I painted the Ef hatch black this month. Never got around to wetsanding but since I had nothing to do last night, I wetsanded with 1200/1500/2000 grit paper.

UPDATE-Well today I compounded from the back of the doors and back and the entire roof BY HAND!!!!

From 4-11 I was doing it, just as I was leaving, grandpa comes out and says "Chris, I just rememmberred your Uncle has a buffer in the warehouse, sorry"

SO now I think I have use of a buffer, Im gonna use the buffer only on the flat areas like the top of the doors/fenders/hood and go buy hand in the corners and across bodylines just because Im new.

Can anybody tell me how slow/fast this buffer should be spinning for compound?Hopefully its adjustable


Modified by StealthEF at 4:59 AM 6/20/2004

 

bump

 

done by hand wow!!!! you need to borrow a buffer something fierce!

 

Ive heard of a lot of people doing it by hand. Ive been researching since I made the thread and a terry cloth seems to be the best. Then a polish, then wax,

SO WHAT IM GONNA DO

3m Rubbing compound by hand
Turtle Wax Scratch N Swirl Remover
Polish - gonna go buy some right now
Eagle One Wax as you Dry

GOOD? Gonna go buy some terry cloths and the polish right now, Ill coem back and check then its off to the garage if I dont hear anything

BUT- Let me know if I dont need to POLISH/Scratchn Swirl Remover
Ill take them back if I dont need to use them

 

you should get a definate answer on http://www.autopia.org

 

You probably didn't research enough Doing it by hand will take you forever! Plus you'll never get the best results.

Since you wetsanded your paint, to get the shine back and to remove the scratches you'll need to use a buffer/polisher with variable speed control. Not those buffers you use to apply wax with, but the industrial kind they use in bodyshops.

Start off with a wool cutting pad(AKA compounding pad) with a little water soaked into it. Use whatever rubbing compound(3m sucks if you ask me) you have. Start off with about 800-1100 rpms with this step.

next after removing the scratches and gaining a shine, wash the car completely. Use a Foam Polishing pad with a little water. Use that with a Polishing compound (skip to next step if you don't really care about the outcome).

when that's done, wash the car again. Use a Fresh foam polishing pad, with a glaze or swirl remover.

then wax (use wax only if its been 2 months after you car has been painted).

The steps and different pads all depend on what compound/polishing material you are using. Follow the recomendations on the bottle. Watch your edges and bodylines as you can burn the paint off in a heartbeat. Now the fun part is I'm gonna let you do the research on the buffing technique used to avoid these problems, you deserve it. Its out there on the internet, just search (especially in autobody forums).

 

Maybe your advise would work for someone with money lol

I did it all by hand, took 2 hours to compound and thats as far as Ive gotten so far

I just used a terry cloth and slowly but surely got the car finished by using good ammounts of 3m compoud (works great if you ask me) and doing little circle motions. The car looks really good right now

So now Im gonna use the TurtleWax Swirl Remover, then this Mothers Wax I bought

Why did you say I cant wax my car if it hasnt been 2 months? Its only been 2 weeks since paint and the car has been stored since its been painted.

Never heard of that before though

 

he is correct, with any paint you want to wait at least 30 days. The older paints you had to wait even longer.

 

any reason? does it have to cure or something? Thought curing would be very fast like 2 days max

 

Well today I compounded from the back of the doors and back and the entire roof BY HAND!!!!

From 4-11 I was doing it, just as I was leaving, grandpa comes out and says "Chris, I just rememmberred your Uncle has a buffer in the warehouse, sorry"

SO now I think I have use of a buffer, Im gonna use the buffer only on the flat areas like the top of the doors/fenders/hood and go buy hand in the corners and across bodylines just because Im new.

Can anybody tell me how slow/fast this buffer should be spinning for compound?Hopefully its adjustable

 

anyone know how fast this is supposed to be spiing or can I just go pretty slow

 

when your using compound make sure you are using a WHITE foam pad, buff at medium speed (3-4000 RPM) when glazing swirlremoving and polishing use a BLACK foam pad and any speed will work use speed as needed. the black pad is soft enough it is really hard to burn your paint with it, just be carefull with your compound around the corners it will burn through if you arent carefull. if you need anything else pm me

 

Cars finished, came out pretty much perfect except the roof looks a little hazy because I pretty much ran out of compound, had a nize size bottle to.

Compounded,glazed,scratch and swirl remover then wax, I did the front bumper with Simoniz high gloss wax but I didnt think the high gloss was gonna look good becuase my body isnt perfect, so I grabbed a bottle of Turtle Wax and it toned it down but still has the squeeky feel to it

Thanks for all that helped in the thread and by pms

 

post a pic of what it looks like now