What can you tell me about Volkswagen paint? Hardness, etc?

[Passrat]

I`ve got an 02 VW Passat in Silverstone Grey Metallic clearcoat (in pretty good shape actually) that`s going to be my #1 victim with the new PC and supplies I now have. I was just wondering what you all can tell me about my paint, like hard or softness, etc, before I get started? Thanks.

[Dan]

Its relatively hard, however, that is based on it all being factory. Tape off a 2x2 or smaller square and apply your battle plan on that. If it works, hit the whole car.

[BostonDuce]

I`ve only done VW red and it`s like a rock.



Good luck using a PC, I had to go from a flex to a rotary, it was just taking too long to polish out snow brush marring.

BD

[Make it shine!]

I have an 03 Jetta in black and the paint is like a rock. I did get good results with a PC using 105 and 205.

105 orange LC pad, work a small area at a time, about an arms length. work the PC slowly across and prime the pad correclty with 105. It is gonne take you a bit to get use to the technique but do not get discouraged you`ll get it.

[KnuckleBuckett]

I agree wholeheartedly. Hard paint indeed. I left my Flex for a rotary on our new (to us) VW Golf.



It was still a lot of work. I purchased the car with 60K of zero paint correction and worked it down to about 90%. It is a daily driver so I wasn`t going for show car perfection. I will tweak it out another 5% in the spring.



I purchased a Makita rotary and used the following combo on her indigo blue VW.



PFW with Menz SIP. Sometimes this took several passes. Be careful with your edges and heat. I use very low speeds and am exceedingly careful with the wool. It is not nearly as easy to control (IMO) as the foam pads are.



Orange pad with Menz SIP. Again at least couple passes.



White pad with Menz 106FF.



I finished up with 3 coats of FK 1000P. It just seemed to pop better than my usual go to LSP Ultima PGP.



Next year I plan on working with Megs 106 and 3M Ultrafina with a variety of pads to see how they fare. Also I plan on trying the smaller 4" pads.



Anyone try either of the Megs 105 or Ultrafina with the VW paint? I would really like to hear how they work on such hard paint.

[edit] The above post was made while I typed this one in.

[cartoysautospa]

For starters every German car as of 1996 has water bourne paint,unlike the original Gasurit lead paint used in the past. I suggest using a yellow foam medium cut pad @1200 rpm`s with a electronic buffer,ie Makita. If you use a orbital or, porter cable or cyclo , you will in fact be there for days for the first cut,



Wipe the car down with some wax and grease remover on a micro fiber towel, to remove excess swirl marks.



then if you have a random buffer or a cyclo with another yellow pad us a finer compound or swirl remover to remove the left over swirls. wipe that down.



then apply whatever sealer or wax after that with a green,blue or white foam pad.

You will have a perfect finish