Being a Nube what is the best buffer speed and compounds to use on new clearcoat to cut and polish....Thanks

 

I still use some old school techniques and there are dozens of products that will give you good results, so there will be some differing opinions as others comment. There are many ways to get the same results and every job can polish differently, so I might change my procedure, pads, or products midway. Practice your polishing technique and the products on your daily driver first. I've chosen products that are readily available at retail stores or auto paint stores.

Assuming you have final sanded with 2000 or finer grit, I start with a rotary polisher and a double sided 3M wool pad using Meguiars Fine Cut cleaner. Tape over or stay away from edges and feature lines so that you don't rub through the paint when using a rotary polisher. I use a variable speed rotary polisher at slow speed to start and moderate pressure initially until the product is gone and then higher speed and light pressure. It may take 2 or 3 applications of Fine Cut to get the right look and complete panel coverage. I follow this with a rotary using Meguiars #2 Machine Glaze, again, about 2 applications might be needed. Followed by an orbital polisher using the Meguiars #2 Machine Glaze, the finish should be haze and almost scratch free by now. I follow that with Meguiars Swirl Remover using the orbital repeatedly until the fine scratches are gone.

Your results depend on how much orange peel you leave on the surface or how smooth you wet sand. The more orange peel you eliminate, the more defects will show. If you start with 800 or 1000 grit paper, it will leave scratches in the finish that need to be removed with 2000 before you can polish to achieve excellent gloss or "wet look." 3M Perfect-it is also a good line but usually available only at auto paint stores, and I often mix and match Meguiars and 3M products to get the desired effect.

 

perfect - thanks Al... will keep you posted

 

while your buffing check the temp of the panel you can get it hot fast !! i sand all the way to 3000 . i spend more time sanding than buffing . it's much easier to sand out scratches than buff them out . i use a black and decker polisher that adjusts from 1k to 3k . most new compounds like high speeds and less compound . but i still like to start at 1k . i like presta compounds and pads and also clean cut compound .clean cut is a little hard to find.

and the old saying of " polish a 2 ft square " still goes . do one panel at a time and then move on. and as mr hoover said blue tape is your friend

 

what pad do you use to apply the machine glaze and the swirl remover, wool or foam or?

 

once it's buffed i switch to foam pads .

 

The tech rep for the automotive paint store we dealt with set me up with 3 different grades of 3M polishing and buffing compounds with a different foam pad for each. They worked beautifully! I was worried about burning the paint and he explained that you almost have to work at burning the paint with the foam pads. They are much safer than wool. I used a cheap variable-speed polisher from Harbor Freight, about $30.00 I believe. If I was a pro I wouldn't use if for a minute but this was a one-shot deal for me and it worked just fine. You don't have to spend several hundred bucks to get good results.

Before we buffed we color sanded by hand with 1500 and then 2000 grit wet paper. The 2000 grit scratches came out very easily with the first compound. I would suggest getting someone with some experience to at least talk you through the process.

Here's another resource I used and would highly recommend http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?i...emType=PRODUCT

This Color Sanding and Buffing DVD will step you through the process and will explain virtually everything and help you avoid any pitfalls along the way. Worth the small price.

Since you didn't comment on this I will offer a word of caution. Make sure you know for certain that you have a thick enough coat of clear to get away with the sanding and polishing before you start. You have to plan in advance for this when you paint. We used 3 thick coats which my tech rep said with this particular PPG clear was plenty. He said with others we would have had to have 4 coats to have the same thickness.

Good Luck! The color sanding and buffing we did turned a good-looking paint job into a great-looking paint job. My Vette looks like it was dipped in clear coat now. It's well worth the effort.

 

I got familiar with the sandpapers tonight and I will stay with nothing coarser than 2000 as it is more thasn adequate. Notwithstanding my problem areas...

 

We started using the 2000 but it didn't make sense not to step up the pace a bit with the 1500. 2000 would have gotten us there eventually. The 1500 just saved us a little time. We leveled the surface with the 1500 and then used the 2000 to remove its scratches.

If you can get rid of all traces of trash and orange peel in a reasonable amount of time with the 2000 do it.

 

2000 will round over trash and stuff. start at 1000 the work up to 3000. makes life much easier.

 

to Quote Porchdog:
and the old saying of " polish a 2 ft square " still goes . do one panel at a time and then move on. and as mr hoover said blue tape is your friend [/QUOTE]

As Porchdog stated blue tape is your friend for edges

 

Porchdog has offered another perfectly viable way to approach your color sanding. It was the way I intended to go about it until the tech rep. from the paint store (with over 20 years experience) suggested the 2000 grit only approach. He described himself as "as a 2000 grit man".

There are multiple ways to go about this, each has their pros and cons. When I questioned the rep. he explained the obvious. If you put 1000 grit scratches in you have to get 1000 grit scratches out with 1500. Those in turn have to be removed with 2000 grit. The finer your final scratches the faster your buffing. I see nothing wrong with Porchdog's advice IF you are very careful about removing the all scratches of the previously used grit. If you don't and you miss some spots you will find out very quickly once you start polishing.

I had to go back and re-sand a number of areas with 2000 to get rid of some 1500 grit scratches I hadn't completely removed. If I had only used the 2000 grit everything would have buffed out pretty quickly. But, as Porchdog points out I might have rounded over some trash along the way. Who knows? I still believe the combination of 1500 grit and 2000 grit was the best solution for the finish I started with. Yours might be different. Use a little trial and error in an area and our own judgement.

So, pick your poison. I just wanted to point out some pros and cons. Good Luck with your job. I bet you are going to love the results.

 

there is a reason they make the different grits of paper. it is not to give you a choice. 1000 is the very last blocking paper. after that you are surfacing. by the time you get to 3000 you can see the surface and any blemishes you want to fix. i don't like the seating arrangement on a buffer and use it as little as possible . i'm not about to buff out 1500 or 2000 when i can sand them out. jmho............... and i'm old so go easy .

 

That's a very interesting point about the 3000 grit Porchdog. I wish I had known about that technique so I could have tried it.

While the 3M Perfect-It 3000 Extra Cut Rubbing Compound we started with made very short work of the 2000 grit scratches, it would have been nice to be able to check for blemishes before I started. It might have saved me some time. You can't see much of anything through the 2000 grit scratches.

Good Luck with your job Happydad. You should love your results! Here's mine.

 

Great info guys!

NIICE

 

Thanks Not_a_Z06! The pictures really don't come close to what you could see with your eyes. The reflections really are amazing. I smile every time I walk out the door and look at that new paint job.

 

It looks as if you must buy the whole series to get that one dvd about sanding and buffing...

 

NO, YOU CAN GET JUST THAT ONE DVD HERE: http://www.eastwood.com/color-sandin...video-dvd.html

P.S. I have spotted Kevin Tetz who did these DVD's as a host on the "Trucks" TV show.