Compounding, buffing, polishing and making shiney!

[Guest]

The paint job I'm doing is still kicking my butt ( old clear coat ran a bit on the tank and I ran out of it before finishing, a fresh painted side panel got dropped on the ground etc etc.) but I have fresh clearcoat and am going to finish the paint sometime this week.

I understand to get the most out of the clearcoat shine the paint needs to cure and then be compounded and buffed out. I have never really taken that step as the one or two times I tried I buggered it up.

My questions now are:

1) How long should the paint cure before the next stage?
2) what products should be used? I think a "rubbing" compound would be too coarse. Is a "polishing" compound the right thing? Liquid or paste or?
3) What's the preferred technique. Hand rubbing or machine? If machine what kind of speed?

Any tips or tricks to get that 'show" shine?

The bike is black by the way and I understand this is the worst colour to try and keep free of swirl marks. I s that right?

As always, all information is appreciated.

Cheers,
spyug

[tkent02]

Wet sand with very fine wet or dry paper, 1500 or 2000? Tear and fold the paper over twice so you have a little square, maybe 2" across. Keep it very wet. Sand in little circles. Have a water bottle in your hand or better yet a slowly trickling hose. Listen to it, if the sandpaper whistles, there is a microscopic rock under it, rinse it off. If you sand until the finish is dull on about half of the surface, still shiny on the other half that is the right depth, don't sand until it's all dull or you could go too deep in a few places. You don't want to go through the clearcoat anywhere, just barely into it. What you are doing is getting rid of any waviness, lumps, or tiny orange peels, and breaking the "skin" on the paint so it can all be polished to a uniform shine. It will also fix flaws from little insect's feet or whatever.

Then use polish, it will bring out an incredible shine. I use the 3M professional stuff, can't remember the name right now. You might practice on some other painted surface first, if you haven't painted yet shoot an old crappy side cover or something extra to practice on.

Your paint will have info about how long to wait before doing this. Maybe a month? Actually maybe not it depends on the catalysts. Some modern paints say they don't need this step to be done, but it will look a lot better.

And I have not tried this on the paint that is advertised as "self healing" for scratches, not sure about that although the guy who sold us the paint said it would work.

Actually you should practice on the side cover you dropped in the dirt, see how this works and get good at it. Then sand it down and repaint it if needed.

[Nunzio]

I use DuPont Chroma clear and I can paint, wait a day, then wet sand and buff. Hopefully you have a good 3 coats of clear on there.
I've even done it in 12 hrs.

I use 1200 wet paper and then, follow with 3m Imperial hand glaze and a wool pad. Then follow with a foam pad and 3m finest it.

Buffing is critical and not for the faint of heart. You can easily melt through the clear in your first attempt. It is hard to teach how to do this stuff in a forum. You just have to do it, make mistakes and learn from those.

[Nessism]

As the others have said, it's reall easy to cut though the clear so I recommend doing the minimum amount of sanding you can get away with. Using a rubber block will help you smooth out the run and take down any dirt pimples. As for the compound, stay away from that dimestore Dupont crap and look at 3M, Meguire's, or Mother's brands. They sell various grades, from heavy cutting to removing swirls, so you need to pay attention and get the right stuff.

[Dave8338]

I use DuPont Chroma clear and I can paint, wait a day, then wet sand and buff. Hopefully you have a good 3 coats of clear on there.
I've even done it in 12 hrs.

I use 1200 wet paper and then, follow with 3m Imperial hand glaze and a wool pad. Then follow with a foam pad and 3m finest it.

Buffing is critical and not for the faint of heart. You can easily melt through the clear in your first attempt. It is hard to teach how to do this stuff in a forum. You just have to do it, make mistakes and learn from those.

My new favorite! The stuff is hard and shiny.
Easy to spray, also.

GREAT LOOKING job there, ready for the show circuit!

[chef1366]

Oh, I thought it said huffing.
Never mind







Subscribed.

[chuck hahn]

just stay away from the lead based paints Bill.