Soft Paint Thread

Tex Star Detail

Tex Star Detail

Formerly TexasTB
this is a thread where you can post your experiences with vehicles with SOFT paint. What vehicles have you detailed/own, that have extremely soft paint?
What do you do about it?

One of the vehicles I have done was a 2003 blue VW Jetta.
A customer had called and anted his wifes vehicle detailed. It had splattered paint all over the front end, mirrors, hood, and the front of the roof. From what I understood, they were driving behind a truck, when a paint can fell out.:passout:

I got the paint off and started polishing. PwS with an orange LC pad make easy work of the swirls and marring. When I went to wipe the polish off, the MF towel marred the heck out of the paint on the hood. I had to polish a second time. It must have taken me 20 minutes to remove the polish on the hood this time, as I was trying to be as gentle as possible.

I did a VW Bug not too long ago, and it seemed like the clear coat was a bit harder.
 
I have an 06 Toyota Corolla that seems to have very soft paint. It's a really nice color, black with lots of silver flake, but everything seems to scratch it. The trunk is covered with deep scratches along with the hood and fenders cause by things that would have done little if any harm to other paints. I put a pretty good scratch in the door jam the other day from a MF...:hmmm:
 
The 2005+ Toyota Tacomas have pretty soft paint (not to mention soft/thin sheet metal as well). They chip and marr easily. I know a few people who have had theirs repainted due to rock chipping at Toyota's expense.
 
When they repainted the front of my GP a couple years ago, the paint they used was/is really soft. It's a pain to work with, but since the car is 9 years old, I quit caring as much. :)
 
Most people confuse soft and hard clears...the hard ones are the ones that scratch easier as they have no give to them..I used to do a black Mercedes as a weekly account and if you looked at the car the wrong way it got a scratch or scuff, it drove the owner crazy:crazy2: He would just drive around the block and there would be a new scratch from dust kicking up:hmmm: ...for me I always knew there would be more work next week :D
 
Poorboy said:
Most people confuse soft and hard clears...the hard ones are the ones that scratch easier as they have no give to them..I used to do a black Mercedes as a weekly account and if you looked at the car the wrong way it got a scratch or scuff, it drove the owner crazy:crazy2: He would just drive around the block and there would be a new scratch from dust kicking up:hmmm: ...for me I always knew there would be more work next week :D
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I have to wonder if this is caused by the color and not the clear...what if this car had been silver or white...My guess is the scratches would have not been visible to the owner...its been my observation about this....they are still there in most cases just not as visible


Now for soft clears or I like to think clears that scratch easy..my BMW can be that way...but its black and I think about any manufactures clear on black or dark colors has that effect....The one thing that has helped me allot has been MF towels to help reduce down the amount that I get...proper washing and drying again MF towels have played a huge factor in this...just my take on this
 
Beemerboy said:
I have to wonder if this is caused by the color and not the clear...what if this car had been silver or white...My guess is the scratches would have not been visible to the owner...its been my observation about this....they are still there in most cases just not as visible
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It's definitely more apparent on a black or darker colr due to light refraction, but i'm sure what ever the color it's still there if the clear is hard


Beemerboy said:
Now for soft clears or I like to think clears that scratch easy..my BMW can be that way...but its black and I think about any manufactures clear on black or dark colors has that effect....The one thing that has helped me allot has been MF towels to help reduce down the amount that I get...proper washing and drying again MF towels have played a huge factor in this...just my take on this
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Proper techniques and better equipment, such as quality microfiber will most likely reduce the visible scratches, but not totally eliminate them on a finish that scratches easily.
 
Poorboy said:
Proper techniques and better equipment, such as quality microfiber will most likely reduce the visible scratches, but not totally eliminate them on a finish that scratches easily.
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Steve I think that anyone with a dark colored car is only fooling themselves if they think that can get the car 100% and keep it that way without, using it any amount...I tell my customers with dark colored cars that swirls are a way of life with this color...you can minimize the effects with good car care, but your going to have to live with it at some level...You know what I have been doing on the BMW of mine? hand glazing with fillers to fillin the swirls then hand waxing over that...car IMO looks as good as I need it to
 
Beemerboy said:
Steve I think that anyone with a dark colored car is only fooling themselves if they think that can get the car 100% and keep it that way without, using it any amount...I tell my customers with dark colored cars that swirls are a way of life with this color...you can minimize the effects with good car care, but your going to have to live with it at some level...You know what I have been doing on the BMW of mine? hand glazing with fillers to fillin the swirls then hand waxing over that...car IMO looks as good as I need it to
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I agree with you Dave and most customers, other than show car owners with custom paint, are not looking for perfection, but a nice clean and shiny vehicle. Again, most detailers, especially those on detailing boards, are looking to achieve something that is really out of their control and have to accept that near perfection is good enough 99.9% of the time. :)
 
Poorboy said:
I agree with you Dave and most customers, other than show car owners with custom paint, are not looking for perfection, but a nice clean and shiny vehicle. Again, most detailers, especially those on detailing boards, are looking to achieve something that is really out of their control and have to accept that near perfection is good enough 99.9% of the time. :)
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Amen to that one Steve!

I have to say that I was set against using fillers at any level but this black car has changed my mind...big time...I don't feel bad about i:D t any more!!!!
 
Color coat & Clear coat are both what I factor into "Soft Paint". I refer to soft paint, as in easily scratchable. Say for an Audi, the color coat is definitely very hard, so therefore the clearcoats are usually quite hard to correct, since they are so soft. BMW also have this issue, very hard color coat, and relatively finicky clear coat layers.
 
I did an '05 Caddy CTS that was midnight blue. The marring on the hood was remarkably easy to remove and there was a great deal of it. Two weeks later I did the same car except it was an '06 and silver. It was a lease return and throughly marred up. That color was a booger! It took many many passes to even make a dent in it, so to speak. After 45 minutes I settled for about 90% removal. It was just a wash n' wax but I sometimes polish the hood and trunk since that's what seems to be looked at first and wows the customer. I'm still mystified as to why the huge difference in cleaning up the two colors. Normally the darker colors are the stinkers.:confused:
 
i notice a lot of Japanese cars have soft easy to mar paint, i have a tundra and a subaru and after every wash they swirl up, by the third and fourth wash i need to at least wax, plus both of my cars a black so its like the worst of the worst...... i find GM cars to have very durable clearcoats and paints, very easy to maintain.... bmw's are good to
 
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