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Ford Paint - soft, hard or medium


bagration

Question

So I take delivery of my 2017 GT Mustang shortly (made on 2 Feb 17 in Michigan currently on the boat to Australia). My question relates to US paint hardness. Is US Ford paint soft, medium or hard. 

 

I ask because there is some discussion in video tutorials about the various hardnesses of paintwork when polishing and correcting. It would be good to know from a technical standpoint.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

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Color? Most Ford paint is on the harder side, you'll still need to do a test spot!

 

It's the Ford 'Triple Yellow'. Could you expand on what you mean by 'Test Spot'. Sorry for the Newb question - new to this game!

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I corrected a 2016 GT350 last summer the paint was full of rail dust and was in my opinion a medium hardness. I have not found any of the big three with what would consider "hard" paint

 

When you say rail dust (and a few people have mentioned this) is this the dust accumulated during transport from the assembly line to the dealership (or in my case to Baltimore and then transhipment to Australia followed by car transporter to the dealer....)

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Yes, in the states most if not all vehicles after production go to holding yards, then by rail sometimes to a second or third holding yard. After that it's open truck to dealership. Your car will have been transported by rail at some point. Adams Deep Wheel Cleaner does a fantastic job with removing rail dust. Congratulations on your new Mustang.

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Yes, in the states most if not all vehicles after production go to holding yards, then by rail sometimes to a second or third holding yard. After that it's open truck to dealership. Your car will have been transported by rail at some point. Adams Deep Wheel Cleaner does a fantastic job with removing rail dust. Congratulations on your new Mustang.

 

Thankyou. Ok so certainly the car will go through the same transport pattern as in the States. The car will arrive into Port Kembla (New South Wales) on 21 April and then be trucked to Canberra (open truck) and delivered to me on 1 May. I'll work on the assumption that it is medium hardness paint. Many thanks for the help  :thumbsup:

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http://adamspolishes.com/video

Adam will explain what a test spot is in the long throw polishing video

When you polish you want to use the least aggressive method to achieve your desired finish, no need to remove more clear coat than necessary. You can assume all you want about how hard the paint is but you haven't even seen your car yet, it may not need much in the way of paint correction

Edited by vobro
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Thankyou. Ok so certainly the car will go through the same transport pattern as in the States. The car will arrive into Port Kembla (New South Wales) on 21 April and then be trucked to Canberra (open truck) and delivered to me on 1 May. I'll work on the assumption that it is medium hardness paint. Many thanks for the help  :thumbsup:

 

Make sure to tell the dealership not to 'detail' it! They will add scratches and swirls all over the paint! (I used to work in a dealership, and some of the cars that came through there after being detailed looked like they had been dried with sandpaper)

 

Best to get them to just hose it off, and look after the detail yourself to ensure it's up to your standard :) looking forward to pictures when it arrives!

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Medium-hard. Very nice paint to work with, generally speaking. 

Many thanks for the info - and glad to know - because the car is about 15 days away from delivery.

 

I'm going to try and take the advice offered about getting the dealer to hose the car down and then see what I need to do from there. Lets see if the dealer pays any attention....

 

Got some practice in today working on our 2013 Ford Kuga. two bucket washed, clayed, Adam's paint sealed and buttery waxed (superseded compound) using the Adams nifty applicators (I'm a fan). All up about 8 hours work from filling the rinse bucket to cleaning up. 

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Many thanks for the info - and glad to know - because the car is about 15 days away from delivery.

 

I'm going to try and take the advice offered about getting the dealer to hose the car down and then see what I need to do from there. Lets see if the dealer pays any attention....

 

Got some practice in today working on our 2013 Ford Kuga. two bucket washed, clayed, Adam's paint sealed and buttery waxed (superseded compound) using the Adams nifty applicators (I'm a fan). All up about 8 hours work from filling the rinse bucket to cleaning up. 

 

 

Sweet car, love the new Mustangs! See too many non-V8's rolling around, though. Great you got the GT! What color is it?

 

On the other hand, Honda or Toyota black paint is a b*tch to finish without haze!! Be glad you're not working with that!

Edited by EB C5 Z06
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Sweet car, love the new Mustangs! See too many non-V8's rolling around, though. Great you got the GT! What color is it?

 

On the other hand, Honda or Toyota black paint is a b*tch to finish without haze!! Be glad you're not working with that!

 

Thankyou - pretty excited I have to say. The pony car is Ford's 'Triple Yellow'. I've only seen a couple of them and the colour when detailed the colour should just be brilliant. Yes I've never owned a black car... :)

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Have an '02 F150 and a '16 Focus ST and my favorite brand of finishing type polish on a white pad always yields darn near flawless results after a year of normal DD driving and washing.  I would say the paint in not finicky at all and very easy to correct.  Pretty much never need a correction type polish or a pad more aggressive than white.  It is certainly not a soft paint, but certainly not soo hard that it takes any max effort to cut through anything you may be trying to address.

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Have an '02 F150 and a '16 Focus ST and my favorite brand of finishing type polish on a white pad always yields darn near flawless results after a year of normal DD driving and washing.  I would say the paint in not finicky at all and very easy to correct.  Pretty much never need a correction type polish or a pad more aggressive than white.  It is certainly not a soft paint, but certainly not soo hard that it takes any max effort to cut through anything you may be trying to address.

 

Love the Focus - when I was looking at a high performance Ford here in Australia it was a toss up between the RS Focus and the GT Mustang. The Mustang is going to be a garage queen/non daily driver so unless something out of the ordinary happens the most it will need the finishing polish/white pad combo. In fact it's more likely just to need sealing and waxing (fingers crossed). 

 

Watching some of the tutorial video's it seems to me that US detailers have a lot more to contend with - no salt or other compounds get put down on our roads and our winter is nowhere near as harsh as the US. 

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Don't mean to thread jack, but can someone explain to me the difference between soft, medium, and hard paint? i am new to the buffing world (been detailing for a while)

So there are various levels and variations within that based upon what products you use. But here's my lame shot at a description for you and maybe others can build on that. Let's use finishing polish on a white pad as the baseline on my experience on Ford paint. For minor swirl removal, minor corrections, and perfect finishing, the finishing polish on the white pad leaves the surface perfect and exactly where I wanted it as far as removing imperfections. That's medium paint to me. Hard paint would be taking this same baseline products and they accomplished little or nothing on achieving my goal. I need to move to a more aggressive polish or a more aggressive pad to get to where I want to be. This would be hard paint. And finally, if the finishing polish and white pad removed scratches and swirls but left it's own damage (keep in find no matter how fine or jeweled the polish, it's still abrasive to some degree) either in th form of hazing, pad swirls, or just doesn't break down enough to remove all imperfections, this would be soft paint. It requires the move to most likely a pad with even less cut than the white or a change in technique.

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 And finally, if the finishing polish and white pad removed scratches and swirls but left it's own damage (keep in find no matter how fine or jeweled the polish, it's still abrasive to some degree) either in th form of hazing, pad swirls, or just doesn't break down enough to remove all imperfections, this would be soft paint. It requires the move to most likely a pad with even less cut than the white or a change in technique.

 

 

Soft black paint is very hard to finish without micro-marring. I can get it close, but most of the time there's still faint micro-marring. May not even be the polish, it could also be micro-marring as a result of the MF towel(even high quality ones). I'm pretty experienced when it comes to polishing, but being able to finish soft black paint is very difficult!

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Soft black paint is very hard to finish without micro-marring. I can get it close, but most of the time there's still faint micro-marring. May not even be the polish, it could also be micro-marring as a result of the MF towel(even high quality ones). I'm pretty experienced when it comes to polishing, but being able to finish soft black paint is very difficult!

About to do my 2016 Black Chevy Tahoe, any thoughts or advice, I'm a first timer

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So my swirl killer arrived yesterday and practise starts this weekend on our blue 2003 ford focus. I'll let people know how I go. 

Congrats on the Stang, but my question/warning is I don't know if it's too soon to get paint correcting on a mustang that's only been painted for about 3 months. I'd just be a little cautious, I know you said you're starting on the focus but just a heads up.

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Yes indeed - not going to touch the pony car - I would think that for at least the first twelve months the most I will do is seal and wax the car on a regular basis (by hand). Even after that (because it won't be a high mileage car) I would be thinking finishing polish only....fingers crossed

Edited by bagration
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Griots DA

Perfect, Biggest thing to remember is go about 1 inch per second and keep your pad clean so it doesn't clog up. With a DA you want to only put downward pressure so the RPM's drop ever so slightly. Heat is the enemy of a DA.

Edited by Nrmcglothlen
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