let's talk sanding

That IS the 'fun' with this gig.Most everybody has 'their procedure' which comes from Experience using different products.
There IS 'No magic potion' friends and only Experience with yourself,your tools,products and They will produce what your after. JimC expressed some secrets to me which I will be forever grateful because he knows it.However,I have conversed with Jon Kosmoski,Barry K.and a truck load of other custom painters and you do a 'wet wipe' to SEE the Finish will answer your questions.
 
tolex is Velcro and should be used on a soft interface pad. 3m or any other brand is fine. yellow film 1000 dry then tolex wet then green bufflex wet is the way to go!! if you want to go farther or on hard finishes then black bufflex or 3m 5000 trizact



For the buflex green wet you use the velcro or stick on discs?
 
Jim C, I've been trying to educate myself on color sanding and buffing clear coat. Having just read this awesome thread, I'd like to try your process of Eagle dry yellow 1000, Tolex wet, Green bufflex wet. I just finished a SPI Black and Universal clear on my son's Mustang. What grit Tolex would you recommend?
 
Jim C, I've been trying to educate myself on color sanding and buffing clear coat. Having just read this awesome thread, I'd like to try your process of Eagle dry yellow 1000, Tolex wet, Green bufflex wet. I just finished a SPI Black and Universal clear on my son's Mustang. What grit Tolex would you recommend?

Tolex comes in only one grit, equivalent to 2000 grit.
 
Thank you, Jorge M. Mind if I ask what type of tool you use to sand the clear. Brand or model ?

6” Dynabrade with a regular 5/16” orbit, I try to keep it as clean as possible for dry sanding and also use it with a bit of water from a spray bottle when using the green buflex discs. The buflex black I use dry, just constantly air blow the disc and the surface to eliminate the sanding residue build up.
 
Do any of you guys have try the new updated pruple 3M dics 1500 ? Thats what a few guys told me is a new uodated dics and only difference i see is the letters size
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looks the same to me as well. updated or not, they are still a stiff film which does nothing but make god awful pig tails. i got a box of that some years ago and havent touched it since. if you like trizact then in the meguires line they have 1500 trizact but the foam discs like the 3m 3000.
 
When you guys sand, say you start with 1000 grit and have cut the panel down completely with 1000. What are your next steps? Ive gone to 1200, 1500, and so on up to 3000. Ive tried using board paper to 2500, other times da paper such as tolex and buflex. It usually seems like I end up with the same result, endless buffing to get rid of all the scratches.

How long do you spend on average at each grit? If using da paper, how many passes? I feel like this might be my issue as I work to the higher grits, not enough say at 1500, then end up with coarser scratches.

I can get a good finish but it seems to take a really long time, I honestly dont know what to expect though. How many times do you use cutting compound on a panel?
 
Same
looks the same to me as well. updated or not, they are still a stiff film which does nothing but make god awful pig tails. i got a box of that some years ago and havent touched it since. if you like trizact then in the meguires line they have 1500 trizact but the foam discs like the 3m 3000.[/QUOTE

Same here i have a box is at least 5 guys i hace seen sharing how much they like these and they last longer ect was just curious.
 
When you guys sand, say you start with 1000 grit and have cut the panel down completely with 1000. What are your next steps? Ive gone to 1200, 1500, and so on up to 3000. Ive tried using board paper to 2500, other times da paper such as tolex and buflex. It usually seems like I end up with the same result, endless buffing to get rid of all the scratches.

How long do you spend on average at each grit? If using da paper, how many passes? I feel like this might be my issue as I work to the higher grits, not enough say at 1500, then end up with coarser scratches.

I can get a good finish but it seems to take a really long time, I honestly dont know what to expect though. How many times do you use cutting compound on a panel?

You may have dirt how do you spray you water or where you het it from
 
ok update. i got a chance to use some different eagle products on a black vette i am working on. i always like to do my initial cut of 1000g dry so i can see when all the peel and dust specs are gone. for that i always use the eagle yellow film discs which always work great. from there i always went to 1500 yellow film dry which has always worked sort of ok but was never impressed with that step. i have always wanted to make the 1500 step wet since i am only refining scratches at that point. i ordered a box of orange assilex and a box of tolex discs. both of these are the soft silky type discs just like the bufflex. tolex is for dry sanding and assilex im sure will go either way. honestly the only difference with the tolex is it has alot of dry lube applied to it so it doesnt load up. i took each door off this car and sanded both with 1000 then one door was sanded with assilex wet an the other i did with tolex but i actually used the disc wet as well. tried it dry and it worked ok but wet was hands down better. after sanding i took my small mini buffer and menzerna supercut300 and buffed a small spot so i could see the scratches and how they buffed. my findings.....orange assilex while its supposed to be about 1500 grit, is far too aggressive. that stuff cuts as fast as a 400 disc but i would say the scratch left was about equal to 1000-1200 grit. the tolex with the exact same amount of buffing buffed right out to a high gloss finish. i am thinking that the tolex is the pink assilex with drylube added to it. pink is a step finer than the orange. so i ended up doing the whole rest of the car using 1000 yellow film then tolex wet. i must say the tolex cut fast and lasted forever. i used 1 disc to do the whole body of a 59 vette then another disc to do the doors, hood , trunk and hatch cover. with a compound like the menzerna 300 on 3 day old universal clear you can end with the tolex if you want. takes a little extra buffing work but not bad. it buffs right out no sweat. the green bufflex is optional. i used green bufflex on the body only and ended with tolex on all other parts. time wise i think it ended up being about the same either way. in any case i did the whole car from 1000 to final polish in 7 hrs without a single pigtail and only used 2 tolex and 1 bufflex disc. 2 bufflex if i did the whole job and not just the body. the 1000 took maybe 15-20 of those an9 75% of my sanding time was wrapped up in the 1000 stage. this method is definitely the best, cheapest and fasted way to go i have ever used. you could easily get 7-8 complete cars out of a $45 box of tolex. the menzerna 300 compound works great with this setup. no scratches or dull spots coming back on me like with 3m and leaves a high gloss finish that i can do a quick polishing on and its done. its like 3m perfect-it ex compound but far better. for my polish i still use the 3m perfect-it ex polish. the dark grey/black stuff. that i find is pretty good.
Are you talking all DA sanding? Are these good for hand sanding too? (Eagle yellow, tolex)
I have been practicing hand wet sanding with 3M stuff from walmart, but I’m guessing there is better stuff. I am practicing on a bumper I sprayed with Universal clear in August.
 
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The purple 3M discs are all I use now for up to 2000 grit, dry sanding clear coat.
I like to follow that with a 3000 grit Abralon foam pad.
The purple discs are a lot cheaper than Trizac and work as well.
 
yes in that quote i was referring to da sanding. if your going to hand sand then just wet sand. the good 3m wet/dry paper is their imperial stuff. its on a gold color paper. the lower grade is on a brownish grey paper.
 
yes in that quote i was referring to da sanding. if your going to hand sand then just wet sand. the good 3m wet/dry paper is their imperial stuff. its on a gold color paper. the lower grade is on a brownish grey paper.
Thanks Jim. I know I have some Imperial that I got a while ago. I'll have to see what I bought from recently. Probably the lower grade.
 
Wet sanding and buffing; I am one of the few who loves doing it. I once had almost 80 hours in doing a show car; start with 800 3M and a hard stick of your choice, then 1000/ 1500/2000 meguiars is the only paper i will use other then the 800 3M. All paper soaks in water for 24 hours prior to using in separate pails. I don't want a 800 grit stones getting picked up while i'm using 1000 grit and so on. I also use a couple drops of dish soap in the pail. After i finish with the 800 i switch to a soft block' i am done trying to get it flat. Now i am just trying to get the prier sand scratch's out finely ending up with only 2000 grit scratches to buff out. Some times depending on the color i will use 3M powder guide coat in between each grit change. I tried the DA thing once. for 10 min; i ended up throwing it all in the trash!!!!
 
Here's a hood I recently finished, I started with 1500 grit, then 2000, and finished with 3000 Abralon, all dry.
I don't see any reason to start with any grit more coarse than 1500, this
is more than straight enough for normal collision repair or "nice" paint jobs.
Show car different story, yes, I start way more coarse for that.
Sanding dry with a 6" random orbital disc gets my work way straighter than sanding by hand, wet or dry.
 

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