Can someone point me to a color sanding and buffing tutorial

[AmadeusCharger500]

Does anyone  know of a well organized tutorial on color sanding and buffing.
Covering the stages from just after applying clear, to the final stage.
I have recolored and cleared my trunk lid, 73 charger. I put 3 coats of clear on.
It came out great until I started color sanding. I started with 1000, then 2000 ,then 3000. Then I used maguiars ultra cut compound with a wool pad. I did about half the trunk lid at a time. Then inspected and found still too much orange peel.

I went through the whole process about 4 times through and I'm still seeing a little orange peel and some white compound stuck in sections. I get the feeling I am missing something that is either critical or time saving.
I also have no clue how to cut and buff the edges of the trunk and the sail panel without burning or cutting through the paint.
Any info would be great.

Everything on you tube simply states the same process I went through and "ta da your done!". Not my experience so far.

[DAY CLONA]

Sounds to me you have a heavy orange peel, and really didn't cut the paint completely flat...


Here's what I do, depending on how bad the orange peel is, I start with 800 grit paper (I prefer 3M) I use a spray bottle with a little mild dishsoap added to make sanding slick, I use a hard rubber block (2"x4"x 1/2" approx) to back the paper, set up a bright light to high light the paints surface at an angle, wet the surface, and sand at a 45 degree angle against the panels body lines, sand a 12"X12" section in one 45 degree direction, then re-sand that same 12"X12" section 45 degrees in the opposite direction, so that you now have basically sanded an X formation, keep the area wet at all times with your spray bottle, have a bucket of fresh water to rinse your block/paper off often, change out paper as needed, use a piece of wiper blade rubber to squeegee the water/residue off the sanded area making it dry, if under the light you still see areas of gloss, you either need to step down to 600 grit if your barely making a "dent" in the paint, or your "touch" is a bit too light, you'll need to experiment with initial starting grits to see what best removes just the right amount of topcoat mat'l to flatten the paint/clearcoat, anything after that is just colorsanding to remove the previous sand scratches at the micro level, but generally 800 to 1000 to 1200 to 1500 to 2000 to 2500 is what I finish with, black or very dark colors need to go to 3000, after that no wool bonnet or compound, just a foam bonnet and polish, I like the Finess-it line of polish from 3M

As far as edges or hard body lines, I sand up to them, but NEVER sand the actual edge as you will burn thru either sanding or polishing

Sometimes in tight areas like the top of a door where the painted area is very narrow, I'll use a wooden paint stir stick or large medical grade wooden tongue depressor to back the paper, and sand in short 45 degree angle opposite the body/panel line, never sand without a hard flat surface behind the paper, I know there's some point where it's just impossible to sand without the paper being flexible, but try and avoid using your hand/palm or fingers when sanding to assure yourself of a nice flat cut surface

FYI...fresh paint I generally like to cure a month before colorsanding, cut it too soon, and as the paint gases out later it will re-orange peel later, light colors might hide that fact, but dark/black colors will show it

Mike


This A12 RR I painted had enough orange peel the owner was worried initially, as he wanted a glass/wet looking finish, but after a few days starting with 800 working up to 3000, it was slick. flat and wet looking after just a polish using a foam bonnet, no compound

[AmadeusCharger500]

Great info, thanks Day Clona.
It sounds like I have been a bit too light with my courser grits. I also have not figured out how to tell when is enough sanding before going the the next higher level grit. Basically I was just going over a small area once, in an x pattern like you mentioned, and then moving to the next higher grit.

Ok now This bit about the foam bonnet and polish. I've not heard this before skipping the wool pad/ compound. Do you still use a machine polisher with the foam or somehow you do it by hand?

[hemi-hampton]

On certain show cars I've started with 600 grit & a hard rubber block but to do this you better have 4 or more coats of clear because 3 wont be enough. A high solids thicker clear would need less coats then a thinner clear. LEON.

[Laowho]

We're a long way from paint, but that hasn't stopped me from watchin plenty of "your friend, my friend, Pete."

https://www.youtube.com/user/diyautoschool/videos

Plenty at his channel to take or leave, and I know he's covered this.

[DAY CLONA]

Great info, thanks Day Clona.
It sounds like I have been a bit too light with my courser grits. I also have not figured out how to tell when is enough sanding before going the the next higher level grit. Basically I was just going over a small area once, in an x pattern like you mentioned, and then moving to the next higher grit.

Ok now This bit about the foam bonnet and polish. I've not heard this before skipping the wool pad/ compound. Do you still use a machine polisher with the foam or somehow you do it by hand?

As I mentioned above, the first cut you do, somewhere in the 600-800 grit range (if the orange peel is that bad) is the major cut to flatten and remove the gloss from the paint, I never work an area larger than 12"X12" before moving on, the first grit cut has to flatten the paint both in texture and gloss, anything after that with finer grades is to remove the micro scratches and minute random peel craters from the previous grit used...
so use a bright light to highlight the area being sanded WET so that when you squeegee it dry as I mentioned above you can see any gloss left behind, if your grit or touch is too light, you'll see gloss streaks or multiable craters where the orange peel is still present, you'll need your judgement as to whether it desires more blocking with the same grit, or if it's so minimal that the next grit pass will remove it

As far as the foam bonnet/pad that's the pad you'll use on a machine buffer to POLISH a finish it's much more gentle than a wool bonnet/pad esp on edges/hard bodylines, you don't need to compound a car if you've basically "polished" the paint by taking it to a 2500-3000 grit finish, compounding a body is done by those who want to blow the job out with no effort, back in the day a basic paint "custom/showcar" paint job was cut with 230, then 320 grit, then had the balls compounded off of it, followed by a polish/swirl removal pass...nowadays the paint (BC/CC) is IMHO  more delicate in the finishing technique to achieve a flat wet look finish that one has to put in the time to colorsand a car properly, there's no fast cuts/short cuts, just hard and long work if perfection is what you desire

Mike

[Laowho]

Great info, thanks Day Clona.

Yeah, thx in advance from us too. Marked for a year or two down the road.

[AKcharger]

Here...also how to install stripes too!
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,63762.msg712691.html#msg712691