Little Deuce Coupe - Hotrod Detailing

[Mike Phillips]

Here's the hood, sanded, cut and finished.

Three tools, 2 products.

[Chris@AutoCleanse]

Here's the hood, sanded, cut and finished.

Three tools, 2 products.

So what 3 tools and 2 products did you use?

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Looking good so far Mike!! I will be glued on here watching to see what happens with this classic street rod.

So what 3 tools and 2 products did you use?

If you remember from last weeks thread where Mike commented he had a street rod coming in to use the new proto-type Flex machine on.

For the new product im guessing one of them is from the thread where Nick was polishing the side of Mike's truck.

We will have to stay tuned to see what is realeased!

I have a really nice 1932 Ford Streetrod coming in on Monday for a show car detail using the new Flex Polisher. I'll post a picture of the car when it arrives and then Bob gave me permission to show the tool the week before SEMA.

Stay tuned....

[Mike Phillips]

If you remember from last weeks thread where Mike commented he had a street rod coming in to use the new proto-type Flex machine on.

For the new product im guessing one of them is from the thread where Nick was polishing the side of Mike's truck.

Give the man a cigar....

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Give the man a cigar....

[guess23959]

hey mike, quick question: is the wax and grease remover a good or bad substitute for compounding to remove old wax before applying new? why or why not? thx in advance!

[Mike Phillips]

hey mike, quick question: is the wax and grease remover a good or bad substitute for compounding to remove old wax before applying new? why or why not? thx in advance!

Not a good substitute in my opinion. But I'm not going straight to compound I'm going to machine wet sanding.

Was a little surprised at how much gunk I removed as this towel was for the most part fairly consistently blue before I started.









I was just following my own advice in post #5 of this thread,

Damp Sanding Tools, Tips and Techniques by Mike Phillips

Chemically Strip Paint

Important: You don’t want any chemical substance bonded onto the surface to come off while sanding as it can interfere with the cutting process, load up on the face of your sanding disc and cause your disc to wear-out prematurely.

Common products for chemically stripping the finish include Prep-All, Orderless Mineral Spirits, Automotive All Purpose Cleaners, Isopropyl Alcohol.

You can dampen a microfiber towel and wipe the surface clean or use a spray bottle with a chemical resistant spray head to spray directly onto the surface and then wipe the paint dry using clean microfiber towels.


Prep-All

Most sanding discs on the market, at least all the high quality sanding discs are a tick on the expensive side at least compared to generic wet/dry sandpaper.

Before I start machine sanding I simply want to follow good good protocols or you could use the term best practice and that's to remove any waxes, silicones, polymers, etc.

Next I mechanically decontaminated the paint using the Nanoskin products and after using Nanoskin products both by hand and machine I wiped the entire car down with a 12% dilution of IPA to remove any residues left by this process.

After that... the paint was ready to sand. I've taken lots of pictures to show the entire process. Anyone attending Mobil Tech Expo will probably see pictures of this car in at least three of my classes, the Flex 3401 class, the new Flex tool class and machine sanding.

I have pictures of the new Flex tool in action on this car and I really like it. I'll share the pictures the week before SEMA.

I also really like this new Menzerna product, I think they're going to hit a home run with this product.

Back to work.... need to get this car finished today and it takes extra time to set up for pictures when working by yourself. Basically I have the camera on a tripod, I frame up the shot and then press the shutter button and then run, (as good as I can run), to the car, grab whatever the tool is and get to work before the shutter click.





Good question, thank you for asking.

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

hey mike, quick question: is the wax and grease remover a good or bad substitute for compounding to remove old wax before applying new? why or why not? thx in advance!

If you are only trying to remove an old wax, starting with the least aggressive method such as CarPro Eraser would be safer than using Prep All.

I would only use Prep All as a last resort as long as a good polishing session follows suit. Remember, there are no lubrication agents in Prep All.

[Tato]

Dear Mike. Thanks for answering.

In fact, my question was the following:

May I use a Trizact #5000 disc with the 3401 for sanding? My plan is to use a sanding interface in 6" and the 5000 6" disc, to sand with the 3401.

Do you have any tip for this proceed? Sorry, I don't have a PC anymore for sanding, just a Flex and Rupes.

Thank you very much in advance.

Kind Regards.

[Mike Phillips]

Dear Mike. Thanks for answering.

In fact, my question was the following:

May I use a Trizact #5000 disc with the 3401 for sanding? My plan is to use a sanding interface in 6" and the 5000 6" disc, to sand with the 3401.

You'll never guess.... I have an article on this with some really good pictures showing what happens when you machine wet sand with the Flex 3401


Can the Flex 3401 be used to wetsand?


Here's the deal though.... when I did the above testing and then wrote the above article it was before 3M introduced their #5000 Trizact sanding discs.

In the above article the question and answer were,

Question: Does the Flex 3401 work to machine wetsand?

Answer: Yes.

Then I added a comment to go with my answer,

My comments...
Would I use it to sand down a car? Not as long as I had a PC type DA Polisher available or a air powered orbital sander. Just too aggressive feeling for my risk taking level.

I would still choose any Porter Cable style or air powered DA sander before using the Flex 3401 to sand Automotive paint UNLESS that was all I had. I'm a huge advocate of machine sanding over hand sanding and with the #5000 Trizact, it's such a safe sanding disc I think a person would be pretty safe to use it with a Flex 3401 and get better results than hand sanding any day.

It would help to be very experienced with both the Flex 3401 and sanding, especially if the project at hand is a car with a factory thin finish.

Do you have any tip for this proceed?

Sure, here's 9 tips off the top of my head...

1. Stick with the lower speeds, between 1-3 on the Flex 3401.
2. Definitely use a interface pad.
3. If using 3M Trizact brand use a few drops of car wash soap in your spray bottle of water.
4. If using Meguiar's Unigrit the do not recommend using car was soap and the lubricating is built into the medium that embodies the abrasives.
5. Tape off any raised body lines and edges.
6. Focus on the task at hand.
7. Sand for 6-8 passes and then inspect. #5000 sands pretty NON-aggressively but it is incredibly safe. If you 're going after some major defect you might want to start with #3000 first but be uber careful.
8. Of course it goes without saying, wash the vehicle first.
9. If the paint needs to be clayed then mechanically decontaminate the paint instead of wasting expensive sanding disc to sand the contaminants off.