Hi Bird,
Looking GOOD!
My only experience and advice is from watching the fellow who painted my car with lacquer wet sand and buff.
I was startled by how much water and soap he used while he was sanding to keep things 'floating'.
Maybe?
Regards,
Alan

 

I tend to think the 800 was ok as long as there is enough sanding after that, especially the next grit up(1000). I was really concerned when I incorrectly thought it was 3 coats. I'm still a little concerned(lol).
We aren't gonna be able to tell that there is "good layer of clear still on the car", not from pics and not even from being there and looking at in person(at least not me anyway). yes you are totally correct about the darker colors, anything short of perfection will show a haze. That's why I warned you about doing it in sections, which you did. Just be carefull about going through....

 

Since Photo-scum-bucket is acting up again tonight, I'll try and get the latest pics loaded up and then explain later...

First, RE-sanded all the way to a 3000 finish IN THE GARAGE under flourescent light and using soapy water. This took an hour and a half, starting with 1200 grit...




Polished one small spot by hand under the lights to see what kind of result that would give...encouraging.


View of the passenger-side, un-reworked panel- haze is visible in the light reflection...


And the driver's side panel after cutting-buffing-polishing. This done with a 4" wool/foam pad in an electric drill with not enough speed to generate any real heat (I didn't want to sling compound all over the garage). MUCH better, the haze is all but gone, and the orange peel that I had missed on the first attempt is all removed as well except for a couple barely noticeable little spots.



THIS is a big part of the reason that I did this thread. I'd have to go back and check to be sure, but if I'm not mistaken one guy told me about the flourescent light thing, another about the Trizact pads, another about using soapy water for sanding, and as it turned out it was the COMBINATION of all those things that FINALLY produced an acceptable result.

This really is the part of the job that is the most absolute WORK. The rest is a combination of patience, diligence, and skill, but this color sanding and buffing is just endless, grueling WORK, and unless you're willing to put in ALL of the effort necessary to get it right it just won't happen. So at this point I really do owe each one of you guys who took the time to look in and give encouragement and advice a sincere THANK YOU!! I'm beginning to feel like it's all been worthwhile...

 

Great job! Its been fun following,instructing, and encouraging you. People see the car shows like overhaulin' and see a 5 sec clip of a guy wetsanding, and then a 5 sec clip of a guy with a buffer and think painting and getting a show car finish is easy. Not to mention the time into prep before paint and clear. Keep the pics and posts coming!

 

Awesome Dave, really shines and pops... Bet you're looking forward to the fenders and hood!!!! ;-)

Tackle it in parts!!!

Rogman

 

seeing that shine emerge from all that work is immensely satisfying, isn't it? Nice going!

That said, I didn't especially think the last steps were all that much work. A good D/A and then one of these



gets the job done! I only used a drill motor and some small pads for the concave area below the rear pillar.

We all want to see the finished car out in the California sun!

 

Ignatz, I already have a polisher like the one in the picture...as a matter of fact I used it to polish the lacquer on the Mustang 22 years ago! Mainly I just wanted to see how effective the little 4" pad in my drill would be now that I had sanded the panel with the Trizact pad, and since I did the polishing inside the garage I wanted something that wouldn't throw compound all over the place. I'll buff the other one with the polisher next and see if there's any difference...maybe more pics tonight!

 

Nice work, it looks like your metalic is laid nice and even.

 

that's cheating, using a DA to wetsand

 

Dave--

Are you using a DA to wet sand or going by hand???

Rogman

 

Rog, NO WAY would I trust myself wet sanding clearcoat with a DA!! That plus my compressor is a 115V that would be drilling holes in my eardrums after a couple days of that!

Strictly by hand, Ol' Buddy...

 

Nice, I am the same way... I would have so much tape on my lines that there wouldn't be much area to run the DA over ;-) Plan to just take my time and wear my shoulders out...

The shine you're achieving looks great... Keep it up...

Rogman

 

just be gentle and only do the 1000grit, then after by hand, I bet that would be ok..

 

Doug, the pain to my eardrums (and the neighbors', for that matter) of listening to my Air-Hog harbor freight DA would be greater than the pain to my elbows and shoulder from doing it by hand.

I do happen to have a nice Milwaukee ELECTRIC DA that's a lot quieter than my compressor. I wonder how wet-sanding with THAT would work out??

 

ah, now there you go...I've never wetsanded with a DA personally, didn't know that animal existed

 

Hopefully it is double insulated and plugged into a GFI outlet!

 

lol, you bring that up now!? 3 hours later.....

 

Now LOOK everybody...just BACK OFF, OK?? I will NOT be responsible for anybody burning up their new paint job or electrocuting themselves wet-sanding with an electric DA, is that clear???

Let's just put this idea to bed before somebody gets hurt, OK?

 

Dave,
I've been following your thread for the past 18 months or so.
You have done a great job with your car. You have truly shown all of us how much work is involved in doing this right.
Excellent work!!

Makes me wonder how long I can live with the paint job that is on my car. Hopefully a while longer.

 

Well, not really. Just trying to keep the excitement level up a bit, BUT there was a minor disaster last weekend. Since I was feeling so good about the results gained from re-polishing the roof panels, I thought I'd move on to the other small parts and see if I could improve on their appearance as well. I re-sanded and buffed one headlight door, and it turned out great. But when I hit what seemed like a particularly stubborn patch of orange peel on the other, I slowly discovered that I had sanded right through the clear and into the base...

In the span of about 20 minutes I worked my psyche through the clinical stages of denial/sand some more and see if that fixes it/nope/more denial/acceptance of painful reality that I screwed up royally/OK, moron, just what do you do to extricate yourself from this mess, eh?

After processing all of that teeth-gnashing (AND doing the SAME thing to the driver's door) I decided to stop, sand the entire driver's door, headlight door, wiper door, and wiper grille (which had been attacked by the dreaded solvent pop) with 600 grit paper and re-clear them.
I had enough clear left over to do a whole 'nother car, and some reducer, so no extra $$ expended if it worked.

After sanding everything and moving cars out of the way, I reducede a batch of clear about 25% so it would flow and piled another four coats on. No real orange peel to speak of this time, actually it flowed out like glass (methinks warmer temps+extra reducer made the diff.). BUT in the areas where I had sanded through the clear the basecoat lifted pretty noticeably...

...this was obviously terrifying at first; thought I was going to be stripping and re-painting a headlight door and driver's door, but tonight I sanded and buffed the light door and (while not absolutely perfect) there is just a barely-noticeable 'tint' or shift in color where I went into the base. The spot on the driver's door that was sanded through is actually very small, so I'm pretty confident that will polish up OK. I'm a little concerned about the rest of the car, but now that I have the wet sanding process pretty well worked out I'm a little more confident that I can get away with doing the rest of the car ONCE.
(Wiper door/ grille)

(Headlite door after polishing...not quite there yet)

...at this point, if somebody told me they got a complete-strip, base/clear paint job done on their C3 for $15k, I'd tell them they got a bargain...