I am preparing to paint the dash and door jams of my car first (BC/CC), then I'll come back and paint the rest of the car. My question is, after the clear coat has cured, how do I cut and buff these odd places that a buffer cannot be used? Are places like door jams usually buffed?

The rule is you don't sand any place that you can't get your equipment into. Have you ever hand buffed up a urethane? Trust me, you won't do it often. Most guys use a mini-gun for jamb work and perosnally I over- reduce my clear especially the last clear coat in the jambs. Now I'm not saying that show vehicles may not have cutting and buffing done in those nooks and crannies but it is not the norm.

So it's standard not to sand and polish areas like the door jams.

If I am not able to polish an area like behind the door handles, should I not wet sand the clear in that area? Only sand the falt areas that I plan to polish? Does that sound right?

Do you think it would be to shinney to cut & buff the dash area?

Yep, that's what I have always been taught. If you're not going to finish up with compounding and buffing you shouldn't sand the area. Depending on the car I might cut and and buff the dash area but remember the dash area in modern cars is dead flat for a reason. GLARE! I used to have a sports car that had a fabric dash top but the defroster vents were kind of semi-gloss. At night I could see everyone of those defroster vents reflected in the windshield. I ended up pulling them all and doing them in flat black. Older show cars with a lot of curves in the dash can look great when smoothed up but those cars aren't driven much.

one thing of found out is to not sand all the way to the edges either. less work for the buffer and less chance of burning through IMO.

jerry

Is this standard procedure is to BC/CC the door jambs then mask out and paint the rest of the vehicle?

Thanks.

Jack if you want the dash and jambs to look like they were buffed try this . shoot your clear, let it dry for a day or two go back and wetsand the jambs and dash with 600 being careful not to cut through the clear, especially on the jambs. Then clean well with wax n grease remover and shoot 1 or 2 more coats on them . If you dont have a good booth try to do this early in the morn when all dust in the shop has setteled. I do snomobile hoods like this all the time and they come out great.

Good luck Dave

At the bodyshop I work at we never cut and buff the jambs, unless you have a major orange peel problem it just isn't nesscary, since we are trying to match the texture of the car, we don't have to worry about stuff like that. And we cut and buff everything that leaves the shop. It helps in your painting technique too, the painter we have is real good and he can lay a really flat clear if he wanted too...but then the panel would stick out (and he wants to keep me busy buffing lol). If you really want to do buff the jambs I would suggest wetsand with 2000 then 3000 so it'll buff quicker and a mini air buffer, they work well for small places. However personally if I had the time, I would let it cure, wetsand, then reclear with a reduced clear like someone suggested, this works well.