im in the process of painting my car. ill be spraying the basecoat and clearcoat today or tomorrow.
i am using the advantage 545 clearcoat. after finishing it says to allow 24 hours before buffing. nothing more than that. so..., what do i buff it with? a dry buffing pad seems like a bad idea. thinking a compound then a polish. but what compound and what polish?

ill get pics up when its all said and done.

thanks,

Nick

 

If you do a good enough job, and depending on the brand and quality of the clearcoat you shouldn't need to buff.

 

Personally I give my paintjobs days if not a few weeks before doing any polishing or color sanding just to make sure its fully cured.
Anyway it kinda depends on how it comes out, if there is only minor orange peel you can get away with rubbing compound (I use 3m) on a high speed buffer. Just be real careful not to set the speed too high or you could burn right through! This will help to flatten the surface but it does leave swirl marks, to get rid of those I use NuFinish on a random orbit buffer. Follow that with a good coat of wax (although you should wait at least a month before applying wax)
Now, that was the quick way If you really want it to shine you'll want to take the time to color sand it, which involves wet sanding with really fine sandpaper (2000 grit or so) and following it with the rubbing compound/polishing compound as listed above. Wet sanding can also be used to remove minor runs/dust etc that might have landed on the surface of the paint.
Hope that helps.

 

They say you can buff within 24-48 hours. At this time the clearcoat is not fully cures and must be handled with some car. The purpose of buffing, wet sanding, etc is to remove "your" imperfections from the painting process. There will always be dust, overspray, etc. Get a nib file and some 2500 grit sandpaper along with a good buffer and just focus on the imperfections. Let the paint cure 30 days before tackling things further.

 

Here, read through this forum for homework before you start.
http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums...splay.php?f=75

I learned from the internet and have had some good success. Remember to start "small". If you have any, and I mean "any" spare body parts spray them when you do your car. Then use these to practice on.

Search wetsanding and buffing on youtube as well.

I use a cheap rotary buffer from princess auto (you have harbour freight) and a porter cable udm da polisher (same as a 7424).

I cannot stress enough to start small. I had the benefit of learning on cars i was selling before tackling my own.

With enough practice you will take faded and damaged paint from this


to this



and finally this


I purposely left the right side of the hood for the before and after impression....

 

As far as compound and polish, my limited experience has shown meguires to work well and 3m is fantastic. Avoid any wool pads until you have tackled a few projects!

 

thanks a ton for the replies. that link is super helpful. the car is sprayed and will sit tomorrow while i do some more reading and plan an approach. then the finishing starts wednesday. hopefully i can get the car back together by friday or saturday so i can take her back to school with me

 

We want pics!!

 

This is how i bought my FB last fall:


I painted the fender and door the cheap way with spraycans and then 4 layers of clearcoat. Waited a day and then started to wetsand the fender and door with the smallest grid i could buy just lightly. After that i buffed the clearcoat and it came out just fine:




I admit it's not perfect but good enough for me to save up and get it painted the right way.

Put some time and effort in buffing it and don't do a rush job.

Marc

 

Good work, the biggest difference between a DIY job and a professional body shop are pride and money. If you don't have the money then pride is priceless! Anyone can just write a cheque if you have the dough, but pride combined with talent and a learning experience is just sooooo rewarding!

 

I'll second that!

 

84stock havent seen you in my other thread, i put all the pics of the paint into another one. just seemed easier. you said you wanted pics so im thinking maybe you didnt see it or somethin