FINALLY GOT MY CAR PAINTED!
On to cutting and polishing.
The Makita polisher is lighter and more powerful than the DeWalt so I bought it. Hopefully it will be here by next weekend. Comes with a wool bonnet. I also bought Meguires polishing and buffing foam pads.
What compounds do you recommend?

 

I'm a big fan of Wolfgang Swirl Remover and Finishing Glaze. I am able to obtain a completely swirl free finish on a black car every time! The Wolfgang sealant 3.0 is a great product too (but too soon for you, if the car was just painted).

 

It's been awhile since I did paint for a living, but all the shops I worked in used the 3M Finesse It system. I'm sure there are others which work as well or better, I am comfortable using these.

 

Where can you buy the Wolfgang products ?

Thanks

 

I stick with 3M compounds and pads. Basically I wetsand with 1500 or final sand with 2000, then start with a course wool pad and MicroImperial compound. Then wash the car off, let dry (or just towel dry), then go to a foam pad and the fine compound for foam pads (I don't recall what it's called at the moment). Use the dark if your color is darker, they have a light compound if it's a lighter color paint. You can still use the dark stuff on the lighter color paint, you just have to get it all washed off. It works well enough and you can get it at a lot of places. I use a 500W halogen lamp near the paint to ensure I have ALL the sandscratches buffed out. Otherwise, it can look good, but if you get a bright light up to it, you may still see the scratches. Same under certain outdoor lighting conditions.

Now for the Makita buffer. I have this kit:
http://www.thetoolwarehouse.net/p-34...s-9227cx5.aspx
Overall it's a good buffer, very powerful, nice ergonomics with one VERY annoying exception, well, two actually. The buffer I have (and I think all the new electronic ones have this unless they modified it in the last 2 years) it has electronic speed control soft start with a predictive algorithm programmed into it. It's supposed to make it easier to soft start and operate and improve buffing action by maintaining a set speed. Some body guys like it, personally, I hate this feature. It 'fights' me almost all the time and particularly at the worst moment, like when I'm trying to feather the trigger or do a slow spin on a delicate edge. It is very hard to predict if the pad will just lurch to near full speed or do a soft start and spin slow with just a little trigger pull. It's really hard to get a slow spin. I've read similar complaints on the internet about it. It is a perfect example of engineers trying to come up with a competitive feature to help sell a product that in the real world wasn't necessary in the first place. And the feature is actually counter-productive and makes buffing action worse. What I find myself doing is giving the trigger a pull, then having to let up right away to ensure a soft start, otherwise, it'll just sit there and hum but not spin until you get more trigger and then it'll lurch to almost full speed. It's nuts but I have sort of figured it out, even though sometimes the action seems more rendom and it does something else.

Another selling point of the buffer was the curved molded chord end off the back of the buffer. Well, that's a pain in the a$$ when you are buffing a flat hood or trunk and you would normally sling the the chord over your shoulder to keep it off the paint ...but with this wonderful feature, that damnn molded chord wants to rub on the hood and it isn't so easy to raise it up. Same if you're buffing a door with the buffer vertical. If they had just left the chord straight like all other buffers and grinders, I think it would be better off. Again, another unnecessary feature that some marketing guy thought would give a competitive advantage but works against real-world buffing conditions. I've used a lot of different buffers so it's not like this is the only one I know. Makita makes great tools (I have several) and they usually have wonderful designs and ideas, but I don't know if this buffer is one of their best works. If I had it to do over again, knowing what I know now, I would have went with the DeWalt buffer (at the time) that lets ME do the deciding and doesn't fight me. I see now they also have the electronic speed control. Don't know how it works though. I have a bittersweet feeling about this buffer because I was SO excited to get it, read a bunch of good reviews (didn't heed the negative comments) and once I got it, I was turned off by the issues above, predomenately the jerky low speed performance (which is why you'd buy a high-end buffer in the first place, right?).

If I were you, I'd try it out for a while not getting it dirty. If you find this to be an issue, I'd send it back and get something else. If not, you've got a winner ...and maybe they've altered the algorithm). The Milwaukee is heavy (my brother has one) but will last FOREVER becuase it's built like a tank and does what YOU want to do. An older DeWalt w/o the ESC http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/7-9in...item562d26f58a is a good bet if you can still find one. The $30 Harbor Freight buffer which I used for a short time (don't get the electronic speed unit, that's awkward to operate) is actually very good for hobby use but doesn't have a variable speed trigger. It should be consumer best buy (but the backing pad it junk)http://www.harborfreight.com/7-inch-...der-92623.html. Otherwise, it's a good buffer, not as refined as the Makita but well worth the $$. And I buffed for many years w/o a variable speed trigger (has thumb dial) but otherwise is a copy of the Makita. I should have kept the HF buffer I had. But the V/S trigger is the way to go and there are some cheapies out there I've seen (Amazon?) that have it and not the ESC. There are some $80 options out there that are good buffers with trigger action.


Mark G