Ford Paint - soft, hard or medium

[bagration]

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

[Nickfire20]

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.

Ok sounds good, testing on the wifes 2006 first One day next week. Thanks for the info

[bagration]

Ok folks

 

So I picked up my GT Mustang on Monday (Australian time). Vibrant triple yellow. I've done an inspection on the car (LED torch over the surface) and can report that there is very very little in the way of scratches. There are no swirl marks that I can see and paint coverage looks to be the goods (so no paint runs or spots where you can see undercoat etc). But the car is pretty grubby because I asked for it not be detailed - and true to their word they didn't. There are still elements of the silicone spray on the car that were not removed.

 

But as was noted by a couple of people there is rail dust embedded in the paintwork (not universally) and some general contamination. So my broad question here is whether this is just a case of washing and claying the car followed by sealant and waxing. Should I first lightly run over the top of the car with a finishing polish before sealing to eliminate the silicone residue or will the clay bar be sufficient.

 

Oh and for those who want to know - the car is just awesome - thankyou Ford from the bottom of my heart.

[mc2hill]

Ok folks

 

So I picked up my GT Mustang on Monday (Australian time). Vibrant triple yellow. I've done an inspection on the car (LED torch over the surface) and can report that there is very very little in the way of scratches. There are no swirl marks that I can see and paint coverage looks to be the goods (so no paint runs or spots where you can see undercoat etc). But the car is pretty grubby because I asked for it not be detailed - and true to their word they didn't. There are still elements of the silicone spray on the car that were not removed.

 

But as was noted by a couple of people there is rail dust embedded in the paintwork (not universally) and some general contamination. So my broad question here is whether this is just a case of washing and claying the car followed by sealant and waxing. Should I first lightly run over the top of the car with a finishing polish before sealing to eliminate the silicone residue or will the clay bar be sufficient.

 

Oh and for those who want to know - the car is just awesome - thankyou Ford from the bottom of my heart.

 

Excellent news Paul, now where are the pics! 

[bagration]

Sunday is bath and polish day so I'll be sure to post some pics

[bagration]

So bath day has occurred for the pony car. A bigger job than I anticipated. I had asked the dealership not to detail the car and true to their word they didn't. Because this was bath number one I was pretty conservative. So I snow foamed the car using the Adams car shampoo - did a great job and I did that twice. Followed by a two bucket wash - twice. The car was very very dirty and the rinse water was an ugly shade of grey by the end of the wash cycle. The lesson here is that the two bucket method works as does the grit guard system. I love the Adams wash mits.

 

Then followed drying and the start of the claying....which went most of the rest of day one. Exterior detailer is your (my) friend here. Again did a great job lubricating and there was enough rail dust and contaminant pulled out of the paint to kill two clay bars. But again this could be more to do with my technique. The other annoying contaminant was the plastic sealant film that was used to transport from the USA (Michigan) to Canberra Australia. It was applied everywhere and in some spots was very challenging to remove.

 

Day two was the sealing and waxing. Paint sealant and buttery wax are my friends. I did this by hand this first time with the handy Adam's colour coded hex grip pads - very nice indeed to use. I thought about using my polisher but I wasn't that brave the first time out.   

 

So a learnt that Adam's products work (love the wheel cleaner by the way), the video tutorials are great for newbies like me and I also learnt don't have enough micro fibre towels (seriously went through about 20...) and that patients is key.

 

Cheers

 

Paul 

[joelilton23]

Looks amazing! The Yellow suits the shape so much 

[Illusive_s550]

Love your car! I have a black 15 GT

[jp2015]

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!

 

 

I was fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to get into detailing as a result of trying to keep my Black Hyundai Elantra GT looking brand new. It has the softest paint I've ever worked on, and even has a repainted panel which is softer than the already soft Hyundai factory paint.

 

So I've learned through trial and error and not knowing any better that the way to finish soft paint without micro-marring is:

 

1) Finest polish you can get. There is a huge difference in finishing polishes when it comes to soft paint. Even Menzerna 4500 hazes on my car in certain spots. Scholl S40 finishes haze-free on the repainted panel (softest paint I've ever encountered). Adam's finishing polish is more or less equal, but smells better.

2) Either a yellow lake country jeweling pad, or a white CarPro fast gloss pad (I haven't tried the Adams white pad).

3) Slow arm speed, 3-4 pad speed on a DA polisher. I'm sure other types of polishers would work, but I've only ever used a DA.

4) Work in the shade. Soft paint gets softer when it heats up, so you'll get micro-marring in the sun.

5) Make sure everything is basically surgically-clean. Microfiber towels, pads, etc. This isn't crucial, but some stray debris might cause you to think your pads / chemicals are at fault when they aren't.

 

And that's pretty much it.