Important Advice Needed

[MaksimumAutoDetailing]

An exotic car shop wants me to work on Alfa Romero that's been repainted black and has very bad gloss and some orange peel. I own a DA and M105 as well as other compounds but no rottary. My plan of attack is to sand a small area of the paint with 2000grit and then attempt to buff it out. Do you think this process will work on the entire car? Any other suggestions you can give me?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Important Advice Needed

An exotic car shop wants me to work on Alfa Romero that's been repainted black and has very bad gloss and some orange peel.

How old is the paint?
Is it a single stage or basecoat/clearcoat?

I own a DA and M105 as well as other compounds but no rotary. My plan of attack is to sand a small area of the paint with 2000grit and then attempt to buff it out.

Meguiar's doesn't recommend trying to remove sanding marks with a DA Polisher because it's not a powerful enough tool for the job.

You watch and look at the paint very carefully after you sand and then buff your test spot and make sure you're removing ALL your sanding marks. It's easy to sand paint and then buff it and restore gloss and shine, but still have lines in the paint left by your sanding step.

At Meguiar's our standard is 100% scratch removal. Be careful what you read on forums about success removing sanding marks using a DA Polisher.

It can be done on some paints, but it depends upon how hard or soft the paint is. Also a black single stage paint will be easier to sand and buff than most clearcoated cars because in most cases, single stage black paint is pretty soft.

If you're bent on trying to do this with a DA Polisher then you might want to investigate some smaller buffing pads which the DA Polisher will have an easier time rotating. Our smallest pad is 6" in diameter.

Do you think this process will work on the entire car? Any other suggestions you can give me?

Personally I would want to try to sand down an entire car and then try to remove ALL my sanding marks with a tool with a clutch that will stop rotating if you push down to hard or work on a non-flat surface.

Take my word for it, it's a TON of work and takes a lot of time to sand down a car and buff out the sanding marks with a rotary buffer, it's only going to be more work and take more time with a tool with a clutch in it.

I posted something exactly like this yesterday, hang tight and I'll post the link to the thread where you can read more about this topic.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Important Advice Needed

Found it... the conversation starts on page 2 of this thread with post #19 and post #20

Limitations of the G110?


Question

while it isnt the best tool for the job, could it still be used effectively to do this? yes i am aware it would take a LOT longer, but would it be able to get it done?

i am painting the hood of my truck and would like to sand it down when im done and try to get the marks out but all i have is my PC DA

Answer

IF you're using a finishing pad there shouldn't be any marring at all but once you heat of the #7 there might be some gumming up issues.

There's actually no good reason to apply a pure polish like #7 at high speeds except personal preference or experimenting.







Just to make sure everyone reading this understands what the above member is asking, he wants to know if he can use a DA polisher to remove sanding marks.

The answer is yes, but it's not very fast or effective. Please take a few minutes to read through this thread where we coached one of our forum members through this exact process,

New Paint on the Pony! - Color Sanding and Buffing follow-up

Here's all the threads he posted before the above thread as he gathered information on this project.


New here and here for my son
color sanding and all that good stuff by hand
is outside temp important when color sanding
a question about cleaning paint b4 wet sanding
color sanding and taping off edges
m105 and removing sanding marks

A lot of typing was invested into the above success story so it can be done although it would be faster to buy a cheapie rotary buffer from Harbor Freight and learn the hard way, that is learn on something that's important to you.


A few more on the topic of using a PC to remove sanding marks,

Can You Use the PC to Polish-out #2000 Grit Sanding Marks?
Cutting Pads with the PC - Is this a good idea?



If you want to remove the sanding marks using a PC then ;you might want to look into smaller pads. The smallest pad Meguiar's offers at this time is 6" in diameter. You'll get more aggressive abrading action if you keep the pad spinning and you can do this better with a smaller diameter pad.


Keep in mind, here at Meguiar's when we talk about removing the sanding marks we mean removing ALL the sanding marks completely.

Be careful what you read on other forums because it's pretty easy to sand paint and then buff it and make the surface shiny but if you look closely you can see zillions of sanding marks still in the paint.

Our criteria is 100%, not sure if that's what all the guys posting under nicknames on forums are talking about when they use a PC to remove sanding marks.

Also, read a story about a guy that did this when working on a single stage black paint job. There's a HUGE difference in working on what's usually the softest paint in the world as compared to a basecoat/clearcoat finish.

Keep us updated and you should really start your own dedicated thread on this topic.

[MaksimumAutoDetailing]

Re: Important Advice Needed

Thank you. I went over to the shop and did some test spots. The paint is hopeless. It's cracked, orangepeeled to hell and back, and just horrible workmanship. The shop owner and I agreed that I should try my best to put as much gloss as possible into the paint and focus on restoring the weathered bumpers and mirrors as well.