First time wetsanding clearcoat.....ooops!

[Rover]

Unless I am mistaken,the colorrite system does not want you to sand the clearcoat. It is the final coat,no need to sand if applied properly.

[Nessism]

Unless I am mistaken,the colorrite system does not want you to sand the clearcoat. It is the final coat,no need to sand if applied properly.

In a perfect world there would be no buffers.

[jbird7262]

@ Rover, "no need to sand if done properly", whats properly?? I've painted in $50,000 downdraft boothes and homemade "spray rooms", you will ALWAYS get some sort of trash, imperfections, lint, hair, flying critters, airborne contaminates, dust, dirt, solvent pop, and if you want a glass like, show car finish then you will be color sanding and buffing, either to flatten the finish or knock down the nibs so you can buff it, unless your happy with the out of the gun texture. I have sprayed thousands of vehicals in the collision industry and maybe 20% got a light sand and polish, most people don't even see the imperfections, but as the painter, I know they are there, I will go the extra mile to put that quality into my work, even if there is not $$$ to be made, because thats my work out there, I'm proud of what I can do, why not draw attention to it? Every bike I paint gets hit with a buffer, It's like glass when its done, it becomes habit and if I don't do it then I wonder if somebody will comment on the finish product.

[tkent02]

In a perfect world there would be no damage to fix.

[Buffalo Bill]

@ Rover, "no need to sand if done properly", whats properly?? I've painted in $50,000 downdraft boothes and homemade "spray rooms", you will ALWAYS get some sort of trash, imperfections, lint, hair, flying critters, airborne contaminates, dust, dirt, solvent pop, and if you want a glass like, show car finish then you will be color sanding and buffing, either to flatten the finish or knock down the nibs so you can buff it, unless your happy with the out of the gun texture. I have sprayed thousands of vehicals in the collision industry and maybe 20% got a light sand and polish, most people don't even see the imperfections, but as the painter, I know they are there, I will go the extra mile to put that quality into my work, even if there is not $$$ to be made, because thats my work out there, I'm proud of what I can do, why not draw attention to it? Every bike I paint gets hit with a buffer, It's like glass when its done, it becomes habit and if I don't do it then I wonder if somebody will comment on the finish product.

I like your attitude.

[growler]

On the directions from Colorrite it clearly stated wetsanding after 5 days, buffing after 7.

Since this was my first time painting anything besides paper and fabric, I made a mistake that I'm going to have to fix at some point. I was very lightly buffing (slowest setting on my buffer, pretty darn slow) and I guess a spot got too warm and the clearcoat burned off. I'll be fixing it sometime when I don't have so much going on. Overall it looks a million times better, and is ready to be back out on the road again. Who knows, it may get dropped again.

[jbird7262]

Yep, keep that buffer moving, friction=heat, all fixable though. Keep up the good work.

[Nessism]

What kind of buffer did you use? A conventional rotating buffer is quite powerful so you need to be very careful if you use one or you can cut through. I have a full size buffer/polisher but don't use it for motorcycle part work. Instead I picked up a cheap Harbor Freight DA polisher. It's hard to damage your paint with one of those things. It's slow, but still plenty fast enough in my opinion since motorcycle parts are quite small. I wouldn't want to have to use it to polish a car though.

[growler]

Hah you describe exactly what happened. I went out Saturday and picked up a 7" buffer at Harbor Freight (I won't be doing this kind of work often, so I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a buffer) and then picked up my Meguiar's Medium Cut, Fine Cut, and Glaze.

Came home feeling good about everything, prepared to go slow and work smart. I knew that burning the clearcoat and or paint was a possibility, as I watched waaay too many YouTube videos on buffing clearcoat.

Alas, I had the 7" going on the 1st setting, and with the curves and lines of the fairing I must have not held it perfectly parallel to the surface and sure enough, I have two burn marks. I think everyone on my block heard me cursing for a minute. I was totally defeated all afternoon and ****ed off. So I went back to Harbor Freight, returned the 7" and got a smaller handheld trigger polisher for the smaller spaces. I wanted to smack myself for not thinking of that in the first place.

I buffed and polished the other two pieces and things look ok. Not great, not awful. The two other pieces are not focal points, so it makes it a little bit easier to look at it. Bottom line, it looks so much better than it did. I can always go back and repaint that piece since I have leftover paint. I'd like to do that as soon as our weather stops being so rainy and humid.

Thanks for the help. I'll be better next time.

What kind of buffer did you use? A conventional rotating buffer is quite powerful so you need to be very careful if you use one or you can cut through. I have a full size buffer/polisher but don't use it for motorcycle part work. Instead I picked up a cheap Harbor Freight DA polisher. It's hard to damage your paint with one of those things. It's slow, but still plenty fast enough in my opinion since motorcycle parts are quite small. I wouldn't want to have to use it to polish a car though.

[posplayr]

Hah you describe exactly what happened. I went out Saturday and picked up a 7" buffer at Harbor Freight (I won't be doing this kind of work often, so I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a buffer) and then picked up my Meguiar's Medium Cut, Fine Cut, and Glaze.

Came home feeling good about everything, prepared to go slow and work smart. I knew that burning the clearcoat and or paint was a possibility, as I watched waaay too many YouTube videos on buffing clearcoat.

Alas, I had the 7" going on the 1st setting, and with the curves and lines of the fairing I must have not held it perfectly parallel to the surface and sure enough, I have two burn marks. I think everyone on my block heard me cursing for a minute. I was totally defeated all afternoon and ****ed off. So I went back to Harbor Freight, returned the 7" and got a smaller handheld trigger polisher for the smaller spaces. I wanted to smack myself for not thinking of that in the first place.

I buffed and polished the other two pieces and things look ok. Not great, not awful. The two other pieces are not focal points, so it makes it a little bit easier to look at it. Bottom line, it looks so much better than it did. I can always go back and repaint that piece since I have leftover paint. I'd like to do that as soon as our weather stops being so rainy and humid.

Thanks for the help. I'll be better next time.

So which polisher are you buying from HF? I have a big variable speed 1/2" drill but you have to make sure everything is secure before letting loose with that.

[Nessism]

I use this one. Just a DA, not a rotating polisher. It's not very powerful but seems to work fine though. No issue bringing back the gloss on color sanded paint...

[posplayr]

I use this one. Just a DA, not a rotating polisher. It's not very powerful but seems to work fine though. No issue bringing back the gloss on color sanded paint...

I guess I'll just ask for DA at the store.


This looks like the same thing but with the top name brand is hand tools.

http://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-compact-palm-polisher-90219.html

[glib]

@ Rover, "no need to sand if done properly", whats properly?? I've painted in $50,000 downdraft boothes and homemade "spray rooms", you will ALWAYS get some sort of trash, imperfections, lint, hair, flying critters, airborne contaminates, dust, dirt, solvent pop, and if you want a glass like, show car finish then you will be color sanding and buffing, either to flatten the finish or knock down the nibs so you can buff it, unless your happy with the out of the gun texture. I have sprayed thousands of vehicals in the collision industry and maybe 20% got a light sand and polish, most people don't even see the imperfections, but as the painter, I know they are there, I will go the extra mile to put that quality into my work, even if there is not $$$ to be made, because thats my work out there, I'm proud of what I can do, why not draw attention to it? Every bike I paint gets hit with a buffer, It's like glass when its done, it becomes habit and if I don't do it then I wonder if somebody will comment on the finish product.

^^^My thinking!

[growler]

The guy at the paint store I bought the compounds from told me to stay away from a DA. Who knows.

I ended up with this:

http://www.harborfreight.com/3-inch-pneumatic-polisher-kit-99934.html

[Nessism]

Using a DA sort of outs you as an amateur. Most pros I've seen use rotating buffers. A DA is a lot safer from burn-through though. It's slower but so what.