Introduction

[Tom Sr]

I am new to "real" car care. I came here for help on a classic car project. I am new to that also. I just painted the top of the car to begin my plan to do the whole car. All paint was stripped off. Body made to 100% condition. Sprayed DuPont single stage paint. Now I am told that it has to be sanded and compounded.
What is that? Where do I begin. I know that it needs sanding because there is what I'm told is an "orange peel" look on what seem to be nice paint job.
Where do I start to learn the basics of completing the job. The paint is India Ivory, a GM color in the 1950's. The rest of the car will be Ox black.
Help! Tom

[Selectchoice]

Re: Introduction

Welcome to MOL!

[Don]

Re: Introduction

Welcome MOL has a sub forum on wet sanding, go there and read up/ask what ever questions you have. You'll get some great information.

[Tom Sr]

Re: Introduction

Welcome MOL has a sub forum on wet sanding, go there and read up/ask what ever questions you have. You'll get some great information.

Did the wet sanding. Saw lots of videos showing compounding and polishing. I had a 7" polishing machine but never used it. I saw videos where DA polishers were highly recommended. Got one with 6" pad and three foam disc. Harbor Freight sells six of your products (105, 205, 26, 7, 83 and 2). Are the three that I need among these. If so which do you recommend. Other wise what do I need. Most products are quarts. I think pints would be enough to do one car. Agree?
Thanks.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Introduction

Wet sanding is not generally something that one learns from a couple of YouTube vids as it's a pretty advanced process. Proper abrasives selection, amount of water used if it's sanding papers or sanding discs via DA, etc all come into play. How heavy you cut at first, how far you refine to finish are other considerations. And once you're done sanding there is the really fun step of polishing out the sanding marks. While that has traditionally been in the realm of rotary buffing, with today's modern high powered DA polishers, pads and liquids, we now see people commonly removing sanding marks with a DA.

But just because DA polishing to remove sanding marks is becoming commonplace these days, that doesn't mean you can just grab any old DA, pads and liquids and expect to get the job done. Depending on how far you refined the sanding marks, and we'd recommend at least 2500 grit if not 3000 or finer, you'll need microfiber pads rather than foam, and something like M100, M101 or M105 on a pretty potent DA to accomplish the task. If the paint is at all hard, that Harbor Freight DA, or a Porter Cable 7424 may not come close to removing a 2500 grit sanding mark no matter the pad and liquid of choice. If the sanding marks are coarser than that, well, you'll be cursing the process. But mount a microfiber pad and some M100 on a tool like the MT300 and you'll obliterate 3000 grit sanding marks from even very hard paint.

[Tom Sr]

Re: Introduction

Wet sanding is not generally something that one learns from a couple of YouTube vids as it's a pretty advanced process. Proper abrasives selection, amount of water used if it's sanding papers or sanding discs via DA, etc all come into play. How heavy you cut at first, how far you refine to finish are other considerations. And once you're done sanding there is the really fun step of polishing out the sanding marks. While that has traditionally been in the realm of rotary buffing, with today's modern high powered DA polishers, pads and liquids, we now see people commonly removing sanding marks with a DA.

But just because DA polishing to remove sanding marks is becoming commonplace these days, that doesn't mean you can just grab any old DA, pads and liquids and expect to get the job done. Depending on how far you refined the sanding marks, and we'd recommend at least 2500 grit if not 3000 or finer, you'll need microfiber pads rather than foam, and something like M100, M101 or M105 on a pretty potent DA to accomplish the task. If the paint is at all hard, that Harbor Freight DA, or a Porter Cable 7424 may not come close to removing a 2500 grit sanding mark no matter the pad and liquid of choice. If the sanding marks are coarser than that, well, you'll be cursing the process. But mount a microfiber pad and some M100 on a tool like the MT300 and you'll obliterate 3000 grit sanding marks from even very hard paint.

=====================================

Thanks Mike:
No question, you are correct. Wet sanding was not fun. I did it all by hand with 1000, 1500 and 2000 papers, a spray bottle with some drops of Meguiar's car soap and plenty of water flowing and lint free cloths. Got rid of all the orange peel

But you recommend added wet sanding to 2500 or 3000. I can and will do that before the next step.

I can get 105 locally but not M105. Are they the same item? Or is one more advanced then the other?

So far I have done everything by hand. Just about all the information I am getting is about machine compounding etc. I know the difference between rotary and dual action machines. I do not understand the difference between the DA machines you mention in your second paragraph above. Any machine that I might use would be used only for this one project. Once done I plan to get rid of everything but the car. So, how important is it that I get a professional graded machine if I wet sand with a finer paper? The rotary is old, never out of the box, while the new DA I got while looking for your compounds a few days ago.

At his point in learning, I am not locked into anything. That is my reason for posting here before buying your products. So I must understand if I can and should do the job by hand or machine using your 105, M105, 205 and/or you other products.

How do I find out what I need for hand compounding, polishing and etc. or for going the machine route?

[Tom Sr]

Re: Introduction

Hi: Thanks. I looked at many of your videos. Most of my work has been by hand. From stripping original factory paint through wet sanding this topcoat. Not many videos that I watched addressed new paint jobs and single stage. Most cover BC/CC. So I am looking for guidance for my specific task.
The videos used so many different products (and numbers) that it becomes confusing. Some older videos call out products that might be upgraded by newer products. All discus machine products not hand products. I'd like to come up with a plan, a shopping list and gather everything before starting. So far the only things I have are two machines that might never be used by me.