Would your rather polish hard paint or soft paint?

[Todd@RUPES]

When it comes to polishing away paint defects, most paint systems fall in a range of polish-able. That is you can remove the defects and still finish the system to a high-gloss.

However some paint systems stand out from the normal. On one end you have extremely soft paints in which even the the finest polishes seem to remove defects at a record pace. The problem, of course, is that finishing these paints with out buffer marks (holograms or micro-marring) can be quite difficult.

Hard paints are generally easy to finish but even the lightest paint defects can be quite stubborn to remove.

If you had your choice of difficult paint systems to correct, would it be extremely soft or extremely hard paints?

 

[Orinda Auto Detail]

I vote really hard paint. I hate super super soft paint that it's litterally hard to wipe off polish with marring it up on.... I'd rather make 100 passes to get the lightest scratch out than deal with getting a panel perfect only to mess it up by breathing wrong on it.

 

[dd1101]

I vote really hard paint. I hate super super soft paint that it's litterally hard to wipe off polish with marring it up on.... I'd rather make 100 passes to get the lightest scratch out than deal with getting a panel perfect only to mess it up by breathing wrong on it.

You would hate working on my newer acura then...
I look at the car wrong and it gets marred, surprisingly my older acura and wife honda has a hard CC.

 

[mikenap]

I'll take hard paint any day. Soft paint kills your soul.

 

[Orinda Auto Detail]

I'll take hard paint any day. Soft paint kills your soul.

I actually just laughed out loud when I read this. Best way that it could possible put "Kills your soul" Thats awesome :lol2:

 

[Concours.John]

I'll take hard paint any day. Soft paint kills your soul.

And makes me throw fits like a baby at times.

 

[CH.Detailing]

Ditto. Hard paint > soft paint.

 

[tropicsteve]

no question, hard paint. my harley vivid black paint is enough to make me go for a complete repaint. :wall

 

[glfahlc1]

i voted soft paint but after reading the explanations and having a jet black bimmer, hard paint is much more easier on the detailers psyche. a bit harder on my back though

 

[ca.detailchick]

Neither!

 

[Trouble]

I vote for neither

 

[Dr Oldz]

Trick question! Basically like asking if you would rather get hit in the head with a 5lb brick or a or an 80 oz brick! Both are painfull!

 

[Stokdgs]

I vote soft paint; sorry guys and gals..
For me, faster to correct; done right, no extra stuff to do, except top it with something reasonably hard and then out the door it goes.
Have owned a couple of new Jet Black Bimmers too, Detailed quite a few M5's, etc., in that color, and seem to have figured it out just fine.
Oh yeah, I still use Rotary Power on all this !
Dan F

 

[Addicted2Bling]

Soft paint. I like being able to work faster and not have to sit there and baby sit every little scratch

 

[Todd@RUPES]

Trick question! Basically like asking if you would rather get hit in the head with a 5lb brick or a or an 80 oz brick! Both are painfull!

I'd still take the 5 pounder, fwiw!

 

[Thomas Dekany]

Hard paint here - with the compounds that are available to us, hard is less stressful for me.

 

[blackhawk777]

Definitely the super hard clears. I'd rather work on a spot for hours and still have plenty of paint left to work with over a super soft one that burns through in seconds.

 

[skibik]

I am new to the detailing world. So for that matter I would have to say hard as there would be less chance for me to mess it up.

:inspector:

 

[Rocket]

I'd much rather polish hard paint. Super soft paint is a pain

 

[TroyScherer]

I voted for the Hard paint. I would rather make multiple passes to get my desired results then to have to worry about marring the finish just by whipping the polish off.