paint types

[tundra2287]

Hey folks, I am new to Detail City. I do have a question about paint types though. I have been detailing as a side hobby for about 10 years now and am about to dive into something unfamiliar......VOLVO. I have never had experience with European paints, as I only have owned Japanese cars myself and all of my friends are diehard Chevy, Ford and Chrysler fans. Are the paints hard, soft........pain in the tail end period? The guy is paying good money for this detail and I definently don't want to give him any less that what he is paying for. Your feedback is greatly appreciated!

[cartoysautospa]

volvo perhaps have the finest paint of all cars made today. the reason why is because of their sophisticated paint booth there in Sweden. There paint booth is 4 times more sterile than a hospital. There finish is even through out the entire car, therefore the thickness is true from the front to the rear of there cars, of coarse there is has been a repaint involved.
There finishes are base coat clear coat , with the exclusions of the following cars
early model 850 series has single stage on
dark green ,red, black colors........then tend to fade and require a good bit of compounding to get the color back to glossy.
any non metallic color in a 240 series,740,960 is single stage. all of the metallics are base coat clear. you will enjoy how much heat you can put on the paint to make it gloss up.
I hope this gives you some direction

[Mike Phillips]

A couple of quick comments...

When it comes removing defects, the major factors that determine how easy or how difficult it will be is how polishable the paint is and this is in part determined by how hard or soft the paint is.

For years now I see people come to forums and ask

Do Honda's have soft paint?
or
I read that Fords have hard paint?
or
Fill in the blank....

What you read on a forum might or might not be accurate so the best thing to do is to go out and do some testing on the car you're going to work on and figure out if the paint is easy or difficult to work on yourself.

Some cars do have paint systems that from my experience and a thousand other detailer's experience, come from the factory with some pretty hard clear coat paints and one model I can think of is Corvettes.

But even still, I would wait till I did a test spot before I say categorically that the Corvette in my Gage has hard paint.

You really don't know if the paint on a car is hard or soft until you actually go out into the garage and start doing some testing on it. And then it really helps to have experience working on lots of different paint systems so you can gauge and compare the paint you're working on to other paints you've worked on. If you don't have experience then you can post what you're seeing to a forum like this and ask for help or suggestions.

[Mike Phillips]

Originally Posted by cartoysautospa

you will enjoy how much heat you can put on the paint to make it gloss up.

Actually heat isn't a good thing when machine buffing paint. There's a lot of mis-information on forums where you'll see people post something like

Heat is needed to break down diminishing abrasive

And actually, it's pressure over time that breaks down diminishing abrasives. Heat is just an unnecessary and unwanted byproduct of the process.

[Beemerboy]

Mike

In the case that you are using a rotary, how is it that heat is not created. I got that pressure is needed, but I have been of the impression that you didn't want to bear down to hard on the paint. It was more about letting the spinning action of the rotary do the work coupled with the product and that's what breaks down the abrasives

[JaredPointer]

You can't avoid heat - friction of any type will build up heat. You can't beat the laws of physics. Heat is an unwanted, yet necessary part of the process. Heat has nothing to do with removing swirls, glossing paint, breaking down a polish, etc.

[cartoysautospa]

when polishing the paint let the buffer do the work along with the abrasive your using, if your using a good abrasive, you should be able to lay the buffer on the surface with some resistance not so much pressure and see what kind of result you get. If they paint doesn't come up then add some pressure. you have to remember the more pressure you add , the more swirls you will put in the paint from the heat of the buffing pad.

[Mike Phillips]

I think Jared Pointer summed it up pretty good.

When using a rotary buffer heat is unavoidable, you're going to create heat due to friction time and pressure, so it's unavoidable. It's just not a necessary component of the process like you'll read on various forums.

I can't think of a single situation where getting the paint hot benefits the paint or any abrading process, it just creates risk.

So when you're machine buffing, avoid getting the paint hot, you can get it warm, even very warm, but if you get it hot then move on to a different section until the area that's hot cools down.

Hang on, I'll write a quick article on technique...

[cartoysautospa]

well when you want to cut down the heat , keep a water bottle handy and spritz the surface while you buff, it cuts the heat down, plus it will speed allow the compound to cut the paint at a faster rate. Also mist water on your pad to reduce friction and the heat

[Mike Phillips]

Here you go...

http://www.detailcity.org/forums/wet...mperature.html

[cartoysautospa]

hence Mike , this is why I suggest the water method to buff the car wet, when it is heavily oxidized or when some type of paint correction is needed. the only time you would want the paint to be blistering hot is when you are removing acid rain from a car's surface................you have to get the paint hot enuff to re flow the clear. This technique is only for the very experienced buff master