I posted this in another thread but thought it might help someone find it if I made it a separate thread. I did a quick experiement last night to see what sanded and buffed Blitz Black looked like. I had painted a headlight bucket for my 28 with John Deere Blitz Black a couple years ago as an experiment for what look I like. Since I'm going to strip it back down anyways to prep and paint with whatever I end up using, I taped it off and buffed one side. Not great photos, and my prep on the paint made it impossible to get it totally smooth, but hopefully you get the idea. It looks like quite a bit like an old Lacquer job. Shiny, but not too shiny, hard, and seems pretty scratch resistant, other than the sanding scratches I put in it. This was a quick sand with 1000, then 2000, then hand rubbed with Meguiar's Ultimate products - compound, then polish, then wax. I've seen this question of buffing satin/matte single stage asked a bunch here but have never seen photos of it, so hopefully this helps someone see what buffed satin paint can turn into. I'm going to leave it for a while, so I'll hopefully see what it does over time too. I think the benefit of this method to get shiny black single stage might be cost, as it seems like it would be a ton of work on a full vehicle.
Not JD Blitz Black but Hot Rod Flatz Black....... @Chris did a 46 and the results were stunning. www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/trying-to-un-ugly-a-1946-ford-coupe.1020538/ Before: After:
That is really great, from the photos it looks like an old lacquer job. Be careful the price could go up, lol
That is very cool. It never occurred to me that you COULD buff flat black to a shine. I really like the old time lacquer look. Was there anything unique to the process, or the products used?
Cool! Yeah I don't think the product matters, just the way it's flattened with the flattener rising to the surface while drying.
If you're asking me, no. I didn't even wet sand since I didn't feel like grabbing a bottle of water from the house. 1000, 2000, then compound, polish, and wax. I use Meguiar's Ultimate so that's what I had. Obviously if I was doing a real final effort I would put more effort in to get a good base prep and remove all the sanding scratches, etc. This was just a bit of me time on a Tuesday night to do something fun.
Rustoleum satin black buffed out. Don’t get used to it looking like that without regular polishing. I think a wet sand with a squirt of clear would work better.
Looks great! Hand-polished paint gives shine/depth I like... but a whole car would be a lot of work. Chris has the system down.
My car is finished in pre-mixed satin, but where I rest my arm on top of the door it has gone as shiny as a good gloss. Must be that "elbow grease".
I saw a pic here on the HAMB about a year ago where someone got tired of his satin look. Polished it all over an I thought it look perfect! I think it was a brown Tudor...
Maybe that's the difference between industrial/tractor paint and hot rod flat paint? The hot rod flat paints seem to have a hardener or activator, where the generic ones don't.
For the average hobbyist willing to invest in a good buffer, and all the sandpaper, polishing pads, polish, etc. this is a great option. A whole lot cheaper than what it might cost to have his car painted, IF he's willing to put out the effort to do this. And if his original Blitz Black is laid down as smooth as possible the work to get it glossy will be greatly reduced. Could easily accomplish this during winter months.
If you want gloss and you are painting a car, sure, but if you have a car like that '46 Ford it might be a great option to get a whole new look.
Exactly. I did it just as an experiment to see how it would look if ever someone wanted to do it. If I was painting my project and knew for sure I wanted it to be gloss then I'd paint it gloss. If I painted it satin or bought something satin and didn't like it, now I know I wouldn't necessarily need to repaint it, at least immediately. I've seen people do this with Hot Rod Flatz and say that they wouldn't do the same to get that end look if starting from scratch, but that it saved them from doing a repaint. Honestly it wasn't that hard to do by hand and was quick. You could do it relatively low cost if you weren't afraid of manual labour. I bet you could do a whole car in a couple days on a weekend if you wanted.
I've painted a bunch of my hot rod builds matte black (Valspar/John Deere Blitz Black). PROS. *Less than $200 for paint, reducer and hardener. *No cutting, buffing, polishing or waxing. *Washing, Bucket of water, Dawn, sponge, and hose it off. CONS. *Your bodywork must be perfect. Unlike shiny paint which can distract the eye with shine/ reflection, matte shows EVERY sanding scratch and flaw because you are actually seeing the surface of the body with no distraction. *BUT, after a year or 2, it starts getting shiny from washing. It's a really cool idea, but I don't think I would ever polish one.
I've heard that it's because of the carnuba used in most car wash soaps. Apparently washing matte finishes with dish soap helps to keep that from happening.
Long time ago I was doing a glass deuce roadster for a friend. He decided it needed some paint so we taped it off and I refused to do it in my shop so outside it went and was painted Blitz Black in the dark by the lights from 3 trucks. Fast forward about 10 years he decided to experiment so he sanded and buffed it and the outcome was really unbelievable. As said above it looked like an old lacquer job. Nice change for him.