machine polishing for the first time.

[dixiethedog]

Hi all,ive just bought myself a variable speed rotary polisher,with an assortment of mops. Im going to try on an old panels (actually my daily driver 1998 vw caddy pickup (rabbit??). Its standard (horrible)navy blue,faded to hell,so......
The plan;rub down panels with 1500 wet and dry,wet of course,then do it again with 2500.
Use a cutting compound (G3),over all panels,polish off,and hopefully restore some shine? Polish with a nice wax.
I realise that theres alot more to it than ive typed,so any suggestions gratefully received. This is my first attempt,if i mess up,respray time!!:haha:

 

[Kong]

This is an old post so my reply is really more to add general information for others who don't have a lot of experience buffing.

Your sanding plan is pretty good. You can start with 1000p grit or a little higher or lower if you like; if there are runs or wave (large sags) that need to be fixed I like to begin with a quick knock down with 800p myself, but that's just to expedite the process. Follow the 100 grit with 1500p and then even finer if you like; once again on a personal note I stop with 1500 about as often as I go on to use 2000p.

Once the sanding is done its time to buff. Buffing compounds come in distinct and distinguished grits, much like sand paper, and they have the ability to take out scratches that correspond to the scratch depth of various grits of paper. I use 3M Perfect It myself and it is perfectly capable of taking out scratches at the 1200p level. That leaves a very nice finish but it will have swirl marks in it so I then move on to McGuire's (sp?) Swirl Remover, which gives me my completed finish. I never wax any job and I tell my customers not to wax the bike for at least 6 months, if ever.

As for the actual buffing, that is done with a rotary buffer. I happen to use a Makita 9227C, which is a mighty good machine that features soft start and variable speed, two important features. I do most of my buffing with the buffer speed set at its number 1 or 2 mark (on a scale of 1-5) which gives a speed of 900 or 1200 RPM. It will spin a lot faster but slower is safer. My first buffing is done with the 3M Perfect It at low speed and a wool cover. I only use this for a quick initial buffing and from there I move immediately to the same compound but a different pad, a foam pad this time. I use a medium (yellow) pad for most of my buffing, still using the 3M Perfect It. This takes care of most of the buffing and leaves a presentable shine when done. From there I change pads to a fine pad (black foam) and the McGuires Swirl Remover, which finishes the job to perfection. This stage of buffing is done at the higher RPM (higher by my standards, many guys buff at higher machine speeds than I do). My own habit it to hit the surface with a tack rag immediately before starting the swirl removing step, but I'm sort of anal about cleanliness and from miserable experience I've learned that a small speck of crap will put in scratches when you are trying to remove swirls.

There are many other compounds and pads available and the mixes and matches are innumerable. Stick with name brand materials and use them as directed by the manufacturers and you'll do just fine. When you do your wet sanding in prep for the buffing make it a habit not to sand all the way to the edges. When you buff across an edge take care to make sure your buffing wheel is spinning such that the direction of travel is off the panel, not onto it. Always wear eye protection when buffing and if buffing smaller parts (anything smaller than a door) have it well secured or a strong person holding it for you. There are lots of little things to watch too. For instance don't buff in the sun, and don't let materials intermix. Clean your foam pads (wool bonnet too) when you're done (rinse until the water runs clear and then spin dry on the buffer before laying out to completely dry and then bag them up for safe keeping until the next use - don't let the pads get dirty between uses. Make sure the surface to be buffed is perfectly clean before you begin too - that should be obvious.

Hope this is of some value to new buffers or old buffers or maybe just people running around in the buff. :haha:

 

[dixiethedog]

Hi Kong,excellent reply. Im still having a bit of practise with my rotary buffer,but hadnt thought of using the wool cover until final finishing,not as you do,at the start of the process. Im going to have to buy some decent products to help me achieve a killer finish. (in my dreams!! lol).

 

[Kong]

Dixiethedog,

A wool cover will provide an aggressive cut, so you use it early in the process. It might help to put the sanding process in you mind and just think of the buffing as a continuation of it. Look at it this way: you began way back at the bare metal with something like 36~80 grit. You applied primer and advanced to first 240p , and then maybe 320p, and finally ended up with your final block sanding at 400p for straight up colors or more on the order of 600~800 for metallics or pearls, respectively. Then you shot your clear and immediately moved to sanding at the 1000p grit level, then moved on to 1500p or maybe even 2000p. After that sand paper gets hard to find in even finer grit so we move to liquids to carry the abrasive, and most general purpose rubbing compounds take up right where the finest papers leave off, taking you into the2000~6000 grit level. Swirl removers are of course distilled from the breath of angles - which accounts for their cost - and are the finest abrasives we use.

As for the pads, each manufacturer has their own color system, but black pads are pretty much universally the finest. I have read, and make it a rule of my own, not to use different compounds on the same pad. So my yellow pad always gets Perfect It II, and nothing else, my black pad has never seen anything other than swirl remover. I use the wool just to get the ball rolling with a very quick and harsh buffing, I just give it one quick pass. What this does more than anything else is show me any dust nibs or other flaws I missed. I generally keep a small block with 2000 grit on it right next to me while I'm wool-pad-buffing and when I see a flaw I just stop and sand it out, hit it with the buffer to see if I got it all, and if so then I move on.

 

[Victor Shidono]

Dixie,

Just a word of causion.

You say you will be polishing your daily drive which is faded to hell.

When was the car last painted?

My guess is that if the paint is faded probably the clear coat has been thinned out by years of waxing the car.

The process is ok of going with 1,500 then 2000 to wet sand but you might run into big problems of totally removing the clear coat.

Wet sanding and detailing is not a solution to restoring shine on a faded car, re-painting it is.

Even doing it on one panel only is not a good idea as the damege will be visible.

Hope this prevents you from messing your daily drive.