Paint Hardness ??

[mdbohica]

Until I started reading here I thought paint was paint. Basecoat, clearcoat, all the same just different manufacturers.



I have now learned that paint has various hardness levels. Anyone care to elaborate who paints with hard vs. soft paint and Single stage issues vs. 2 step paint?



Thanks

 

[Accumulator]

Until I started reading here I thought paint was paint. Basecoat, clearcoat, all the same just different manufacturers.



I have now learned that paint has various hardness levels. Anyone care to elaborate who paints with hard vs. soft paint and Single stage issues vs. 2 step paint?



Thanks

Different paint, is, well, different.



Some genaralizations are basically true: single stage *other than white* is often softer than most basecoat/clearcoat; ss black is usually quite soft and ss white is usually quite hard.



But depending on how ss is mixed, any color can be hard of soft.



Basecoat/clearcoat hardnesses can be all over the map. A good example is the Glasurit used by Porsche/VW; they mix it to be soft of Porsches but hard on VWs. Same basic stuff, slightly different formulas that make all the difference.



There's a thread around here somewhere with some general guidelines.