I just finished painting my ride. It is single stage. I have orange peel and was wondering what would be the best way to get rid of it? I have 5 coats on it. What product works best. I have a Sears orbital waxer polisher. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Buy a good sanding block, sandpaper, a bar of soap, and a good squeegie. Paint is only applied to show were the prep flaws are. Bob
I'm not a painter but I just got my 35chevy painted and they wet sanded with 2000 grit,compounded,polished.
I usually let them set for awhile ,month or so,by then I get used to them and I never polish them out.
If the Orange peel is real bad start off with a coarser grit such as 1000 then work it with 1200, 1500, 2000. Don't jump grit # or the previous grit's scratches won't come out. Use wet/dry paper made for doing this. add a drop of dish soap in the bucket as well. As you sand take a rubber squeegee and swipe the surface, that'll be the tell tale sign that the Orange peel issue has been addressed. When finished color sanding wheel out with compound then polish. This is the old school way to do it and I'm confident that there may be better more modern ways to do it. This has always worked for me....
Ok I'm gonna give ya 2 options. I am also assuming you have the following: DA - dual action sander A variable speed polisher Option 1- this is the " old " way to do it 1000-1200 depending on how full of peel it is. Always start with the finest grit possible. Use a sanding block...if you use your hand...you will finger f##k the finish...this is not good. Sand in a " cross hatch" pattern. Make sure ya got a got a bucket of clean soapy water. Also watch picking up junk from the bottom as you dunk your paper into the bucket. Keep the abrasive clean and squeegee the surface to check your progress frequently 1500 would be the next grade...same thing use with a block. The idea here is to refine the previous grades sand scratches. 2000 would be next....same advise as above..make sure you take all the 1500 scratches to 2000 After that a 3M 5719 wool pad on a polisher spinning at around 1400-1600 with my favorite 3M Perfect it EX rubbing compound. This wool pad is an open coat...i.e not a twisted material, generates less heat...less heat, less chance of swirl marks. What you are doing here besides making the paint shine is eliminating the 2000 grit scratches Now you need to get rid of the compound scratches. For this Imuse 6064 3M machine polish with a 5708 foam pad. Run this at the same rpm as above....put some pressure on the pad to pull the compound scratches and ease up for final polish. This is a very important step and many make the mistake of going to fast here. If it's not a "problem color" aka Black you should be fine here Option 2 - this is what we do at a production shop You will need a DA with a soft back up pad 3M 5551 and a 5777 interface pad as well as the following 30668 3M finishing film 1200 30667 " " 1500 2085 trizact 3000 grit Use the DA with interface pad with the film abrasives dry..you will see how much peel you are knocking down with the dust, I swipe my hand across it. When you start seeing curly q's clean the abrasive or change discs. Start at 1200 Go to 1500 Use the 3000 damp with a spray bottle to mist the panel..idea here is refine the 1500 scratch. When you are done with this the panel will be almost shiny..almost like a satin paint job. From here do the above compound and polishing steps and you should be good to go. Go to YouTube and type in 3m paint finishing and watch some of the training videos..follow those steps and you should be golden. Don't hesitate to pm me if us have any questions
Loveoftiki described the process well. If youve never color sanded or buffed, it might not hurt to call some independent detailing guys and see what they'll charge for a few hours, or see if a local HAMB'r is willing to show you how to do a panel.
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