[rasilverbird]

I'm at my whit's end. I painted my car two Septembers ago. I left it in orange peel in case I scratched it in reassembley. Well, the last six months have been a nightmare trying to cut and buff this paint. I hand-sanded the entire car in 1k grit to cut the orange peel. I've spent the last 4 months trying to figure out how to finish the paint properly.

I've tried to hand sand out panels, I've tried to DA out panels, I've tried combinations of the two. I have both swirls and deep scratches no matter what I do. I'm fed up. I need help.

I tried to only take the 1k to 80% of the orange peel, knowing that I can use the next stages to complete the finish. Obviously I failed at that task. After hand sanding some panels and buffing to a miserable finish, I've gone back over with (admitably) Amazon (Chinese) brand DA pads to finish with 3M Trizac 3k grit pads....to still a miserable finish.

Today I took a fender from 2k chinesium DA finish to 2k/2.5k/3k hand finish....and it STILL had DA pigtails and long 1k scratches in it. And I took off a LOT of finish with each pass. A whole lot. Like I don't know how there's still clear coat left on the thing, I sanded that much.

I'm at a loss. I have no idea how to move forward with this paint.

Can anyone recommend a DA hook and loop pad that comes in 2k and 2.5k that actually works well? The chinesium ones I have obviously are terrible, and the expensive Trizac 3k ones I have don't actually cut paint at all.

I'm fed up, and I'm ready to drive this car

[VCho455]

This may help.

https://youtu.be/EN-IUXTxYsw?si=dtrLu27fI14Jczrp

[mrennie]

There are many "systems" or methods that folks use, to get where they are happy.

Some things I found in my journey:

-1000 grit Norton paper left deep scratches that Meguiar 1000 grit (made in Japan) did not.

-not letting the paper soak for at least 40 minutes made deeper scratches.

-2000 grit 3M dry film paper left wayyy more swirls than 2000 grit foam backed Norton wet did.

-5000 grit followed by 8000 grit Trizact got me alot farther down the polishing path.

I then used 3M one-step, followed by 3M #3 machine polish. Many here poo pood the one step, and I understand it isn't premium...but other options are limited where I am and it worked for me.

My biggest takeaway is pay for premium abrasives to get you as close to shiny as you can before polish or buffing. A lot can go wrong with a high speed pad near edges...

[BB70]

From what I have learned doing my paint job is the da stuff is best left for someone with years of exp. Hopefully you have some clear left. You need to wet sand by hand. I would get some 1200 wet on a small block and sand a small area. Use a pattren like this///////, then\\\\\\. Wipe that down good and apply some powdered guide coat thoroughly on the just sanded area.They make it in white or black depending on the color of paint. You need a contrasting color to see the remaining scratches.Then hit the area with 1200 wet on a block again and see what you have. Me thinks you have alot of 1000 scratches to get out. Use the guidecoat when you change grits, after 2000 you should be able to start buffing with a rotary and a wool pad, then move to polishing with diff compound and a foam pad. You can use a soft block at 1500 and 2000 but I would use the firmest block you can to start with.

John

[performerrpm]

you need a short stroke da sander to use the foam 3m type wet sanding pads.

i use to use 1200 and 1500 grit wet paper sanding by hand then a 3 step compound whixh i thought was good. last time i buffed my single stage dash paint, i used 1500, to start since it was smooth. then 2000 grit, lastly i used 3000 grit and the finish looked better than my previous method did after first stage of compound after 1500 wet.

after 3000 grit i can skip to stage 2 compound and have a mirror polish.

if your not getting all the scratches out after that many steps, i think you would be best to re clear with a bit more reducer and do a flow coat, you need to wet sand pretty soon after it dries and buff what you sand that day if possible

if you were fighting orange peel, im not sure what the weathers like where your at but id wait til temps are cool. i missed my window before summer set in this year, with the booths blowing in 100 plus degree air i decided to just wait to spray.

[performerrpm]

actually, after 2 septembers..that clear is most likely hard as a rock, i think a flow coat is your only option.


removing swirl marks on old clear is one thing, cutting and buffing is another...youll most likely end up with a haze trying to polish it out now