Nubie - what to buy?

Discuss anything after that final masking comes off.



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PostPosted: Fri Jun 17, 2016 2:32 pm
I just finished BC/CC of my corvair, and I'm looking at a good amount of cut/buff/polish effort. Other than a small stack of wet/dry sandpaper in the 600-2500 range, and a set of duro blocks, I effectively own nothing. What should I be looking to buy?

Thanks!
Ken
66 Chevy Corvair Monza

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 17, 2016 9:07 pm
There's tons of opinions on buffing process, tools and materials - but my personal set up is a cheap buffer with a Dynabrade random/orbital head, Presta twisted-wool pads , 3M waffle foam pad, and Wizards turbo-cut and finish-cut compounds.



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PostPosted: Thu Jun 30, 2016 8:43 pm
Chris - thanks for the reply. I realized I asked quite a wide-open question, so I'm going to dump some "ponderings of a nubie" to shape this conversation better.

Cut, Buff and Polish are three distinct finishing phases that take a paint from an "as sprayed" condition to a flat mirror like gloss. (I am starting from ground zero here...)

Cutting is what brings the paint to a perfectly flat state by removing the high points of orange peel or runs. It seems that with a relatively flat spray job, 1200 is the appropriate grit, using a small flat block of wood or hard rubber, and water. Work in foot-square areas. For heavier orange peel conditions, going as low as 800 seems to be the heaviest grit you'd want to go down to, with 1000 being a better choice if it cuts fast enough. Of course watch the edges, keep cleaning up the water, and the lack of shiny spots means the paint is flat. Dealing with runs is a more delicate issue since the paint around the run will be sanded down with the run itself. In this case, I've read using razor blades to cut the run down, or taping over the run so the surrounding tape will take the sanding as the run is cut down.

Buffing now begins to restore the cut paint to a gloss finish. There seems to be two schools here on whether to use paste or liquid compounds, or continue with wet/dry sandpaper. The objective seems to be to get to a 2000 grit or equivalent finish.

If using the sandpaper buffing approach, it seems that 1500 is all that is needed as an intermittent step from 1200 to 2000. It's not clear if using a flat block is still necessary as long as something is used to keep a uniform pressure on the sandpaper (e.g. don't use just fingers). I can't determine if a DA is appropriate here, and if so what kind of speed and pressure guidance should be used. If appropriate, it seems wet/dry hook-type attachment sanding disks is the way to go.

Discussing the compound buffing approach, it seems a wool pad is the surface of choice in an electric buffer for the first phase of buffing. There seems to be a debate on the use of a normal spinning buffer, or an orbital or DA. Guidance on speed is also not clear, but concern with "burning through" the paint is the main concern. Several vendors such as 3M have a system of different compound levels to bring the car from cut to buffed (and polished), again all seemingly assuming to start at a 1200 grit level cutting, but working through the system may be in a different number of phases based on the specific vendor (2 or 3 typical). This raises one question as to the different types of buffing pads beyond using the initial wool one. There are a selection of different pads available, but the descriptions are vague as to what their properties are and how to choose them. It seems there is no standard to this either. Any guidance on pad selection is appreciated.

Polishing seems to be a refinement of the buffing process, and also tends to introduce waxes or other coatings as a final step. It seems getting to 2500 grit is the objective, although I seem to recall discussion on even finer sandpaper being used - of course all wet sanding. DA use here seems to be appropriate, wet sanding of course.

Polishing compounds would follow the vendor system, and guidance on pad selection and buffer selection/settings would be appreciated.

I haven't read much into waxes and other post polish finishes, so any guidance here would be great.

Sorry for the length of this, but I figured if I framed this as basic as I did, maybe a sticky would shape for future nubies.

Thanks!
Ken
Ken
66 Chevy Corvair Monza

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