Practice wet sanding, buffing, polishing, applying sealant

[10degreesbtdc]

I plan on wet sanding the paint on my race car once I'm done with mechanical/chassis work, so thought I'd test a panel today and hone my skills since I also plan to start detailing/paint correction as a part-time business soon.

Maybe this will help others and hopefully others will critique my methods to help me speed up. This one panel took two hours+ including photos. I think I could do the same in half that time easy now.

Step 1: Clean with detail spray and tape
Step 2: Wet sand with 1500 grit
Step 3: Wet sand with 2000 grit (3M)
Used cross hatch X pattern as with levelling body work


Step 5: Buff with rotary @ 1500 rpm Edge green pad OPT compound (brown label) STILL waiting on my backordered M105, M205 from discount source!
After 2 passes


Step 6: Change to yellow pad and OPT compound - two passes. Man! Yellow pads really cut!
Step 7: Back to green pad, OPT compound - 2 passes.
Step 8: Blue pad, OPT polish, 2 passes.


Step 9: White pad, OPT polish. Quite hazy. Hard to tell in photos, but you can see the difference in the next step.
Step 10: White pad, M83 - 2 passes.
Step 11: White pad on DA at speed 6 with M83. Looking good!


Step 12: Jeweled with OPT Dark Magic with DA on speed 4. Cleaned with 50/50 98% rubbing alcohol/water (same after each step before photo)
Step 13: Apply M21 sealant with DA and micro-fiber bonnet.


Step 14: Remove M21 after 30 minutes with DA on 4.


Before (left) and After (right) side by side, tape removed. What a difference!



Reflection of sunlight coming under garage door.
Orange peel (before) starts about 1/5 of the the way in from the left in photo. Some orange peel remains just above the body line where I taped, but overall this was a success. I can't get it outside and turn it around for direct sun. Good under Halogen, Zenon, flash and ambient light. Thanks for viewing!

[Maserati Mario]

Re: Practice wet sanding, buffing, polishing, applying sealant

Looks great!
What took so long 11 hrs?
Try the green 3m tape. Water resistant, stickier and $3 cheaper

[10degreesbtdc]

Re: Practice wet sanding, buffing, polishing, applying sealant

Looks great!
What took so long 11 hrs?
Try the green 3m tape. Water resistant, stickier and $3 cheaper

Thanks! It took over two hours. Did I say somewhere that it took 11?

I don't know how long a pro would take to wet sand/buff/polish one panel, but I hope to get the time down to one hour for this size area. That's hustling as far as I can see. Of course, when I do the entire car I'll be wet sanding one side or perhaps the whole car before buffing/polishing one area at a time. I'm thinking 3 days for the whole deal start to finish?

I have some green tape, but I've found that once a little polish gets on the blue tape it tends to leave sticky gum on trim or paint. Not sure I want something stickier? Maybe I'm too sloppy with my product if it's getting on my tape?

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Practice wet sanding, buffing, polishing, applying sealant

I found this to be a good tutorial on the process. The results are amazing. Great work. Can't wait to see all the finished work.

[vam_ras]

Re: Practice wet sanding, buffing, polishing, applying sealant

Nice Explication man, very nice.
This its a big process

[TimG]

Re: Practice wet sanding, buffing, polishing, applying sealant

The 50/50 shot is really unbelievable. Afters were OP free and had clearer reflections. Good work man

[Nick Chapman]

Re: Practice wet sanding, buffing, polishing, applying sealant

Good job! Excellent results!

By my count, you made about 14 passes between the rotary and DA, then wax on top of that? Is that correct? IMO, that is way too many. I know you are waiting on your M105 that is back ordered, and that is going to make a huge difference in your final count on the # of passes.
Don't worry yourself on how long it takes to do a job. This will only get you into trouble. When you start worring about how long it takes, you tend to rush. And rushing leads to mistakes. When I take on a full wet sanding job, I figure in my head how much time I'm going to need with the vehicle(example 3 days). Then when I talk to the customer, I explain my process and add another day to the estimated time frame(4 days). That way I'm not rushed to have the car back in 3 days, and have the customer calling and wanting their vehicle back. If they want it done right, they will agree to the 4 days.

And remember, with a wet sanding job masking tape is your friend! Invest in mass quantities of 3/4 or 1" tape. Lowes and Home Depot has 3 packs for around $9. Tape everything! Since you are new to wet sanding, take the time to tape edges off. You have to keep reminding yourself that you didn't paint that vehicle, so you have no idea where(or if) the painter skimped on the clear coat.
Also, another wise investment, if you haven't already(I didn't see it mentioned), would be a paint guage. Unless you shell out big bucks for a high end paint guage that tells you primer, base and clear thickness individualy, you will be limited to a lump sum of paint thickness from the sheet metal to the top of the clear. This will aide you in telling exactly how much you are removing from the vehicle. Use paint guage in a spot, then wet sand/buff/polish, then measure again. Subtract your first reading from your last reading, and this is how much you removed. Keep an eye on that #, it is very important! Remove too much, and you will be in trouble!

Nick

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Practice wet sanding, buffing, polishing, applying sealant

Nice work, the paint looks clear and liquid wet.

Step 13: Apply M21 sealant with DA and micro-fiber bonnet.

Interesting. We usually just apply M21 using a foam finishing pad but with no bonnet, usually we use the bonnet to remove the wax.

Do you find the bonnet helps in anyway for applying the wax over what a foam finishing pad can do?


Always willing to learn a new trick...

[10degreesbtdc]

Re: Practice wet sanding, buffing, polishing, applying sealant

Nice work, the paint looks clear and liquid wet.


Interesting. We usually just apply M21 using a foam finishing pad but with no bonnet, usually we use the bonnet to remove the wax.

Do you find the bonnet helps in anyway for applying the wax over what a foam finishing pad can do?


Always willing to learn a new trick...

Man, I forgot about this thread! Actually, Mike I didn't have at the time what I believed to be a good foam finishing pad and I really wanted to use the DA to apply sealant evenly since I had streaking after removal of 1 coat of M21 applied by hand on black paint. I now have a Meguiar's finishing pad and will use that next time and probably wipe by hand with a quality microfiber until I get some good bonnets for my DA.

Good job! Excellent results!

By my count, you made about 14 passes between the rotary and DA, then wax on top of that? Is that correct? IMO, that is way too many. I know you are waiting on your M105 that is back ordered, and that is going to make a huge difference in your final count on the # of passes.
Don't worry yourself on how long it takes to do a job. This will only get you into trouble. When you start worring about how long it takes, you tend to rush. And rushing leads to mistakes. When I take on a full wet sanding job, I figure in my head how much time I'm going to need with the vehicle(example 3 days). Then when I talk to the customer, I explain my process and add another day to the estimated time frame(4 days). That way I'm not rushed to have the car back in 3 days, and have the customer calling and wanting their vehicle back. If they want it done right, they will agree to the 4 days.

And remember, with a wet sanding job masking tape is your friend! Invest in mass quantities of 3/4 or 1" tape. Lowes and Home Depot has 3 packs for around $9. Tape everything! Since you are new to wet sanding, take the time to tape edges off. You have to keep reminding yourself that you didn't paint that vehicle, so you have no idea where(or if) the painter skimped on the clear coat.
Also, another wise investment, if you haven't already(I didn't see it mentioned), would be a paint guage. Unless you shell out big bucks for a high end paint guage that tells you primer, base and clear thickness individualy, you will be limited to a lump sum of paint thickness from the sheet metal to the top of the clear. This will aide you in telling exactly how much you are removing from the vehicle. Use paint guage in a spot, then wet sand/buff/polish, then measure again. Subtract your first reading from your last reading, and this is how much you removed. Keep an eye on that #, it is very important! Remove too much, and you will be in trouble!

Nick

Yeah, I know I used too many passes when experimenting with pads and products on this test panel. I was lucky I didn't go through the clear, for sure! Looking back I should have gone with 2000 grit first and then 3000 grit (that I don't have yet) to make it easier to buff out. Maybe 1500 on only bad blemishes and scratches. This paint job, unfortunately, is loaded with imperfections from lack of prep. Coarse sanding marks under the paint, millions of tiny fisheyes and dirt and dust in the paint and a lot of deep scratches from being in storage for several years while I waited to have back surgery.

I was also using (struggling with) another manufacturer's products and now have M105 and M205 as well as other Meguiar's stuff (thanks to a generous donor) so it should not be as difficult the next go-around. I probably won't be quite that aggressive wet sanding the rest of the car either or I will most likely burn through in many spots trying to remove all the defects. The paint doesn't look too bad for what was probably a cheapie paint job (labor-wise) perhaps done by a friend of the previous owner and sprayed in a poorly ventilated garage/spray booth and was not properly wiped free of dirt and debris prior to paint. To their credit they did use a very expensive paint. Fortunately for me it is tri-coat and seems for the most part to be pretty thick on the main panels and edges. The roof and rockers will NOT be wet sanded as it's very thin on those areas. Maybe they didn't have a step stool and the painter had a bad back and couldn't bend over???

I have recently been looking at getting an electronic PTG. I have a magnetic Mikrotest gauge, but when testing to see if it's accurate using a business card of known thickness, it's doesn't add up. It consistently reads .15 mil on bare metal. That's pretty close to 0. The thickness of the card is .015" (15 mil) according to my dial calipers which should total 15.15 mils when the card is added to the bare metal, but the reading is only 8 mil. I wouldn't feel confident adding the error factor to every paint thickness reading I make. Doing that gives me ~11 mils paint thickness on my Chevy pickup! I really want to get a good canopy, but maybe a cheapie from Sam's and a good PTG is the way to go for now?

Anyway, sorry I overlooked this thread and I appreciate all the feedback as always!