Well its late and im bored so i decided to do a mini write up on how to properly wetsand/buff and polish a panel. This was a Tonneau cover i worked on for a 1933 Dodge truck... im not the best at explaining but i will do my best...

Things i used:

3m tape (blue and green) 1/4" and 1/2"
Eagle/Kovax 600/1200/2000 grit waterproof sand paper.
you can use 3m i just think the Eagle stuff last a bit longer.

i used 4 different kind of blocks on this panel
1. 10" Aluminum block (straight/flat as can be)
2. 10" hard rubber block
3. custom made 5"x1" block with rounded end
4. Meguires soft block

3m Perfect-it II rubbing compound
3m Finishing polish

Makita 9227C-X3 Polisher
3M™ Superbuff™ III 2 Plus 2 Buffing Pad
Perfect-It™ Plus Foam Polishing Pad

These are 3 of the 4 blocks i used:



So this is what i started off with, after god knows how many coats of basecoat (tri-candy paint job) and around 5 coats of clear:



As you can see it is full of orange peal. I put tape down so that when i am sanding on the outer edge i dont gouge it with the alum block ( trust me if you use it wrong it will an can seriously Fc&k things up).





I started off with 600 grit. On a flat panel like this i will normally wetsand in a circular motion i feel that it is harder to track when going in a circular motion vs going in a "X" motion. When you sand in a"X" motion you can create stop marks which turn into awesome track marks which you wont see untill you start buffing and you will have to go back and re sand that area.

Most of the panel in 600:



I made sure to tape off the edge again:



All done in 600:





The next step is 1200 grit. Now what i do is a mix up a very very reduced toner and spray it over the panel. For dark colors use a light (White toner) and for light colors use a dark toner. This is used as a guide coat. sometimes it is hard to see all of the 600 grit scratches, this way you can actually see the scratches untill you sand them out with 1200.

The outer edge has been sanded with 1200 grit already. Notice the difference in color:







Here you can clearly see the guide coat:




All sanded in 1200grit:





On most cars after the 1200 grit sand i would go to 2000 grit and then buff. Well since this car litterly needs to be perfect i had to add in another step. I had to "Shine" up the panel real quick with the wool pad :



Yes i know there are still sanding scratches there, that is ok at this point. Now this will only work on cars/panels that are Almost PERFECTLY flat. Now i have to take out any of the "Lakeyness" or small low spots that werent cut out with the hard rubber block. I use the alum block for this task with 2000 grit glued onto it.

After i do some circle sanding in a small area i lift up the block and see what is going on :



As you can see there are some low spots that still need to be wetsanded out. Just continue wetsanding untill everything is "dull". After 2000 grit we move onto the wool pad then onto the polishing pad. i was not able to take a pic of what it looked like after i buffed it with the wool pad. So i am just going to show you the finished product..:













Im tired now and im sure i missed out a few steps but feel free to ask any questions....

 

wow, that is nice.

how many hours did you spend on that?

 

Around 12 hours

 

myles good job

 

good job myles!

 

Excellent work, Myles.

 

***** **** myles. clarity is great.

 

Thanks guys!

 

Complete trash, I hope you diaf and swallow nuts <3

 

FU.....




and you are just mad cuz my voodooo magic didnt work on your phone!

 

Damn, that looks great. 12hrs of work really pays off. How many clear coats did you put on since you're using 600 grit first?

 

Looks great! I would would be very nervous to hit clear with 600, but I guess with 5 coats there was enough.

 

About 5 coats of clear... after the basecoat/candy was sprayed it got 2 coats of clear, then it came out of the booth and we hit it with 600 grit to knock down the peal then it went back in for 3-4 more coats of clear... for a car like this it is needed... this thing will see a buffer 10 more times in its life time...


heres a pic of the truck its a little further down the road now but we dont have any new pics of it:




the truck is fully fendered also but they havent gone on yet... the fenders are cut and buffed on the inside and the outside they were a bitch!

 

that looks amazing!

 

All that and he put Kumho AST's on it. :O

 

nah those arent the tires/wheels going on the truck... its got some custom $10k wheels going on it.. they are truly sick actually!

 

that makes more sense.

Be kinda nutty drop that kind of money on a ride then cheap out on the tires of all things.

 

wow, that is nice. I need to get a rotary, my d/a struggles to get 2000 marks out.

 

yeah you do! ive never used a D/A buffer ... **** i can buff over 1200 grit scratches not that i need to really tho..

 

What's your pad/compound combo?

 

I use lake country ccs foam pads. I have used 3m perfect it III with an orange pad and still cant get all the sanding marks out of my new paint. I have some megs 105 on the way, gonna give that a shot.

 

You gotta switch to a yellow pad if it's taking forever to cut with the orange.

Personally I go over with a rotary and a wool pad, then switch to a maroon foam...

Everyone does everything differently.

OP - GREAT job. Looks perfect in those pictures!

 

You definitely need a wool pad if you're using a DA.


Something like this: http://www.autodetailingsolutions.net/wwlc7.html

That pad with M105 works great, It's my "go-to" combo whether I'm using the DA or the rotary.

 

im with you.. it takes about one pass with a wool pad and a rotary to take out 2000 grit ... ive never used a DA style buffer so i have no use for one.. i can do everything i need to with a rotary i just have to be a bit more careful on stock cars

 

Great write up! 12hr's to polish that though? My boss would fire my *** if it took me that long to do something that small lol.


I did my truck (wet sanding 600, 1500, buffing, wet sanding 2500, buffing/polishing) from the doors back, and just 1500 some of the more potent scratches on the fenders/roof/hood and loaded up compound on the rest (cheater way of doing it, but i only painted doors-back, didn't want to sand the rock chipped stuff and get compound built up in the chips)

Only took me about 7 hours to do my whole truck (black), buffing is ALWAYS worth the effort though! There is still an ever so small amount of texture to it, but nothing obvious unless you really look hard for it.