Adventures in Auto Detailing:

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by McLovin

Nice work.

I've found with colorsanding and polishing, the real danger is not in the colorsand, but in the polish.

2000 grit sandpaper (or even 1500) is surprisingly benign. 2000 grit, to the touch, basically feels like notebook paper. Combined with water, it is easy to control.

Bringing the shine back up after the sanding, to me, is the tricky part. The initial polish needs to be a fairly aggresive polish, with a relatively high speed buffer. That's the dangerous part, can be easy to burn through.

It sounds like you or others have used a random orbital, rather than a direct drive, polisher? I've never had luck with that, the RO has never generated enough speed or heat to get the sanding polished (I've tried, b/c RO is much safer than high speed direct drive). The initial heavy cut polishes (the ones that are used first after the sand) that I've used have always specifically stated they need to be used with a direct drive, high speed polisher.

I've had to do the whole process by hand with no machines when I was an apprentice auto shop painter. My first job was on a candy apple red Corvette painted with 30 coats of lacquer. You don't have to have a direct drive, the RO will work albeit a lot slower which translates into safer.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

I had my son restore the paint on my old 912 sunroof coupe a couple years ago as a summer project since he didn't have a job (playing too much baseball) and needed to earn his keep.
I started him off with the tools (a Vector direct drive knock-off of a Makita) and polishes and told him to talk to people about how to do it.
I also told him to do one small area with all the steps involved to get a feel for what was going to happen. He started with the area just behind the driver's door. Also told him he really couldn't screw the paint up much more than it already was. He took his time.
I was more than pleased with the results.
As you can see, the car was pretty sad when he started.



Yes, he used a Schlegel pad, not foam.


When he was done I told him he'd earned his room and board for the summer.

Scott, Nice work! I actually own all of the things you have in your picture of compounds, even the same Schlegel wool buffer pad. I only use the 3M compound or the rotary buffer on really heavy jobs now, like serious scratches/sand marks. The rotary buffer w/ wool pad will do great polishing but leaves its own swirl marks, usually. Still, that was a heavy job on the 912 and it looks like he used the right tools.

[Scott Douglas]

Denis
I wouldn't use that heavy duty compound on anything but the worst paint. It's literally liquid sand paper if you ask me.
When my son showed me his first attempts at all the steps I was speechless. I could see myself in the paint!
I later took the car by the body shop that was replacing his Honda's fender at the time. Told the manager it was his first buffing experience. Manager offered him a job as he said he had guys working for him with 4 years experience that couldn't do as good a job.
The car became my photographic canvas as the reflections were something else.


I kind of miss the car now as my Talbot Yellow doesn't have the same photographic qualities, if you know what I mean.

[enzo1]

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport Detailed - Autopia Forums - Auto Detailing & Car Care Discussion Forum

[Tobra]

wow, the difference on the trunk is amazing

my wife's truck has burned up clear coat that looks pretty horrible, needs sanded and painted I think