after spray work?making it look good

[luke23]

i used the search feature but i felt i needed a more specific anwser so i made a thread
so anyways my car just got resprayed gloss black in arcrilic mixed with clear, but to be honest it came out a little rough and patchy, it hasnt been wet sanded or buffed or anything yet and clear hasnt been sprayed over the top, so i was wondering how to make the whole car glossy and smooth and not patchy? does it need to be wet sanded with 2000grit then buffed? then clear over the top? thats what ive read so far, i cant put any photos up to show exactly what state the paints in because the photos make it look wayyy better then it actually looks, but yeah just wanna know what i'll need to do, cheers

 

[sm00th]

You can either sand it flat with 1500 then buff or sand with 1500 put 4 or 5 coats of clear on it the sand with 2000 and buff

 

[nasty1]

try How to Paint Your Own Car, Auto Body Discussion Forum and Videos | Learning how to paint your own car and general automotive restoration for your answers as theres to many difrent answers on here

 

[luke23]

yeah that link was helpful, im just readin now about how to wetsand properly and that, but how long do i need to wait after the paints been sprayed before i wet sand?and what are some good buffing compounds ect?and do i need an orbital buffer or just by hand?

 

[CustomSprayMods]

yeah that link was helpful, im just readin now about how to wetsand properly and that, but how long do i need to wait after the paints been sprayed before i wet sand?and what are some good buffing compounds ect?and do i need an orbital buffer or just by hand?

Hey you should wait a minimum of 5 days before cutting and buffing. You can wait longer but the paint will still look good for a long time if you only wait 5 days. If you sprayed acrylic then there is an Australian brand compound called Septone mr buff (I Have used it many times and its great for acrylic). It can be used by hand but a woolen pad on a polisher with a medium speed is the best way to go. Sanding with 1200g wet or 1500g wet before hand is a good way to get the paint flat before buffing. After buffing you can use a finer compound called swirl remover to get any fine scratches left by the mr buff(this would be for a showroom finish) Otherwise just polish and your done.

Cutting and buffing too early will work but after a month or so the paint will sink back and form defects, doing this was a problem for panelshops back in the day when all paint was acrylic and they needed to get the job out quick, alot of the times people would come back complaining.

I have heard bad reports about the 2 handle buffing machine with the pad underneath the motor from some auto stores so if your getting a polisher i would recommend the long handle variable speed type.

Hope this helps its just my experience and the methods I find to be the best for me.

 

[ari666]

also OP: get ready for a LOT of sanding/buffing. a whole car will take you forever. i did my roof not too long ago and it took 8 hours. just the roof. non stop. then 4 months later it faded.


god damn acrylic.

 

[luke23]

customspraymods-thats exactly the anwser i wanted, thanks heaps
and ari666 did you do clear after you done the sanding and buffing?or had you already done the clear? because i heard that after wetsanding and cutting and that if clear hasnt been done it fades quicker

 

[ari666]

started off with matte black, but i couldnt get the two sides to blend together. once i had finished with the drivers side, by the time id get to the passenger side the paint wouldve gone off, so i had a bad blend line in the center.

so to fix it i started wet sanding, well this is what happens when you wet sand/cut/polish matte black

lol. you can make even the worst job look amazing as long as you have enough time and the paint is thick enough. the job in the vid was done with 400 to start with, then 800, then 1000, then 2000. the 800 and 1000 stages were only just a quick going over to level scratches out. the real work was done with the 2000.

have your hose in your left hand and refresh your water every few seconds. acrylic really clags up paper, you will hear a little squeeking noise, and if you do you need to wash off the job and rub the face of your paper. these little dots build up and they put unwanted scratches in the paint.


if you wanna cheat, you can always just 400 it flat and hit it again....

 

[toey@carfx]

as said before, hope you have pleanty of spare time cause it will take ages to do it properly. biggest drama when sanding is getting all the sanding marks out when moving up to a finer grade paper.

then the next drama will be removing all the sanding marks once you start compounding. most brand compounds will do the job on a rotary polisher with a wool pad.

next step is removing the buffer trails (holigrams) with a finer grade polish and suitable polishing foam pad. this can be done on a rotary too. for this step alot of off the shelf products and some products used by body shops contain fillers which hide buffer trails and will look great when finished. problem is they wash out after a few washes and leaves a poor finish. to be certin of the true condition of the paint, mix 10% isopropanol and de-mineralised water. spray a mist of this over panel and wipe over with a clean microfibre cloth. this will remove any fillers and reveal the true finish.

the final polishing step is a fine finishing polish. this will bring out more gloss and remove any buffer trails put in from the previous stage of polishing. this can be done on a rotary but is not the easiest thing to do if you havent mastered the rotary. this is best left to a random orbital polisher (dual action) and a finishing foam pad or a waffle pad.

lastly is the protection stage to basically lock in all the hard work and protect it from the enviroment. for a gloss black nothing will come close to a high quality wax. forget anything that comes from autobarn and the likes, look to car care products for this. remember with the type of products they sell, a little goes a very long way.

dont try to take short cuts cause a solid black will show every defect in the finish. some of the above steps may need a few goes to remove all the marks due to the colour but with some patience im sure you will get there. for more info on polishing and sanding maybe jump onto detail paradise forum (australian) or detail world (uk) and do some research

good luck with it....you will need it. glad its you and not me

 

[edsta86]

wetsanding



Just started on wetsanding my self with P1500 wet then P2000 sand paper has blue backing really good stuff.
The photo iv attached has been buffed with the 1st stage out of 3 using 3M.