Questions about paint hardness on a few cars I'll be detailing...

Nopstnz8

Nopstnz8

Member
Ok guys well I'll be detailing a few cars over the next week, one of them tomorrow, and I'd like to know what combo's you guys would recommend to remove the swirls?



First car is an '06 Honda Civic sedan in Galaxy Gray. This is my moms car, and it has some swirls in it, but nothing major. Some are a little deep on the flatter areas though. I know Honda has soft paint, so I'm trying to figure what combo to go with for this? I have a Meg's G110 V2 with M105, M205 , and some Menzerna 106FA. I have 6.5" pads in orange, yellow, 1 blue, burgundy (not wool), and red for sealant. I also have some 4" pads, but only orange and white.



The next car is my brothers '09 Ford Escape in grey, but the color is similar to the Civic, just a little darker. This car has a fair share of swirling under halogens, but under sunlight it isn't present. I've heard Ford has hard clear, so what in my arsenal would be best to attack this one?



Final car, is my friends recently acquired E-36 M3 in Cosmo Black. This car being black has a descent amount, but I don't think it's hacked or anything. Looks like type wash induced swirls. Since it's my friends, and I'm going back to school in a month, and am also busy with work, this is a low priority. I know BMW's have hard clear, but I've seen some guys get away with Ezcreme glaze on Orange that looked great for the time being, but that was on silver cars obviously. Since this car is black, I don't think it'll do much of anything, but if it works for a few weeks, that's fine because we just want some pictures together before I go back to college. I'll probably correct it next summer if it takes too long now. I've tried researching this paint, but unfortunately, all the detailer are using Rotary, which is irrelevant for my DA process.



Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Rx8 Fanatic- Re the Honda and the Ford, people with more experience on those paints can advise you a lot better than I can. I'd expect the Honda to be fairly soft and the Ford to be on the soft side of medium (I'll know more if/when I finally get my Crown Vic back from the tuner).



The e36 will be *HARD*. My e36 M3 was the most difficult-to-correct paint I've ever struggled with, and note that I don't find my Audis all that tough.



For all of 'em, I wouldn't bother using the 6.5" pads for correction, only the 4" ones. 4" orange/M105 via PC and do most anything that's safe to do.
 
Start with a moderately aggressive combo and adjust as needed. There is no way without having the car in front of them (and maybe trying a test section or two) for anyone to tell you specifically what pad and polish/compound to start with.
 
generally speaking:



honda = soft

ford = medium

bmw = medium/hard



that should be a good starting point for you. always start with the least aggressive method first and make the call on what needs to be adjusted at that point.
 
Thanks guys. I really appreciate the info. What i'm really wondering though for the Honda paint is due to the fact that it's soft, most people say you can get away with a 2 step polish instead of 3. I needed 3 for my Rx8 which is harder clear, but I started with M105 on Orange 4" pads speed 6, then went to M205 speed 5 with little pressure 4" pads, and finally Menzerna 106FA on 4" pads white speed 4. Basically since this is soft, I'm wondering if M105 on 4" orange speed 6 will be too agressive on the Honda paint? I don't want to F it up more. Lol. From your guys' experience, can the M105/ M205 combo finish to an LSP ready stage on a car in pretty descent shape? I'm thinking of starting with M105 speed 6 on orange, then M205 on white (speed 3 or 4, will figure that out when time comes tomorrow). So is speed 6 too much on a soft clear, or should I be safe and not worry about it and just determine my process from there?
 
Oh and Accumulator... I took your advice on the 4" pads for my Rx8 and it worked great! Thanks. I got the correction I wanted and then some. What i'm wondering though since I have all these 6.5" pads, what is their real use now since they don't really correct that much?
 
Rx8 Fanatic- Glad the 4" pads worked so well. FWIW, I usually dial the speed back a bit with 4" pads, even though I'm more or less a "use the highest speed!" type of guy. But if what you're doing works, don't worry about what *I* like to do :D



I honestly think you oughta just sell those 6.5" cutting/polishing pads to somebody with a Flex or a rotary. Yeah, I know, but I just don't see 'em having any use with your machine.



I think that the M105/4" orange is a bit too aggressive for your "first try" combo on the Honda. I'd see if M205 will do the job. On the Ford, well....while people say to "start with a gentle combo", I know that *I* am gonna hit my Crown Vic with M105/orange (or even something more aggressive) right off the bat. But then that car's in pretty, uhm...."used" condition.



And yeah, M205 can finish out very nicely, despite what some of us (myself included) sometimes say about doing a subsequent step with something milder. Such diffs, when they occur at all, will be completely transparent to any "normal" person in real life. Don't get too "Autopian" about this stuff, at least not all the time/every time ;)
 
Ok. I'll definitely give the M205 a go as a first step. I'm just used to it not really doing anything on my car which was why I figured M105 first. Thanks for the detailed explaination. I totally get what you're saying now. Thanks again. :)
 
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