Hi Guys,

Like the title says......what do you Guys use. Brands to look for or to avoid. I don't need the very best but would like to have a bit of knowledge before I talk to my local Carquest. Thoughts?

I like 3M gold the best, but for the money the
Mirka gold, it's almost as good.

For the fine grits sanding clear I like 3M purple film the best.

Second vote for Mirka. The 5 inch unbranded box Mirka is still on sale at Supergrit. Their regular pricing on Mirka is good but this unbranded stuff is quite the deal....
https://www.supergrit.com/view.php?pg=index
That^^^^^^^ is the main site...... this is the unbranded stuff....
https://www.supergrit.com/products/products_feature
Quite a bit of selection there..... velcro, psa, holes, no holes in both 5 and 6 inch...

DarrelK wrote:Second vote for Mirka. The 5 inch unbranded box Mirka is still on sale at Supergrit. Their regular pricing on Mirka is good but this unbranded stuff is quite the deal....
https://www.supergrit.com/view.php?pg=index
That^^^^^^^ is the main site...... this is the unbranded stuff....
https://www.supergrit.com/products/products_feature
Quite a bit of selection there..... velcro, psa, holes, no holes in both 5 and 6 inch...

Thanks Guys!! I'll take a look. What's the deal with holes/no holes? My velcro pad on the sander is solid so I can't see what advantage the holes on the paper would do--less clogging??

Thanks!!

Holes would be for dust extraction Sander is hooked up to a vacuum or has a Built in vacuum.

Sand Paper prices are all over the place so is the quality.
I like 3M myself buts its expensive, Its all I use for any Wet sanding.
The Suggested Mirka is not bad at all.

The ones with holes are for the pads that are set up for vacuum. The idea is that usually heavier sanding particles are being pulled up through those holes so you have less "loading" on your sandpaper surface. Your model is a solid pad without that option so you just want solid sandpaper discs.
Oops....Doright beat me to it....

Thanks Guys....makes sense about the holes.

The 5" size is mostly what woodworkers use.
I use the ones with holes for all my wood sanding,
my wood RO sanders have dust ports that I hook by hose to a small shop vac.
Using the vac with the sanders makes a huge difference with dust control.
It actually sands better when the dust is being sucked away.
It's also much better for your lungs.
I'm sure it would also work on car sanding.

JCCLARK wrote:The 5" size is mostly what woodworkers use.
I use the ones with holes for all my wood sanding,
my wood RO sanders have dust ports that I hook by hose to a small shop vac.
Using the vac with the sanders makes a huge difference with dust control.
It actually sands better when the dust is being sucked away.
It's also much better for your lungs.
I'm sure it would also work on car sanding.

That is what I have learned over the last couple of days reading. To see if an orbital sander is useful for what I do, I bought a cheap one from Amazon, 5". I know it won't last like a high dollar one but if I like it, I'll get something decent in a 6".

I my self only use a DA for stripping Paint and or Prep work only. Every other stage is done by Hand. Because almost all of my work is a complete all of my cars are stripped to Bare metal, For that I prefer a 3M Stripping disk on a variable speed buffer over a DA as its faster.

A DA can be used for refining Primer & Clear coat BUT its generally done with a special DA Very short throw DA very fine with specialized sand papers such as Trizact there are others.
https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/collision-r ... s/trizact/

I don't use them on my primer coats or clear coats because it was very easy to get swirls in the substrate. Very hard to remove once you got them in CC but not impossible just more work.

I bought into the whole Trizact system when it first hit the market buying all the stuff for it used it a few times & Don't like it! others swear by it, To each his own.
For me its a bunch of very expensive junk sitting on the shelf.