Is Repaint Clear Harder?

dave40co

dave40co

New member
I am working on my wife's very abused (before we bought it!) '01 blue Grand Am. It is a repaint. It has swirls, oxidation, water etching and many random scratches. I am not expecting to restore it to a show car condition, but want to make it better. I used my UDM and an orange LLC pad with #83 on it yesterday and greatly improved the panels I worked on but can still see some of the defects. Any help would be appreciated as to making the result better! The car looks great at 5 feet but up close you can see all of the defects!



Also how do you work with the UDM on the curvy panels of this car?



Does the middle of the pad do the work or do the edges?



I don't know how you pros do this everyday, this 51 year old grandpa is worn out from buffing about a third of this car!!!
 
In my "experience"... YES. Aftermarket clearcoat is a little stronger. I had a panel on my hood repainted and had swirls from the shop and spent a few hours to correct the paint using a PC and patience. I pefected the paint after spending time with it. I used a yellow pad and 3M rubbing compound to do so. I would of stepped to Menzerna PG, but I thought that was a little too aggressive for it. Again this is from my experience.



When I used a PC on my hood with the original paint, swirls were removed using an orange pad and a light polish.
 
I dunno.. it depends what kind of clear they use i guess. but from my personal experience, its much softer than the stock paint. although im working of dealerships cars and they probably get crappy paint jobs.
 
My experience...it's much softer.



I made a post several months back regarding this. I had a carbon metallic 04 2500hd. Front end was repainted from an accident I was in.



Bottom line, after I got it from the shop, I had it in the driveway for 20 minutes before I decided to trade it in on a new, white 2500hd. I couldn't stand the fact that it was not OEM paint and would just swirl too easy.



Best thing I ever did.
 
dave40co said:
Also how do you work with the UDM on the curvy panels of this car?



Does the middle of the pad do the work or do the edges?
Click to expand...



I hope some more experienced folks answer this. I've tried using the edge, but is very hard as the UDM stops rotating so easily. Due to the position of the panel I was working on, I couldn't use the center of the pad.
 
From what I've read, I'd say on the average it's softer than factory paint. There are some repaints that are quite hard, it depends on the paint used and other factors. If you repainted a car with soft factory paint then yes, the repaint would likely be harder once it was finished curing.
 
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