New GM paint soft clear?

shadybreal

New member
Has anyone else had bad experiences w/ new GM vehicles having really soft clears. Black is almost impossible to keep swirl free.
 
Most GM blacks I've encountered marr very, very easily not just new ones. Then they are a bear to correct. If you've got a black GM your next investment should be a foam gun coupled with some seriously soft microfiber towels.



Patrick
 
Come to think of it, I've seen a detail on a new black TB SS that seemed to clean up quite well with minimal work.
 
ebpcivicsi said:
The new GM black paint is *very* soft.



Okay, if ebpcivicsi is saying it, then there must be something to this. I have to admit, I don't do a lot of GM cars (mostly high-end foreign stuff), but I've always said that I like GM paint better than any of the others I typically do because it is relatively hard. (keep in mind that everybody with jet black paint feels their paint is soft and difficult to keep swirl-free). All the GMs I've done have been hard, which is nice cause I can buff out thier black paint blind folded with a rotary and not leave buffer swirls, but they must have decided to mess a good thing up (I don't mind that it is more difficult to correct...being a rotary guy, I just step up the pressure).
 
The newer GMs that I've done (06+) have been pretty hard. Not impossible to correct hard, but hard enough to keep wash induced marring to a minimum. These were lighter colors, however.
 
Here's car that I fixed for the dealer earlier thisyear--this is after *one* dealer wash (green brush, dirty water, dirty chamois).



tn_IMG_5654.jpg




I corrected that with the PC/orange pad followed by a white LP LC pad/PO106FF.



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Different CTS-V--same dealership.

tn_IMG_5682.jpg
 
What polish did you use w/ the orange pad? Hopefully the dealer will keep letting his employees wash the cars, so he can pay you to fix them. LOL!

Great job.
 
There's no way you can stereotype all GM paint as being the same. Each plant that produces vehicles have slightly different recipes for their finishes. A Tahoe/Escalade that's built at the Arlington, TX plant might not use the same paint or system that the Bowling Green, KY plant uses that makes the Corvette/XLR. Therefore each 1 *could* and *is* different.
 
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