Polishing....

[hemi_jay]

I have recently painted my car and done the wet sanding first with 600 , then 1200 then 2000gritt using 3m Superfine sanding pads around edges and contours. I went an bought myself an expensive Bosch polisher and the best compound the paint shop recommended thinking only of how shiny the car will be when im done...  I started polishing last week and did the whole front end, to my amazement the sanding marks still show...  No matter how long I polished the marks did not go away. Can anyone with real body/paint experience please give me some tips or tell me where I went wrong? I followed all the guides I read to the T but now im stuck 

[sunsetdart]

When you do color sanding, you should start sanding in one direction, then the next grit you go the opposite direction and when doing the third sanding, you go across the previous sandings at an angle. If you sanded everything in one direction you got just kept putting more "scratches" from the sanding , and although they were smoother grits, you just kept going putting more "scratches" in the paint.
  To explain it easier..............start east to west........then north to south with next grit, then diagonal across with the last grit. I hope you didnt go in circles, cause if you did you may never get them out.

[eldubb440]

i wouldnt start with 600...........those are deep scratches, you will have better luck sanding them out with 1200, 1500, and 2000.  chasing them with the buffer will make alot of heat........buffing will be easy and fast when the only remaining scratches are 2000 grit ......... good luck

[68_Val_Sedan]

 


start with 1200 then 1500 then 2000 .... 600 should only be used for runs ... but don't worry .. hit the area with 1200 again then 1500 and finally 2000 ...

[fourspeed]

And go easy, unless you put a LOT of clear on it.

[signet]

 

you have to watch the edges of your paper too if it has been folded,the simple way is just to push your block diagonaly not straight ahead.

600 wet is like 400 dry

and the jump between 600 to 1200 is maybe too big,a rubber squeegee is used sometimes to see if you have eliminated all of the deep imperfection before heading on up to the next finer grit.

if in doubt allways try new things on your buddies Chevy.

[hemi_jay]

Thanks for your input so far guys, the reason I used 600 was because I had quite a few runs as well as some bad orange peel... (Im still a n00b) I coated it with 6 layers of clear. So the best would just be to start over again?

[fourspeed]

Oh hell no! 6 coats of clear is ok. Wet sand and buff it.

[jwmotors]

What are you using for compound, I use 3M Super duty rubbing compound it is tan and very abrassive, and that would be your first step after wet sanding it. Then you can go back with some # 3 Mcgiures or 3m Finnesse. And for a beginer I would use a single sided wool pad were the edge is curled up. A good way to not burn the edges around openings is to run apiece of masking tape around them . Keep a lot of compound on there and keep the buffer moving. Now this is just how I do it, there are all kinds of polishes foam pads etc. But this is a good starting point.

[jackie]

good luck on the sanding,but i tried a meguiar's mirror glaze hi-tech finesse polishing pad. it is a foam pad and i like it..i also like 3M perfect-it rubbing compound. it is good for removing 1200 or finer scratches.

[ls23h8b]

I noticed you said "polisher" are you using an orbital polisher or a rotary buffer. If its an orbital you will probably have a tough time getting rid of the sand scratches.

[hemi_jay]

Its a Bosch variable speed buffer. Ive started to go over everything again (against my previous "grain") so far so good. Ill upload some pics if/when I get it right.