Buffing

[Stuck CAPS]

I just painted my front and rear bumpers, and need some advice on buffing to finish it up. I've got a hand-sander w/ a buffer pad, and some rubbing compound, I also have a few areas that need some minor sanding, so I'm gonna grab some 1500, 2000, 2500, and 3000 grit sandpaper to help with that. Any advice on finishing them, buffing or not, would be helpful.

 

[fourwd1]

Moved to the proper section for ya.

 

[littlehandegan]

Be very careful on ridges and highspots.

Go do some reading on the autogeek forum about wetsanding and buffing. For an OTC compound and polish I recommend Meguiars Ultimate Compound and Ultimate Polish. They are more user friendly versions of 105 + 205

 

[littlehandegan]

Also, will you be using a DA or rotary?

Was it a single stage or CC?

 

[piecesparts]

If you are wet sanding fresh paint and it is not a large flat area, then I would not use any type of power sander. I would do it all by hand, starting with a 1500 grit paper and work my way to a 2500 grit and then start buffing to polish to a shine. You may also want to polish by hand, instead of using a rotary polisher.

 

[diverscale]

meguiars compound and polish, like littlehandegan said. Those are the product I use, I am not a professional.

Since this is one of your first paint jobs, go slowly, and make sure ''every'' square inches of the paint is done before going a higher grit. FYI, I go 1000 grit then 1500 grit on the clear coat, then buff from the 1500 grit using the megiars compound and a polisher.

Just remember that the job won't be 100% perfect, you will surely go through a few small areas while wet sanding, but those are just bumpers, and need to be repainted after a few years usually. I had to repaint my front bumper, and the final job is, let's say, 95% good, which is enough for me, since nobody would see the very minor defects, and even me would have to search to find one. I went with color-matched touch-up at the few minor areas where I sanded through. Seems like a pro job from 3 feet away, and cost only 1/4 of the price of a paint-shop job.

 

[piecesparts]

If you really are curious, I would go to a body shop and ask them to let you watch someone buff out a painted vehicle. I have done several in my time, but there are always new products coming to the program and the ways have changed some since I did my last vehicle.

If you look at my avatar, that flame paint job took me about eighty hours of wet sanding and buffing to get it that smooth. I use 3M products to buff with, a 9" wool buffing pad and a couple of Makita rotary buffers to do the work with.