wetsanding and buffing

[Options13]

alright, so does anyone here have a good amount of experience wetsanding and buffing a brand new paint job? i just got a paint job on my coupe and i wanna wet sand it and buff it, and im not exactly sure what product i should use, i wanna use a GOOD product, maybe 3m perfect it? any good sites?

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b90/timberlando/IMG_1696.jpg

[iLagX]

system one!

[jlego]

Have you wet sanded before? if not maybe you should get someone who has do it for you, you can very easily ruin your nice paintjob. but if you do DIY, i would recommend 3M perfect-it 3000 , good stuff.. also the wet sanding depends on the amount of orange peel you have, and how many coats of clear were applied. generally i start with 800 and go up to 1500 or 2000. hope this helps.

[EDacIouSX]

damn i want to paint my mb battles white!

[FLMadness]

Have you wet sanded before? if not maybe you should get someone who has do it for you, you can very easily ruin your nice paintjob. but if you do DIY, i would recommend 3M perfect-it 3000 , good stuff.. also the wet sanding depends on the amount of orange peel you have, and how many coats of clear were applied. generally i start with 800 and go up to 1500 or 2000. hope this helps.

i would never start with anything lower then 1000g.
i normally do 1500 if i have to wet sand.
also 3m has a great number of compounds and polishes.
if your serious about doing it your self research it because once you burn through your gonna hate yourself

[FLMadness]

google cut and buff. im sure it will come up with thousands of videos and diy's

[EsChassisLove]

I wanna paint my wheels white now. Damnit.

[Broadfield]

damn i want to paint my mb battles white!

I wanna paint my wheels white now. Damnit.

They look silver/gray to me!?!

[One_love_silvia]

They look silver/gray to me!?!

glad im not the only one who saw that

[ZilviaKid]

no way those are totally white

[Options13]

well, yeah i need to get rid of the orange peel on a lot of spots, i put 4 coats of clear on the car, and 3 THICK coats on the kit and doors n shit, so it looks all orange peely, and yeah the battles have a months worth of sanding on em, so they are a little dead, but yeah they are white..lol

plus i got a couple runs..lol

[EsChassisLove]

Looks great man. The color is fantastic. Your paint looks like mine on my zenki. Aj4 ultra red. I'm on gunmetal wheels and I really wanna try white after seeing this lol

[godrifttoday]

U more than likely used a cheap gun.... But for the mateials u will pay it' Amish the same if u pay someone

[Options13]

the gun wasn't cheap, its just my time in the paint booth was running out, so i had to rush the last part, aka the doors and kit. i might just wetsand it, then bring it to a shop to have buffed, is buffing the hard part?

[hypercrush]

I do 1500 grit sometimes 2000 if there's only a little needing to be done. I like Presta ultra cutting cream for buffing and 3m machine glaze for polishing on a foam pad. And I use presta fast wax after that to protect it before washing the compound dust off

[EsChassisLove]

Buffing is the hard part. Sanding is the labor part Haha. If you don't know what your doing Buffing you can mess up the clear real bad.

[ViperCanon]

there is used to be a kit out there by 3m, called perfect it, i can't seem to find the kit anywhere, it used to even come with a dvd and all that good stuff.. hmm..

[Om1kron]

there is used to be a kit out there by 3m, called perfect it, i can't seem to find the kit anywhere, it used to even come with a dvd and all that good stuff.. hmm..

I used a presta buffing kit for my car, comes with the attachments, an instructional dvd, and enough material to do 10 cars. For like 130 bucks.

Looks worlds better than 3M's stuff.

[Z_Spool]

system one!

first response was the best response.

This stuff is magic.

[Nick_04K]

I used 3m perfect it.
Trizact 1500 and 3000 with a craftsman DA.
I would recommend there kit to you.

It was a ton of work...I would really make sure you want to cut and buff it. Doing it "just for the hell of it" is not a good idea. If your paint needs it though hit up MaximaMike on here...he'll stear you the right direction. He was very helpful to me.

And the 3m kit comes with an instructional dvd that is very well done.

[Options13]

where can i buy the "3M™ Perfect-It™ Paint Finishing System" kit at? i've been searching everywhere, i can't find the full kit, lol

[Om1kron]

waiting for a moderator to approve my post I made in here this morning before the ban was lifted. anyway look up presta buffing kit

http://www.prestaproducts.com/Ultra_Buffing_System_Shop_Pak__136089S-details.aspx

comes with an instructional dvd.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/om1kron/My%20Cars/1996%20240sx%20Kouki/2010-08-08%20-%20front%20bumper/36809_1448132256172_1619171383_31041599_2513691_n. jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/om1kron/My%20Cars/1996%20240sx%20Kouki/2010-08-08%20-%20front%20bumper/38991_1448132856187_1619171383_31041602_5446802_n. jpg

from bow to wow.

anyone that has seen my car in person knows how nice it looks, the paint is holding up pretty good 2 years after the fact (on the body panels at least lol) of course everything exposed to high speed rocks is chipping or has some nice spiderwebs.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v46/om1kron/My%20Cars/1996%20240sx%20Kouki/2010-08-14%20-%20nisei/dsc_01311.jpg

I only wash the car since painting it at quarter car washes, don't have a house anymore. Also only have waxed it probably 3 times. Will need a repaint in a few more years.

[xBtony]

Seriously that presta kit is awesome. Ive used 3m presta and some cheaper stuff and the presta is the best IMO. Id just wet sand with 1000 or 1500 like everyone said depending on how the clear is. just dont break through on the edges. same goes when u buff it. None of its hard work its just delicate and labor intensive. Ive color sanded like 100's of cars, and parts. buffed most of them. Buffing is something you kinda have to get the hang of. like i said its a delicate process.

[K_style]

alright, so does anyone here have a good amount of experience wetsanding and buffing a brand new paint job? i just got a paint job on my coupe and i wanna wet sand it and buff it, and im not exactly sure what product i should use, i wanna use a GOOD product, maybe 3m perfect it? any good sites?

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b90/timberlando/IMG_1696.jpg

where did you get painted and how much did it cost you!??

[Options13]

alright i just ordered the presta kit, as for the trizact pads, is there a place where you can buy like maybe 5 per pack? i don't want 20 of em or w/e for like $100 bucks..lol

and kstyle, i painted it, it was supposed to be around 5k, but i did it just around 1500

[n8RPS13]

Buffing is the hard part. Sanding is the labor part Haha. If you don't know what your doing Buffing you can mess up the clear real bad.

+1! If you have never used a high speed buffer...DONT! I would try and get a friend to show you how to that has some experiance using one. You also might want to get a junked hood and practice on it because it not something you can just pick up and do. It takes lots of practice! Its VERY easy to burn right through your clear especially depending on what type of compound you are using. Some generate a lot of heat! So be sure to read what compound is right for what you are trying to achieve. Hope this helps!

[Om1kron]

it's best to do the car in sections, it's not like waxing and using one of them shit buffers from autozone, I have a few burn throughs in my paint mainly from my brother just wondering off at the mind when spending countless hours staring at my paint and thinking about life.

I don't think he used a speed higher than 3-4 on the buffer he used, but watch the video that comes with the pads bro, do sections of the car at a time, tape up edges of the car. and buff it with the aero off, then mount it and buff it.

make sure to use painters tape to cover anywhere you don't want the wax build up to caulk itself into.

[onehundredoctane]

First go over it with 1500 grit to take out the worst stuff and the majority of your orange peel, take your time, don't cut edges or apply uneven pressure. Next use 2000 grit to smooth it all over, 2000 may feel as smooth as notebook paper, but it can still cut thru the clear and edges. Make sure you keep the sand paper soaked, and the surface of the sandpaper clean and trash free. When you get to the buffing part don't stay in one place with the buffer, keep it moving around and keep the pad moist. On curves like the top part of the fender, etc, don't apply too much pressure or spend too much time with the buffer in those spots, you'll burn the clear easily. It's been a while since I've had to do this myself, and this is just the stuff I remember.

[Options13]

damn! thanks for all the input guys! to do the whole car would you guys recommend just using wetsand paper and block? or the trizact pads and DA? i can't seem to find cheap trizact pads anywhere, they are all like $60+

[onehundredoctane]

I've seen people use a DA when wet sanding before, but i wouldn't advise it personally. With a DA if the sand paper becomes clogged or catches trash you'll be more likely to scar up a larger area of paint before you notice it. Hand sanding with a wet block will allow you to feel the resistance of some trash if there is any. Everyone has their own perference, this is mine.

[Om1kron]

my brother advised to give a small area about a total of 12 strokes with the paper. it's methodical but by hand at the same pressure all around it's as even as you can get.

[Maximamike]

If your paint needs it though hit up MaximaMike on here...he'll stear you the right direction. He was very helpful to me.

Thanks for the recommendation. If you've never done this before, I highly recommend taking it to a professional. I can give you a recommendation depending on your area. If you dont have any equipment to do this it will get costly fast. A good set of 2000 grit disks can be upwards of $80 and you'll blow through them in no time. I've never used Presta or System One, so I can't comment on their product, but you can't go wrong with 3m's kit(although I don't use it myself much). They include everything you need from the start to finish.

[Sumslapper]

Tape off the edges of the panels and trim. If you have access to a DA sander and air, you can easily do this yourself. Start with 1500 grit wet with a foam pad sandwiched between the DA and sand paper. Do one panel at a time. If you see dirt (little bumps in the paint) sand them off by hand FIRST before DA'ing the car, otherwise it will be a major bitch buffing the "curly q's" out.

After you DA the whole car with 1500, hit it with 3000 grit wet. The car should be very smooth but dull. Next hit it with rubbing compound, I use a dewalt buffer and it gets the job done fine. When your done buffing it should be nice and shiny and free of orange peel, depending on how much clear you sand off.

Next hit it with the polishing pad and your favorite polish. You can up the speed on the buffer and "run" through the panels. DO NOT MIX RUBBING COMPOUND AND POLISH. Make sure the car is free of compound before polishing. I use all 3M products. Good luck.

[Options13]

gonna do this task on my next day off! thanks for that sum! i don't have DA pads so im gonna gonna wetsand the whole car by hand

[Options13]

alright, i got a little bit of a dilema, when using wool pads it says the buffer needs to be at around 2200 rpms, but my buffer doesn't say RPMS, it just says l , ll , lll , lll , and max, anyone know what speeds these represent?

[Odysseus]

Look up that specific buffer online Dev. What cutting compound are you using with the wool pad? I already told you what you need to do fool!