Hello expert painters, I plan to finish sand some touchup paint with perhaps 2,000 grit sandpaper. What kind of buffing compound should I use to finish the project or do you have a better idea? Thank you for all of your help.
I am not a professional, nor anything close. But I am presently cutting and buffing my latest project after painting it recently. I bought a qt. of Maguiar's Professional Pro Speed Compound, and after wet sanding with 1500 grit paper it polishes out the surface really well. About $25-$30 for a quart.
Really Need to know what type of paint you used. Enamel, one part two partetc Softer or harder different compound
I think your local paint distributor would have some pretty good notion of what products to use on the paint you are using.
How was it blended? What colour was it? Solid? Metallic/pearl? Direct gloss? Base/clearcoat? Where was it blended? What panel is the blend on...? theres just so many questions..... but in short, the least coarse product thatll do the job as a rule with any paint/body work. Too coarse and itll start buffing back your blend and youll see the edge, youll never get rid of that edge in that situation. So on that note, 3m perfect it, step 3, 6” round dense foam pad NOT lambswool on fresh paint... variable speed polisher, Not on a full tit speed. though yea, if your heads spinning from that, agree with the above, check with the guys you bought the paint from, theyll sell you the most popular cutting compound that collision shops are using in your area.
3m perfect it with a white foam cutting pad. Follwed up with 3m polish with a black polishing pad. After that I hit it with my orbital with a softer polishing pad and griots polish. Then race glaze by hand. In between each step i wipe the panels with meguiars final inspection.
Actually haha you make a solid point.... Thats been my motto for a couple years now, i coulda been driving my junk by now if i set mt sights lower from the start hahaha
BUmp. Just starting buffing the single stage black polyurethane (Nason Fullthane) I shot a few weeks go. I have some leftover 3M heavy duty rubbing compound, the tan stuff, and using a wool pad and high speed buffer, as I've done in the past. Not getting much result taking out 1,500 grit scratches, I think the compound is too old and watery, can't feel much grit to it. I used, at my auto body class, what I guess most do now, foam pad, low speed and that Pefect It three stage stuff on my Bantam a year ago. And it works great, but schools out now plus I think they were about out of compound. So I'm wondering if it's worth investing in a new foam pad setup and the new compound, vs. just buying a quart of the old stuff. This is my last complete paint job (I hope) and it's a fair chunk of change for the new materials.
Wet sand with 3M Trizact 2000 , then 3000, followed by 5000. Then finish up with the 3M Trizact compound, then polishing compound finally machine polish for the last step. It’s a 3 stage process for wet sanding and a 3 stages of polish. I used it and it works really well.
Tape all the edges so your polishing doesn’t cut three the paint. I finish with 3000 and used lambs wool pads in the past but now foam. Urethane with hardener, no clear coat. Race cars….
I use to use a lot of chemical guys but recently switched to 3D and I think i like the products better
A friend lent me his gallon of Perfect it 1, which I gather is the coarse one, and I found an old Craftsman 2 speed dual action buffer/polisher on my back shelves. Never used it before, much lower speed than my angle drive wool pad buffer. I tried it briefly yesterday and it seemed to work, although the foam pad is toast. Going to run down to Harbor Freight today, they have them. I still need to sand with the finer grits but this will hopefully get me past the sanding stage. I'm getting too old and lazy for much sanding.
That polisher might be OK for light polishing or waxing, but may not have enough torque to compound paint back to a shine too quickly, if at all. But finish sanding to a VERY fine grit (3000) will help a bit.
So I have been sanding and buffing since uh, about January, in my spare time, since I hate it. This paint is like diamond hard compared to the lacquers and acrylic enamels I'm use to that would sand with 600, 1000 and buff. There really is no shortcut is there? Every time I try skipping a grit it shows the previous scratches. So.. 800 to cut any orange peel, then 1,000, 1,200, 1,500, 2,00, 2,500... I have a new foam pad buffer and that 3M Perfect it 1, the coarse one, but any grit less than 2,500, forget it.
I was at SEMA a few years back and used one of these on a test panel they had sprayed black. In seconds I had it flat. If I did wet sanding for a living I would own one. I would be careful around the sharp body lines. https://www.instagram.com/p/BjFwXkfgxn-/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_video_watch_again
Take a look at CSI by clearcoat solutions. wool pad to buff, foam pad to polish and done. 1 compound. Low RPM, hard to burn, and its waterbased for fast cleanup. Buy it here : https://orionautomotivefinishes.com/product-category/csi/ You can google/youtube some how to videos by Tom (inventor) and learn to use it. I LOVE the stuff
My 2 cents which is most likely not worth much in as much as I have never done any buffing. I went to speak with one of my former employees who now runs a very successful body shop on the do's and don'ts' of learning what to do. He handed me a bottle of Farcella G3 compound, said to watch the tutorial on line and try it out on a small section. I wet sanded down to 2000, cleaned the panel and buttered a heavy foam pad with the G3 and then at 1100 rpm went to work on the grill shell. Made seven firm passes, dried off the grill and hand buffed with a micro fiber cloth. Then changed pads to a finer foam for finishing and using the same G3 hit the grill with around seven passes at 800 rpm and light pressure. Hand buffed the grill with a micro again. Took the grill up to my mentor's shop. He said he would hire me from now on to do his buffing as it was flawless. This was much easier than I had anticipated and I did not have the mess from buffing as I have seen in other shops with compound slung all over the place. I have now finished the first buff around the car and it looks quite nice. This week I intend to do the finish. Farcela compound is available at our local Advanced Auto fwiw at around $44. Here is the grill if it helps to see what it looks like.
I'm so fuckin lazy. I haven't used actual compound on a whole car since, since, since, can I get back to ya on that? Anyways, why? Because washing off the dried leftovers will scratch the car. I can see it, then I have to cut some more and again and the mess and, well you know. I also don't sand with every grit in stages. I prefer 1200, 1500, 2000 then 3000. 2000 and 3000 are on the Dynabrade at high speed with lots of soapy water and it's a matter of time AND visual inspection. If you think you went far enough with the 3000 give it a bit more. Now the machine cut. Wool bonnet, be as flat and conservative as you can, and as high a speed as you can control. I use Meguires 3. Yup. Mirror. Perfect. Too perfect for most. For the inevitable wheel marks left (cobwebs) switch to a foam pad and play the speed as needed. Sometimes high, sometimes low, sometimes real low like a power hand rub. Clean as you go, with Meguires 3 of course. Wizards has some nice stuff too but not at the paint supply all the time. Consistency wins. I do use compound for select things and partial work. But a whole car? Nope. Like I said, too lazy to chase the scratches. Is it any good? You tell me... That door open is 30 feet away and still crystal clear. And when you're 30 feet away too, still crystal clear. The win...
The Jalopy Journal
