Soft Paint/Hard Paint. How to tell?

LeMarque

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I've read Honda, some black BMW's are soft and that Vettes are hard.

How do you test? What do you look for? Don't suppose there's an online resource?
 
You will have to actually work with the vehicle to find out how well it responds to correction. There is no "I read that this car has hard and this one has soft". Without actually working the paint all you can gather from reading is just a basic idea of what to expect.

When going to actually work on the paint do a few test spots with different product and see what product gives you the level of correction you want or need. Then see how long it takes to get there in that area. After working it for a while you will start getting the grasp of how easy or how or it will be to correct. Thats when you find out how hard or soft the paint is.

If you use say M105 and a orange cutting pad and you get decent results chances are its pretty hard paint. On the other hand if you use the same pad and liquid combo on another car and it just hazes up then its a softer paint meaning you can get a lighter pad and a lighter liquid to do the correction.
 
Thanks Smack

So when we talk about 'orange pads' is it true that everyone but Megs, refers to a cutting pad?

And then what determines a soft paint is one that requires a less aggressive pad/chemical then a paint finish that demands a more aggressive pad/chemical.

One last question - "On the other hand if you use the same pad and liquid combo on another car and it just hazes up then its a softer paint meaning you can get a lighter pad and a lighter liquid to do the correction."

Why would a more aggressive combination result in hazing?
 
Im not sure what everyone else regaurds as a cutting pad. Usually when you do hear about the orange pad it is Lake country's. With Meguiars they have one polishing pad that suits a wide range of compounds.

When you work the surface to see how long the process will take to correct. im going to reference Meguiars polishing pad here so you have a better idea. If you take Meg's yellow pad with M205 and it dosent give much correction or take quite a while to correct you then step up to M105 to give that needed umph to cut.

With a very aggressive pad and liquid on soft paint it would it would haze as a result of to much of aggressive products. When doing you test spot to see what pad liquid works, remember always use the least aggressive pad liquid to get the job done.
 
Also, I prefer to start with the least aggressive product and work my way up so I don't have to spend hours trying to fix my test spot.
 
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