chimney soot, or the kind of soot you would find accumulating on the underneath side of the home barbecue. It's a very dark, black residue or powder from the incomplete combustion of some other materiel. The other material could be fire wood or when you burn your T-bone Steak last summer on the Weber Barbecue on the back patio.
The BIG PICTURE
When it comes to doing paint correction, knowing the hardness or softness of the paint can help you choose the products, pads and tools you'll use to remove paint defects. BUT - you will never know how hard or soft the paint is on the car before you until YOU do what I call a Test Spot. That is, you test a product, pad, tool and technique that you THINK will remove the defects and leave behind perfectly looking paint and if you have chosen wisely - it works. This is why you also start with very NON-AGGRESSIVE products. If the paint is soft, then the non-aggressive products will remove the defects while leaving the most paint behind on the car to last over the service life of the car. If start with non-aggressive products and find out the paint is hard, you're safe, you can then do another Test Spot and this time, do the test spot in a different place on the and test out more aggressive products, pads or even tools.
If the paint was in fact soft, you will have discovered this by using non-aggressive products and more important you will have done the testing in the safest way possible to protect both you, your business and your reputation and of course, protected the integrity of the paint on the car. When I say protecting the integrity of the paint on the car I mean you will NOT have burned through the paint where you did your test spot.
Doing a Test Spot is the professional approach to dialing-in a process you can then duplicate over the rest of the car. It is also the ONLY way to determine if the paint on a car is hard, soft or somewhere in-between. If you're brand new to paint correction you are missing one component that is also necessary to use a Test Spot to determine paint hardness or softness and that is experience. And the only way to get experience is to buff out hundreds of cars. I know this isn't the answer everyone wants to hear but is is the fact of the matter.
Doing a Test Spot on a 1950 Pontiac Chieftain
One of my go-to products for this type of job is to use a one-step cleaner/wax or as many refer to it - and AIO or All-in-One. A quality AIO uses GREAT ABRASIVE TECHNOLOGY and it will do three things in one step,
1: Paint Correction - the product will remove paint defects like swirls, scratches, water spots and oxidation.
2: Polish - the product will polish or burnish the surface of the paint to clear, smooth high gloss.
3: Protect - the product will leave some form of protection behind on the surface. In the old days the protection component of an AIO was some type of wax. Then science introduced synthetic paint sealants as the component used in an AIO. Now days there are AIO that use some form of nano technology in the way of ceramic for the protection component.
The point being, a great AIO will do three jobs in one step. This is my entry level detail package for people that don't want or need a multiple-step process to get a car's finish to their expectations. All professional detailers and even enthusiast detailers should understand what this type of process is and how and when to use it.
First Test Spot
For the first test spot I used a popular AIO and while it easily removed the swirls, scratches, water spots and oxidation it also left micro-marring in the paint. The results from this Test Spot told me not only was the paint soft it was STUPID SOFT. I don't use the term stupid soft to describe paint unless it's accurate. This paint was so soft that even using a great AIO with a super soft foam "finishing" pad, there was still micro-marring being left in the paint.
Second Test Spot
For my second test spot I remember that RUPES had recently introduced a brand new ultra finishing polish called UNO 1 PURE. This product was specifically formulated for super soft, finicky and sticky paints. I wouldn't call the paint on this 1950 Pontiac finicky or sticky but it definitely qualifies as super soft.
I tested the RUPES polish with a Buff & Shine 7" Uro-Tec soft white foam finishing pads. Together, the RUPES ULTRA fine polish and this softest foam pad formula in the Buff & Shine line-up, this is about as non-aggressive as you can get and still have enough cutting or abrading ability to actually remove the swirls and scratches.
RESULTS
This combo did the trick. It removed the majority of swirls and scratches without leaving any micro-marring behind. After PROVING my system, I then proceeded to machine buff the entire car after doing a waterless wash with SONAX Glass Cleaner and claying the paint with Pinnacle Ultra Fine Detailing Clay.
Pictures - Paint Correction
Here's a few pictures showing the paint correction step. A couple of comments.
1: The RUPES UNO 1 PURE Ultra Fine Finishing Polish has zero dusting and super easy wipe-off. If you're new to paint correction, these are two characteristics you want in any polish. I don't mind dusting so much, but zero dusting is better than any level of dusting. Easy wipe-off? Bring it on all day long. If you're a seasoned and experienced detailer then you know what I'm talking about when it comes to zero dusting and easy wipe-off.
2: New cars have plastic trim and you want to tape this crud off so you don't stain it if you accidentally get any polish or wax on it. No so with classics like this Chieftain, it has chrome and stainless still trim. Instead of taping it off - you run the polisher over it. Normally it doesn't matter what type of compound, polish or even AIO it is you're using, metal surface just don't care much. Running a buffing pad with any type or brand of polish over metal trim will remove topical staining and contamination, tarnish and oxidation and typically will restore the a clear, clean bright shine. I also run the polisher over all the glass windows. Over time, in the same way paint becomes stained and contaminated - so does every other exterior surface including the glass.
Here's pics, note for some panel I wiped off the polish residue and there's zero dusting, just perfectly clear glossy paint.
.jpg)