# paint thickness list



## five£wash (Oct 12, 2008)

is there a list anywhere which highlights which manufacturers paint is either soft, medium or hard. i know for a fact i've seen one before but can't for the life of me find it now..........


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## NKS (Feb 22, 2007)

There is no hard and fast rule to paint hardness and as Dave KG has proved recently the top layer is quite a bit softer and then harder once you get past this point,

The rule of thumb is always start with the least aggressive polish/pad combo and work yourself up. Sometimes lower cut polishes require a few hits rather than stepping up to something with more cut.

Generalising massively here and don't take my word for it:

German = hard
Jap = soft
Vauxhall/Volvo in the middle somewhere

But as I said above - Always start with the least aggressive....Use with caution my friend and always use a PTG.


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## pre620ti (Nov 25, 2007)

I think there is a guideline on pdf on the Polished Bliss website


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

As NKS says, there is no hard and fast set of rules, and even guideless, well intentioned though they may be, I would also advise against.

Learn the paint specific to the car you are working on with no prior assumptions, as this way you better guarantee safe correction and finishing results by working to exactly the car in front of you rather than a predetermined assumption about the car. 

As being demonstrated - the life of a car will affect the hardness/softness of the paint, so no two cars will be exactly the same.


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## fonzi83 (Aug 4, 2009)

What about French cars... ?

They where are you in the list... like a Peugeot 106... 
what type of paint is it ?


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## VIPER (May 30, 2007)

five£wash said:


> is there a list anywhere which highlights which manufacturers paint is either soft, medium or hard. i know for a fact i've seen one before but can't for the life of me find it now..........


We're working on something along these lines at the moment, but it's on a list of new features for DW so stay tuned :thumb:

What's been said above is quite correct, of course, and whatever we decide to incorporate into the site would have to be subject to a good deal of common sense, and the reader interpreting and adapting the information for their own job, as 2 cars from the same marque and year can be different. It would be more a growing database of what's been used on what cars and from that, as it grows, certain patterns should begin to emerge.

People are savvy enough not to take anyone else's choice of what to use as 'gospel', but at least it gives them something to work with as a guideline rather than going in totally clueless.

As such it will be no different from someone posting up "I drive a XXX and have some light to medium swirling that I want to remove, what would you suggest given my car type?". We see these threads all the time and people post up with their recommendations based (hopefully) on personal experience of working on an identical or very similar model. That information is still open to being accepted or rejected by the person asking the question, and is subject to the variations that makes one car differ from another. So some sort of quick reference database is still subject to the same interpretation of the info, but without having to start a thread and ask if the person doesn't want to.


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## Copey (Aug 15, 2009)

fonzi83 said:


> What about French cars... ?
> 
> They where are you in the list... like a Peugeot 106...
> what type of paint is it ?


I was going to ask the same, whats french paint generally like?


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## mwbpsx (Jun 23, 2006)

fonzi83 said:


> What about French cars... ?
> 
> They where are you in the list... like a Peugeot 106...
> what type of paint is it ?


if its french its **** ie soft lol


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