tanha said:
I think nearly all manufacturers have soft, crummy paint nowadays. In addition, the EPA continues to set stricter guidlines for VOC (volatile organic compound) content, and manufacturers seem to be having a hard time compensating for that loss. Audi seems to be an exception.
I have 3 vehicles that I maintain, a 1995 BMW M3, a 1990 BMW 325i and a 2002 Toyota Tundra. The M3, which is white, is in good condition but whenever I polish it it requires serious effort to diminish any swirling or scratching. I have it in pretty decent shape now. I usually use 3M FCRC with either a rotary or PC and it leaves such a nice finish I can go right to wax. Only the rotary has removed swirling/scratches, PC does nothing except make it shiny.
The truck if fairly new to me and I just did the first detail on it. It's black and had some serious swirling from previous owner. I thought I'd use the same technique, FCRC and the rotary. It looked good....until the direct sun hit it, then man oh man, you could see the marks left by the rotary....it was horrible! I broke out the PC and some Menzerna Final Polish and that cleared that up right away. Phew!
Now, the 325i is a 17 year old car, Calypso Red in color (basically, maroon). It was totally negelected by prior owners and I have to admit, I have been using it as a winter "beater" for the past 3 years and never did a full detail on it. Anyway, I decided it was time to see what might help this poor car's paint. This car is very dull, oxidized, has lots of swirls, scratches, chips and stains. I started with rotary, maroon pad, 3M Medium Cut compound. Followed with rotary, yellow pad, 3M FCRC. Then PC, white pad and 3M Machine Glaze. Finally, a hand applied coat of 3M IHG to help hide the minor defects and coat of Blitz Wax. The car shines like crazy. The color looks deep and wet. However, under the 1000W halogen lights, I can still see swirl/scratch marks. Once again, I'd have to say that the BMW clear coat is hard as a rock. I think that much polishing on a softer car would have probably removed all the clearcoat!
There were several spots that didn't respond at all to this treatment. I guess it was bird doo that had been left on for who knows how long. And there are seveal places where the clear is just cracked like it was brittle and then flexed too far. This in on the hood, which does flex easily. I'm so disappointed in the way the hood looks compared to the rest of the car, I'm considering getting it painted! Can you say, obsession?
Anyway, that's my experience with hardness of paint.
BMW hard
Toyota soft
...at least on my vehicles.
