morbius18

ok, I did some quick reading on color sanding and I think that I will try it. Any tips?

morbius18

Two more car pics and the b16 intake valve springs I picked up for $20 yesterday. I'll be installing them in place of the exhaust springs when I get back home in a month or two (Tennessee)

hyperblu

porter cable dual action buffer, meguires 205,tape off any sharp edges, first wetsand with a little bit of dawn soap with 1500 then 2500 until the surface is smoother than a baby's ***. rinse it off. then use a country lake orange pad that is moist, squirt a little m205 on the surface, rub it around with the pad, then buff away. Keep a pretty quick pace or you may burn through the paint... It's kind of hard to mess up unless you wetsand way too much or buff in one area for too long.

morbius18

I did some color sanding today with a random orbital buffer, some meguiers buffing compound and some polishing compound. Front fender in the following pics:

1st after wet sanding with 1500 and 2000 grit paper

morbius18

Three coats/polish of the ultimate compound:

morbius18

Two coats and polish of the ultimate polishing compound:

Notice the reflection in the last pic

morbius18

Before and after pic of the orange peel below the driver door handle:

hyperblu

Told ya so... looks good

EternalSessions

Bump for reading through it, looking forward to seeing more Car looks great!

eg6bpd

car looks really nice,u did a great job on it..But do yourself a favour,go for a b18 swap instead of b16b ...eventuaally youl want that extra torque

Red_LinK

Nice build. The polish cleaned up the shine nicely.

hyperblu

using a higher speed buffer will heat up that clearcoat and make it look like glass. seeing as there is more orange peel than I saw, i would reccommend using m105 first... its a bit more abrasive and will help knock out that orange peel.

95EG2

looks good wish i had time and money for my del sol...

morbius18

Its still slightly hazy after using the compound. Will the m105 knock that out?

hyperblu

No, the m105 is a semi abrasive "cutting" compound made to take out deep scratches or take out some orange peel. Hence why it's called "cut and buff". The haze is because of either the pad or the speed. a cheap orbital buffer that does 600rpms wont cut it. You really need the porter cable and an actual pad. Not a cheap wool mitt.

morbius18

I got a 10" craftsman random orbital buffer with up to 2800 rpms. I was looking more closely, and the haze is actually the fine scratches from the paper. I'm going to pick up the compound today on the way to work.

hyperblu

The haze is light reflecting in numerous directions from the scratches. It's all in the pad... again. Country lake orange pad and I would recommend using a smaller pad like a 6" It's more maneuverable and when using a pad with a bigger surface area, really slows down the pad... Think of it as a wheel. With 20" rims it takes longer to travel so your rpms will lower. The smaller wheel you put on it (say a 15") your rpm's will go up because it rotates faster because of less travel.

morbius18

The price that I am willing to pay, I can afford a b16b with LSD tranny or a b18cR without the tranny. Should I go with the B18C or the B16B? I'd really like to get the lower mileage tranny as well as the LSD.

hyperblu

The LSD is nice, but not practical for normal street use. If you MUST have an lsd, I would opt for a gsr swap and get a helical,quaife,obx,etc LSD. B18CR's are really overpriced for what they really are. You're paying for the stamp on the block more than anything. You can always upgrade to type r basemaps and cams later on down the road.

morbius18

I couldn't locate any m105, but I did pick up the Meguiar's Mirror Glaze #4 and #2 and a 8" foam cutting pad that I used on the orbital. I followed up with Ultimate Compound with a terry bonnet and Ultimate Polish with a micro bonnet.

morbius18

Hood after the combo and close up of the pearl.

morbius18

You can see the fender which is done and the door, which isn't. One in the sun and one in the shade.

None of these are wax based, so they are safe after paint.

morbius18

I'm completely sold on Meguiars now. They turned an assy paint job into a moderate paint job. Thanks for the recommend hyperblu.

hyperblu

Badass... yeah meguires is some good ****. All of their products are awesome, but the m105 and m205 are the norm for professional detailers. Told you it could look like glass! For future references, if you ever decide to paint another car, read up on block sanding and guide coating. I can see waviness from the primer (which block sanding can fix) and guide coats will aid in block sanding making the finish extremely smooth.

morbius18

Supposedly this paint was supposed to match the grenada black pearl, but I cannot ever remember seeing a Del Sol with a reddish tint like this.