Embarrassed to even ask

[Mobilejay]

on other forums i`ve been on no one has mentioned "soft" or "hard" paint. what is a "soft" or "hard" paint job? i`ve tried to figure it out reading different posts but i cant.

[BigAl3]

the "soft" or "hard" paint is referring to the vehicles outer non/clear coat finish. some say working on honda`s paint is soft, while audi`s are hard, etc...

[imported_jaobrien6]

The difference between a soft clearcoat and a hard clearcoat is in how difficult/easy it is to marr/scratch the paint and polish out defects. If someone has a "soft" clearcoat, it`s easier to polish out defects, but the paint is also more prone to scratching and marring from washing, drying, etc... "Hard" paint is less prone to marring, but it is more difficult to polish out defects that are there.

[Mobilejay]

thanks for the help guys, it makes sense now. is there a list of vehicles with hard or soft paint? i have heard that audi/vw had hard paint and imacarnut you said some say honda is soft, will i just find out from experience which cars have what type of paint?

[imported_Yal]

General rule of thumb for me is the japanese cars have soft paint while the germans have some what hard paint. With the Big 3 it varies. You might get a surprise every now and then on a repaint or luxury model.

[Joshua312]

First off, do not feel embarrassed asking a question :) Especially one like this, I learn with every vehicle I do the differences between paint jobs/manufactures, etc...and I`m still learning!



I worked on a repaint that was easy to work on, I`ve worked on Fords that were tough to correct, my GM paint is pretty hard (Corvettes are very hard) I would say. Honda`s as a general rule of thumb are pretty soft and audi is rather hard.



You will get an idea of paint jobs and their difficulty to work with as you experience more and more while detailing. Hope this helps you a little bit, best piece of info I can give you is too watch the click and brag section or other threads and see what people say about the vehilces they are working on. If I ever have a detail on something I haven`t detailed before I search for the vehicle on here to see what others used/and their comments on how difficult it was to correct.

[imported_MCA]

best piece of info I can give you is too watch the click and brag section or other threads and see what people say about the vehilces they are working on. If I ever have a detail on something I haven`t detailed before I search for the vehicle on here to see what others used/and their comments on how difficult it was to correct.



Excellent advice :2thumbs: . I am not a professional detailer so I don`t get to experience the broad range of paints out there. But if a new type of car comes my way, I always check the C&B section for other people`s work to learn from their comments.

[Mobilejay]

very informative. thanks again for all your help.