Looking for best polish recipe after repaint

[Kestas]

I'm looking for a good recipe to get the polish out of a car that's been repainted. I've painted cars in the past with acrylic lacquer, but I've never been happy with my polishing results after the paint was applied. The procedure I always use after repaint is to wet sand with Grit 1000 paper (I won't use anything finer), followed by rubbing compound, polishing compound, then a wax polish. I'm just not happy with the results. Does anyone have a tried and true recipe to get that mirror finish I'm looking for? I have a buffer, but I prefer to hand finish because I have better control that way.

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

"Looking for best polish recipe after repaint "

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Kielbasa or Polish sausage?

 

[bretfraz]

I've wetsanded and cut back a few paint jobs in my day. If you can do this work all by hand, you are a better man than I. Especially if the finest cut you're willing to use is 1000 grit.

Helped a good friend wetsand, cut and buff out a paint job recently. Ended up using 3M Trizact 3000 grit with a D/A. After two stages of machine polishing the car looked spectacular. I can't imagine doing that work by hand but more power to ya!

http://www.peachstatedetail.com/Detailing/nfphpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1531

 

[Mike-in-Orange]

Trying to pull out 1000 grit sanding marks by hand is the primary reason you haven't been happy with your results in the past. Why won't you go to finer paper?


Meguiar's introduced a new compound at SEMA last year, M105 Ultra Cut Compound, and it's amazing stuff. You can use it by hand but for the life of me I can't imagine why anyone would do what you're attempting. I helped on a wet sand, cut and buff project for Alpine Electronics last year just after Christmas (this was their CES show project) and we used M105 to amazing effect with a rotary buffer and wool pad. You can read about the whole process at http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21186 The picture below is from Post #6 in that thread, specifically the third picture down. As the caption says: "There is no lighter polish with a foam pad here, no wax or sealant either." Yep, that's what I got with M105 on a wool pad pulling out 1000 grit sanding marks.

 

[saaber1]

Found this thread that has great before and after photos I believe using the same or similar products to what you are talking about. What an amazing transformation!

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3930885

His technique listed was:

WASH
CLAY
MEG'S #95 PFW FLEX (HALF OF THE TRUNK)
EC PFW 1800RPM (HOOD/TRUNK/UPPER FENDERS)
MEG'S #95 UDM ORANGE PAD (WHOLE CAR)
CG'S WET MIRROR FINISH UDM 3M GRAY PAD
FK1'S #1000 UDM GRAY 3M PAD
TOL GRAPE DRESSING ON TIRES

p.s. the shine on that boat is incredible!

 

[Kestas]

Thanks guys, you've given me a lot of info. I just need to start practising and pay more attention to the job. I've been making mistakes like not being clean enough, where a piece of grit gets caught in the process and makes the job worse.

I may try using the buffer. I'm not used to using one. Plus some of my jobs are not the entire car but just a section.

I use 1000 Grit paper because I'm not all that great with a spray gun. It leaves an orange peel finish that is too difficult to remove with 2000 Grit. Again, I'll be rethinking these things.

 

[tom slick]

I don't know if it still applies but several years ago when I did a little automotive spraying you had a small window of time to do all of the wet sanding and buffing on the clear coat. if you waited too long to sand the clear was too hard so the sanding marks were almost impossible to get out.
you might want to check that with your paint supplier.

 

[Kestas]

I would expect that hard paint is the easiest to polish - the longer you wait, the better. At least this is true for the metals I polish. Fresh paint should be too "rubbery" to polish.

 

[tom slick]

Maybe that's your problem, you wait too long.