I just painted my car last week and I am going to sand it and polish it now.
I bought meguiars ultimate compound and ultimate polish.
I am just going to wet sand the whole thing by hand with2k grit and hit it with the polisher.
My question is how far and how much do I sand of the paint?
I sanded a 1/4 of the hod for about 5 min and it is smoother than before. No butter smooth but I am not looking for a show room finish.
I put some compound on the buffer and went over the sanded area side to side and up and down. Then used the polish and did the same and it looks the same as before the compound. Just flat and sanded.
Should I just keep sanding with the 2k grit till I get a super smooth finish then use the buffer?
Or am I using to little compound/polish?
I went over the sanded area only once with the compound and polish.
If I don't sand it smoother. Will it require more compound/polish?
I bought a bottle of and would like to polish the car completely using only 1 bottle of each. And I have plenty of the sand paper.
What should I do to make it really shine or what did I do wrong?
Thanks in advance.
***I was told to just sand with 1200 and go straight to polish and compound from another auto painter not on the forum, but i also read, more aggressive sanding leads to more buffing. should i do 1200-2k? or 1500-2k?
Cut and polish how far to go
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Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
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by the way, this is a single stange paint job, so maybe the 2k grit is too fine for it?
Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
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Top Contributor
Posts: 1397
Joined: Thu Jan 27, 2011 2:16 pm |
what buffer and pads are you using?
a 32 oz bottle of the twins usually gets me through 4 vehicles ish. |
I was using a simple random orbit buffer and meguiars ultimate polish and compound. It came out decent. Gave it more gloss than when it was dull and wet sanded I used a wool pad for the compound and blue foam pad for the polish. I think it was my buffer and the polish i used. On this next car i am going to try to buy a betterbuffer and some meguiars 105 and 205 for the polish and hope the shine is much better Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
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Fully Engaged
Posts: 310
Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2013 5:10 am Country: Australia |
using a orbie sander with a light cutting compound will take forever after youve sanded a panel, a couple of options, sand with some 4000 wet foam discs, and then try with wat you have, or i would go and buy a cheap rotary buffer, a double sided white and black waffle pad, and some heaveir cutting compound, the white side is for cutting, black for machine glaze, you wont have any probs, just make sure its a variable speed buffer
krem |
thanks for the reply Krem!
Yea i am ditching the RO buffer and took back that really weak compound and I may sand these next 2 cars lightly depending on the way the orange peel looks. From what i have read. If i sand lightly with 2k grit, it will be easier to buff out the flAt look with a color? So i should finish with 2k grit then use a wet only 4k foam pad? As mentioned in another thread what compound do you use? And yes. When i am ready to buff, i will buy a variable speed buffer. All the pads i know of near me at a low price are the HF ones. Orange, compound cut Blue, polish pad Black, finishing pad. Should i be using the black one after the 2k sand? Or in what order? If i lightly sand the car, say 2k grit., what compound should i be using? A finer compound or more aggressive? Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
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Wow that came out great.
How do you know what a foam pad is as in your 4k? And i do watch the gunman, i have seen a ton of his videos and they are great. Good call on the glaze for dark colors, i havent even researched that so ill head over to youtube now and see what i can find. And 35 hours wow! I am into speed and production, so most of my cars need to be in and out. I have an old van i am selling, so i am just going to experiment on it. I am going to try hand sanding it with 2k and use some turtle wax brand compound and polish on a wool pad and foam pad. Ill also try the meguiars compound and polish. Will also be doing the machine 2k sanding and using each compound. Just gonna try different compounds and methods to see what is fastest/cost effective. My prices are already cheap as they are, so the more money/time i save while still getting a clean look, the better! Just been so busy lately to experiment on the van. Yea here in CA the compound is about $30for meguiars m105/205 The only 3m available in town is marked up $15! From the original online price of $30. I thought the 3m compound was an all in one mix and when the paint guy told me i needed the polish too which was $40 i think, I was a little disappointed haha. Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
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I completely agree with you Krem. The more time out into a piece the better it will look.
I'm just doing some side jobs now and most people want the best deal for the best look. Depending on what they want and The price, I will take more time to work on it. Some people want their car done and painted in like 4-5 days! While possible and working around the clock on it, the car will not look as good as the cars that customers bring in and say "take your time I want it to look perfect"(while I still try to finish in a good amount of time)mostly show cars or a second car. I have a car now for about 3 weeks. It's a low rider and customer doesn't mind he hasn't had it and won't have it for another few weeks. He actually didn't like the color(told me before I began to cut and polish, close one) so now we are repainting BRAND NEW paint. Other customers contact me daily asking when it will be done! For the prices I charge, pretty **** cheap too! I try to get the best look I can, for these prices there is little room to complain I feel like. I still try to resolve any complaints. Have only had one so far. I have started to invest in some tools to speed things up and materials. To cut and polish I order some 2k sanding discs to speed up color sanding and have also bought an actual buffer ditching the car waxer I tried to use lol. I am just looking for a permanent body shop position so they can deal with the prices and I deal with the work haha. Big paint job coming up! And the color black too. I'll be looking up best way to cut and polish it to leave no marks and may post some questions about it. I may message you Krem so see the steps you took go get that reflection finish! I am also going to start sub contracting myself out to some places around here that need panels painted. Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
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