Cut/Buff/Polish

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Cut/Buff/Polish

Postby vegatex » Fri May 09, 2008 5:20 pm

I started working with the buffer today. Let's just say that it's going well once I figured out the technique. Slow, though. I'll have pictures posted tomorrow evening.

Dave
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Re: Cut/Buff/Polish

Postby vegatex » Fri May 09, 2008 5:52 pm

OK, just a peek. The left side has been done with Meguiar's Medium Cutting Polish. Right has been wet-sanded with 1500 and not yet polished.
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Re: Cut/Buff/Polish

Postby fyrftr50 » Fri May 09, 2008 6:28 pm

Dave
Nice work, makes me look even more forward to the new buffer I've got coming. I've always done all my cars by hand but I'm getting sick of it and want to speed things up and make the paint deeper. May will be a trial month for me and the buffer then off to bigger and better thigns (another story).
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Re: Cut/Buff/Polish

Postby cjbiagi » Fri May 09, 2008 7:41 pm

Looking good. The trick to buffing is to get it sanded smooth first. While it may seem hard to wet sand fresh color, I am sure you will find that getting it smooth before you buff will give you much better results than buffing alone. Use lots of water and probably start with 1000 grit and then move up to 1500 and even 2000. Then it will take very little buffing to bring the shine. Also, are you using a real buffer or a orbital one? A orbital won't really cut much if any, which is why they are safe for non-pros. A real buffer will cut and smooth the paint but can burn if you are not careful. Anyway, sounds like you know what you are doing so keep it up, looking forward to the final pics.
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Re: Cut/Buff/Polish

Postby fyrftr50 » Fri May 09, 2008 8:34 pm

Isn't this the car you rolled the paint on with?
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Re: Cut/Buff/Polish

Postby vegatex » Fri May 09, 2008 9:11 pm

cjbiagi wrote:Looking good. The trick to buffing is to get it sanded smooth first. While it may seem hard to wet sand fresh color, I am sure you will find that getting it smooth before you buff will give you much better results than buffing alone. Use lots of water and probably start with 1000 grit and then move up to 1500 and even 2000. Then it will take very little buffing to bring the shine. Also, are you using a real buffer or a orbital one? A orbital won't really cut much if any, which is why they are safe for non-pros. A real buffer will cut and smooth the paint but can burn if you are not careful. Anyway, sounds like you know what you are doing so keep it up, looking forward to the final pics.


Clyde,

The whole car has been wet-sanded with 1500. I'm using a real electric buffer/sander with a wool pad for the intital buffing, then a cheapie auto wax orbital sander with a terry pad to remove the dried polish. My system seems to be working OK, I got a little burn-through on one inside edge of a fender but now I'm just going to have to touch it up, sand it with 1000/1500, and buff it smooth.

Thanks,
Dave
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Re: Cut/Buff/Polish

Postby cjbiagi » Sat May 10, 2008 12:27 am

A good trick is to put a piece of masking tape along any edge or peak to prevent burn through. Then you can remove the tape and polish the very edge by hand or just be very easy with the buffer. You also want to hold the buffer in a way that the pad is rotating off of any edge. By holding it at a slight angle and looking at the way the pad is rotating you want to hold it so the pad does not cut into the edge, it rotates off of it. Kind of hard to explain, but I'm sure you inderstand what I am talking about. I've burned through a few places too, it's part of the learning process. That's the nice thing about knowing how to paint, you just sand it down and re-do it.
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Re: Cut/Buff/Polish

Postby spyder_xlch » Sat May 10, 2008 7:29 am

It's best not to buff the edges. I like Clyde's way of tapeing the edges, never heard of doing that before. If the edges need buffed do it by hand.
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Re: Cut/Buff/Polish

Postby vegatex » Sun May 11, 2008 12:35 am

Here's some pictures of today's effort. Keep in mind that this was just the first pass with Meguairs's Medium Cut Polish and a wool pad. I followed that with a sponge pad, and hand buffed the edges and did a light hand polish on each panel with Turtle Wax Polishing Compound. I took Clyde's suggestion and taped the edges to avoid burn through. I am probably going to switch to the orbital polisher only for the second and third passes with light polish and glazing polish.
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Re: Cut/Buff/Polish

Postby monza75tc » Sun May 11, 2008 12:06 pm

Dave,

That is really looking nice. Am jeloous as will have to get that done to mine, though will be going with the white and yellow botton as it is now. This type of paint job will make affordable color to lots of people that thought they would have to run around with a primered car until they could get enough together to take it to Maaco or someplace. Can't wait to see the finished project with everything put back on.

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Re: Cut/Buff/Polish

Postby vegatex » Sun May 11, 2008 1:17 pm

Yeah, and it's better than a Maaco job, too!
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