Tech Question for you paint experts...

[Bill R.]

I've got a ford truck thats going to get traded in soon for either a new prius,new crv or an e46 wagon, but thats beside the point.. It had the rear fender reshot because of a shopping cart experience at home depot and i had it repaired and repainted by the proverbial friend of a friend... well it has numerous runs in the clearcoat and I've been ignoring it but now that i want to trade it in, I've colorsanded it with 1500 grit wet or dry and gotten the runs out but the polishing process is what I'm having trouble with... I have a porter cable 7425 with a polishing head that everybody on the roadfly detail board raves about.. But it doesn't seem to do much at all when using the foam head and rubbing compound or polishing compound... I ended up having to go with a 2 speed buffer and a lambswool polishing head to get it to polish it out to a gloss.. and it seems like i'm having to exert a fair amount of pressure to do this... Anybody that does this have any tips on the proper procedure.. I'm concerned about burning the paint with the 2 speed buffer and having to apply pressure... Thanks.

[Tiger]

Bill... it is possible that you have removed the clearcoat... thus you can't get a shine out of it. Have you tried waxing one small section if it comes out acceptable? If yes, then just wax it. If no, then I suggest you shoot a coat of clearcoat (with the wax removed of course), then wax it after the clearcoat dries.

[632 Regal]

thats the way buffing works, apply compound, smear it around with the pad then buff till it dries. Take a screwdriver and run it from the inside of the pad to the outside when its spinning to get the hard dried stuff off that will burn the paint. Then come back and lightly bull till it shines. Stay away from corners and edges.

enjoy

many a good paint job has been trashed with inexperienced buffers.

you wont be the first.

[Bill R.]

past and its usually obvious because the paint color starts showing up on your sandpaper, this just had milky white clear powder residue showing... I'm able to get it to gloss up, its just that its taking a lot more pressure with the buffer than i thought it would... most people tell me to avoid applying any pressure to keep from burning the paint

Bill... it is possible that you have removed the clearcoat... thus you can't get a shine out of it. Have you tried waxing one small section if it comes out acceptable? If yes, then just wax it. If no, then I suggest you shoot a coat of clearcoat (with the wax removed of course), then wax it after the clearcoat dries.

[George M]

Hi Bill,
All depends on what polishing medium, which pad and what speed not to mention how much hand pressure you are applying...more of an art than a science. The good news is you can't go wrong with a random orbital like a Porter Cable. Bad news is yes they will take longer to go from a 1500 grit color sanded surface to a mirror...to get just past the root of the scratches created by your color sanding....why some so called or self professed experts disavow random orbitals and only use rotory polishers...not fast enough...and no risk :-)
In summary to knock down that rough sanded surface quickly you need a courser compound, a more aggressive pad...like an orange pad or more aggressive wool pad will take it down the fastest...also with the highest risk...and more speed...turn up the PC to 6 which will create more heat. The non expert should do the reverse of these things...or only a couple to slow the process. When you start developing some reflection, switch to a white pad and a finer liquid machine cutting compound like an SMR by 3M or slightly grittier fine cut machine polish and knock the speed down to 4 or less. Goes without saying that you can make that panel look far superior to the rest of the truck with some TLC. The non expert should always goes slow...better to error on the side of caution...but hard to make a mistake with a random orbital.
HTH,
George

[Bill R.]

attempting to buff the paint on this pane out with it.. I spent most of one day on the panel experimenting with different compounds , going over it many many times. Finally when i gave up and took out the makita 2 speed body sander/buffer/polisher with the lambswool buff and used it on low speed, that finally brought some gloss and when i switched to to high speed it brought more gloss... but the amount of pressure i am having to apply is actually pulling the motor down on this buffer.. which concerns me since I don't have much experience with this.. and don't know if this is normal or not... I'm hesitant to switch to coarser compound since I have seen the results of too coarse a compound in the past. Thanks.

Hi Bill,
All depends on what polishing medium, which pad and what speed not to mention how much hand pressure you are applying...more of an art than a science. The good news is you can't go wrong with a random orbital like a Porter Cable. Bad news is yes they will take longer to go from a 1500 grit color sanded surface to a mirror...to get just past the root of the scratches created by your color sanding....why some so called or self professed experts disavow random orbitals...not fast enough...and no risk :-)
In summary to knock down that rough sanded surface quickly you need a courser compound, a more aggressive pad...like an orange pad...wool pad will take it down the fastest...also with the highest risk...and more speed...turn up the PC to 6 which will create more heat. The non expert should do the reverse of these things...or only a couple to slow the process. When you start developing some reflection, switch to a white pad and a finer liquid machine rubbing compound like an SMR by 3M or slightly gritter fine cut machine polish and switch to a white pad and knock the speed down to 4 or so. Goes without saying that you can make that panel look far superior to the rest of the truck with some TLC. The non expert should always goes slow...better to error on the side of caution...but hard to make a mistake with a random orbital.
HTH,
George

[Jr ///M5]

What kind and type of buffing compound are you using?

Jr

[632 Regal]

do all the work on low speed, final polishing is on high speed with very light pressure and not in one spot, keep that thing moving.

[Tiger]

Well Bill, sounds like you are doing it right... When you sanded with 1500 grits, you are supposed to wet sand it... maybe that is what you did wrong... at 1500 grits, it should still be shiny that is if you wetsanded it.

In any case, as long you get a gloss and wax makes it shine... that is it. you are done.

[Bill R.]

Here

What kind and type of buffing compound are you using?

Jr