Hard paint?

[M K J]

Are "hard" paints more resistant to marring and swirl marks?

[Todd@RUPES]

Are "hard" paints more resistant to marring and swirl marks?

In general, yes.

[0inDetail0]

Agreed but you can mess them up just as easy. Even hard "scratch resistant" paints can be marred by everyday road grime, fall out, car wash. Throw enough bad hand washing techniques at it and it will look just as bad as soft paint. They are more of a pain to correct imho. I enjoy working on softer paints

[Todd@RUPES]

Agreed but you can mess them up just as easy. Even hard "scratch resistant" paints can be marred by everyday road grime, fall out, car wash. Throw enough bad hand washing techniques at it and it will look just as bad as soft paint. They are more of a pain to correct imho. I enjoy working on softer paints

Exactly. Just because something is hard or scratch resistant doesn`t mean it is scratch impervious. Once scratched it is much harder to remove those marks as well.

[M K J]

Exactly. Just because something is hard or scratch resistant doesn`t mean it is scratch impervious. Once scratched it is much harder to remove those marks as well.


So, just so I have a comparison, is the paint on my 2004 Sentra hard or soft?

[0inDetail0]

Nissan paint in general is above average in hardness. Unlike Toyota, Honda, Infiniti Black are notorious for soft paints. You would need the paint code and someone here would be able to give you more info.
However it`s not a ceramic clear or scratch resistant finish. You can use polishes that were not specifically designed for scratch resistant or ceramic clear coats on it and you will be fine.

[Swanicyouth]

Nissans of that era often have a sticker under the hood near the emissions / EVAP sticker that`s says "Hard Clear Coat. Use Appropriate Refinishing Materials" or something like that. The sticker is silver and rectangular. Look under the hood for it. My Pathfinder has it and the paint is fairly hard.

[Todd@RUPES]

My experience with most hard paints is this... They tend to be fairly resistant to light swirls, such as towel marks that can give the finish a hazy appearance. However, they are still very susceptible to deeper rids, and once they get those rids, they are much harder to remove.

[Swanicyouth]

Looks like this:

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/19/ymy4abe6.jpg

[ZL1Mark]

I`d MUCH rather work with hard paint than soft. Just sayin`


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[The Driver]

He`s sayin` right....

[Todd@RUPES]

I`d MUCH rather work with hard paint than soft. Just sayin`


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I always like medium-to-hard - newer Ferrari`s, Corvette`s, etc....
Super hard like VW, Audi, Bugatti and the like.. NO WAY

[ZL1Mark]

I always like medium-to-hard - newer Ferrari`s, Corvette`s, etc....

Super hard like VW, Audi, Bugatti and the like.. NO WAY

What would u consider a C5 corvette?


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[The Driver]

C5s are definitely around a 7-8 on the hardness out of 10.

[The Wolfman]

One thing you have to keep in mind about hard paints is that the thing scratching them, sand a.k.a. "glass" is usually much harder and sharp, so swirl resistance or not, sand is a killer to any paint! I absolutely loathe VAG paint...