Wetsanding and getting frustarted.

No pictures today. We had a bad storm on Long Island last night and I have no power...no lights in the garage. I will post some soon.

did you get the tornado that touched down on the north shore?
 
Still wetsanding to get the wave out.

If you're sanding for wave removal, remember this, you can't remove wave with fine grit papers,
you'll only polish it. To really get rid of wave you need 600 or more coarse to remove it.
Some say they can get rid of it with a hard block and a finer paper than that, say like 1000, but
I find it easier to just start with 600 to 400 and be sure, with the coarser papers you don't even need a
very hard block, I use a soft one for those grits and it gets it straight, but you have to make long
strokes to get it straight.
I've done one panel starting with 400 and then the adjacent panel starting with 600 just to compare,
I could tell a difference between them when I finished buffing, very slight but the 400 was straighter.
This procedure is way to good for my everyday collision repair work, for that, like I said earlier,
I just use a 1500 or 1200 disk followed with a 2000 one, plenty straight for that, like the motorcycle
gas tank in my avatar.
 
Never tried the megs 105 or 205, but do still like their diamond cut (diminishing compound ).
I learned the hard way years ago about the fillers in the auto parts store grades of Meguiars polishes. Had light color sanded areas of the wife's car & had looking swirl free. Showed it off to an old painter friend a couple weeks later without looking close first & it made me look stupid & like I didn't know how to buff. One time mistake there.:rolleyes: At least he nicely explained about fillers.

The crap we had to learn the hard way before combined knowledge on internet forums.
 
River mud...that's awesome. My grandfather, who would be about 108 now, used to tell stories of how he painted old Packards and Cadillacs with paint brushes and (the term he used) shellacs. I can only imagine.
Makes me wish I had a better appreciation for that history when I was 15 and paid attention more. :confused:
 
the one thing I would caution is if you keep sanding and buffing you may end up burning the paint and/or making it too thin. Know when to stop or it will show you that you went too far.
When I am mentoring newer painters I always say that if you are going after a show type shine, smooth as glass and you are 100% sure you are going to wet sand and buff (which will be the case) then I would rather see it on the dry side with little orange peal marks in it rather then larger orange peal, which could result in urethane wave which as you are finding out is problematic. Doing a flow coat is something that should be left to those that are extremely familiar with the product, equipment and procedure. You are better off just doing one more coat sand it down the next day or two and reclearing. The end result will look the same and may actually look cleaner.
 
dont laugh . my go to compound was R&M red . which we called red river mud . it was a paste that came in a 1 gal paint type can . we would load up a wool pad until it was slick . after a while all the compound would be on the pad and with lite pressure it would bring lacquer or enamel to a glass slick shine .
600 was as fine as it got . todays painters have so much available that we never dreamed of .
 
I just tried the Meguiars M100 and liked it.
But my 3M "Perfect-It" #1 compound still removes scratches faster.
I do like the M100 and the way it stays wet longer and
easier to remove when dry. And it does costs a lot less.
 
River mud...that's awesome. My grandfather, who would be about 108 now, used to tell stories of how he painted old Packards and Cadillacs with paint brushes and (the term he used) shellacs. I can only imagine.
Makes me wish I had a better appreciation for that history when I was 15 and paid attention more. :confused:

my grandfather was a Tipper . brush painted them used a very fine brush dipped in reducer and would Tip the brush strokes out . old enamel would look like glass .
 
Putting my $.02 in, I know absolutely less than nothing but I was shown to use guide coat to indicate where to stop sanding the clear. Once all the black is gone its flat. Use use it between each grade of paper, try not to get it into seams and leave a little bit next to the body lines . Use it for what's it's worth
 
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