Something that just struck me here.... about this discussion about 'soft' paint and challenges regarding 'hardness' of the paint.

I am starting to believe that there are some people out there that have absolutely NO IDEA about the relative hardness of :

a) a new cars paint job...fresh from the factory or...
b) a freshly painted car from a professional paint shop.

It seems that the folks who are under the impression that automotive paint jobs 'MUST' be rock hard... are basing their opinions on car paint jobs that are 'OLD' - and fully cured.

And the older the car... then obviously the harder that paint will be. It's been curing FOR YEARS for cripes sake..

Let's think about this for a minute... a brand new car from THE FACTORY... Think for a second... how much TIME has passed from the time the car was painted at the factory before it showed up at the car lot or was purchased by its first owner. They don't just slam out the cars and magically have it appear on the car lot two weeks after it was painted.

And what does the world famous wax and polish authority Meguiars have to say about new car paint jobs ?

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A new car with a factory paint job can be waxed the moment it is rolled out of the manufacturing plant. Cars that have factory paint jobs are cured at much higher temperatures, sometimes as high as 300 degrees in special baking ovens. At a factory level, the car goes through the painting and baking process without any of the rubber, plastic, and cloth components installed. This is why they can expose the car and it's fresh paint to such high temperatures. These high temperatures and special paints used at the factory level insures the paint is fully cured by the time the car is completely assembled.

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And even with this ulta-hot baking... the cars are then put in storage... for weeks and months. So it is impossible to compare a 300 degree baked paint job against a paint shop paint job or a 'rolled on' and baked in the sun paint job.


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New cars in storage in South Korea heading for the USA. And how long do they sit in the hold of the ship while being transported. And how long do they sit in the US holding compounds before being forwarded to the dealers. That's a lot of curing time I would say...

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At the southside of the town of Corby (UK) there are enormous car storage areas with thousands of vahicles. Baking in the sun... waiting... waiting... for when they will be finally sent on to a car dealers lot... where they will continue to sit in the sun until someone buys them...


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New cars in storage in Newark New Jersey (USA) waiting to be forwarded to dealers. Fresh from the holding lots at the car manufacturers... where they originally sat and baked in the sun.. and now sitting in this compound where they sit and cure... while waiting... waiting.. to be sent on to the car dealer lots... where they will continue to sit in the sun...

Some of those cars have sat at 'holding compounds' FOR MONTHS prior to being shipped to the dealer lots. Those holding compounds are OUTSIDE in the sun. So these cars have been painted and left to sit for months prior to you getting a chance to dig your finger nails into their paint.... That paint has had time to CURE.

Now.. let's pop the delusional bubble about the paint jobs that have been applied by the professional paint shops - baked or not baked. I do not think there is one body shop in the world that would advise their customer 'that its ok to take the car through a car wash for the first or second month'. They normally advise their customers to NOT take the car through a car wash and to ONLY WASH THE CAR with a bucket of water, very mild auto specific soap, very soft chamois cloth or some other soft cloth. The bottom line is that the freshly painted car from the shop has SOFT PAINT that can be scratched, marred or even have impressions pushed into it because it TAKES TIME FOR IT TO FULLY CURE. Want to be a nasty [Edited by Moparts - Keep it clean]... then go to a paint shop and casually try to scratch the paint on one of their freshly painted cars. If you don't get killed by the shop owner.. you may live to tell exactly how soft the professional paint job really is.

And what does the world authority Meguiars have to say on paint shop paint jobs ???

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After-market paint finishes however, are cured at a much lower temperature to ensure the method of baking or heating the paint doesn't melt non-metal components such as wiring and vinyl. For this reason, it's best to follow the specific paint manufactures recommendations for care and maintenance of fresh paint. Most paint manufactures that supply paint to the refinish industry recommend that you allow anywhere from 30 to 90 days curing time after the paint is applied before you apply the first application of wax.

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When comparing the hardness of the Tremclad/Rustoleum or Brightside paints against 'OTHER' paint jobs... I hope people will be able to keep things in better perspective and compare APPLES TO APPLES - rather than APPLES TO ORANGES.

The reality of these 'roller' paint jobs is that their relative 'HARDNESS' is probably THE VERY SAME when you are comparing the same time space of each of those processes in its curing.

And I don't think it is realistic to compare a paint job that has only cured for one week, one month or even a couple of months... against a car's finish that is six months old or many years old.

Keep things in the proper perspective and I think you can better appreciate that this 'roller process' is at the same level of hardness during its curing as the other paint jobs are AT THE SAME PERIOD OF TIME in their curing.

And if you could BAKE your car at 300 degees without melting all your rubber and plastic.. you might stand a chance at competing and comparing against a factory baked paint job for hardness

But with TIME all paint jobs eventually reach their maximum potential hardness...