Need some reassurance/tips

[Vortech5.0]

Some of you may have seen the project I am tackling in my intro thread. But a quick summary is I repainted my 87 Mustang about 5 weeks ago. At first I thought it turned out ok but now the more I learn and the more I've looked at it I am now disgusted with all of the orange peel. So I'm now in the process of getting rid of all this and hopefully making it look as good as can be. I wanted to run my plan of attack by ya'll and see what ya think. Car is Black. And I'll be using the Makita Rotary and the Porter Cable DA.

1-Wet sand, first with 1500 then 2000 then finish with 3000.

2-Rotary buffer with Megs 7000 red cutting pad and Megs mirror glaze 4 heavy cutting compound.

3-Rotary buffer with same pad (cleaned of course) 3m medium grit compound. I'm not really sure why I bought this stuff but figure if I have it I mine as well use it.

4-Rotary buffer with Megs 9000 finishing pad and Megs mirror glaze 9 swirl remover 2.0

5-Now with a DA polisher and Megs ultimate polish and a white 5.5 ccs pad.

6-I would like to do a glaze but haven't decided on which one yet.

7-And to finish it all off with Megs Black wax or Ultimate liquid wax with a gray or red pad.

Let me know what ya think and see if there are any red flags.

Now for the questions:

1-Are steps 4 and 5 basically the same thing?

2-Is there a time period that I need to wait in between any of steps 5, 6, or 7?

3-Do my pad and compound choices look ok? Knowing what I know now I probably would've gone with the Megs 105 then 205 but I already bought this stuff so I hope its ok.

4-Am I missing anything?

Thanks for all your help!

[EVOlved]

You need more than one pad even for one round on the car, never mind two.

[Vortech5.0]

You need more than one pad even for one round on the car, never mind two.

Thanks for the reminder, I do have multiples of each.

[dcjredline]

I would eliminate step 6 for sure, with all that other stuff you wont need a glaze. Its just to "hide" swirls and you are eliminating them.

Second suggestion is to do a test spot with the Megs 9000/9 combo and see if it works, if not do same test spot with 7000/4.

And go from there.

You are (IMO) doing double or triple the work you will most likely need to do.

[Nth Degree]

Are you measuring the paint? Do you have experience with sanding?

Just be careful that you don't compromise your new paint.

Without knowing what you spent for the paint job and without seeing photos of the orange peel it is hard to say whether the work was below par or your budget didn't match your expectations. Some orange peel is normal and getting a car to a level of no orange peel requires a lot of time and money for the shop. Based upon your post you could spend between 50 & 100 hours or more to do this work yourself if you are doing the sanding by hand. Consider what it would cost you to have the shop do that work. If their hourly rate is $50 then you would be spending an additional $2500 -$5000 based upon those hours. Of course they could probably do it faster, so $1500-$4000 wouldn't be out of the question... on top of what you already paid. Plus, when planning to go to that level there is usually more paint applied to allow for the significant removal of the paint build.

[hernandez.art13]

Instead of the burgundy Meguiar's pad. I would go with a wool pad. I am not sure on Meguiar's color for wool pads, but while working at body shops I never really like foam for compound cut over wool, so I always used 3M wool pad then foamed polishing pad.

Also you can skip 2000 and just go from 1500 to 3000, that's what I always did, but I did start at 1,000. and Although I imagine using 2000 would remove more orange peel. so it might work out.

I have never used those Meguiar's brands. "Megs mirror glaze 4 heavy cutting compound." (copy and pasted what you wrote)

However, M105 and M205 IMO are great...

I've wet sanded 1,000, 1,500, 3000 Then a Dewalt, Wool pad and M105 and it worked great and really easy to remove the sanding marks. I did have the speed up to 1500+ btw.

Side Note: These are suggestions for someone that knows what they are doing in these types of situations. I am not saying you don't Vortech5.0. I've just learned that you always have to be careful with what you say and how you say it.

Either Way Good Luck!
and keep us posted....

Art

[Methodical]

Are you measuring the paint? Do you have experience with sanding?

Just be careful that you don't compromise your new paint.

Without knowing what you spent for the paint job and without seeing photos of the orange peel it is hard to say whether the work was below par or your budget didn't match your expectations. Some orange peel is normal and getting a car to a level of no orange peel requires a lot of time and money for the shop. Based upon your post you could spend between 50 & 100 hours or more to do this work yourself if you are doing the sanding by hand. Consider what it would cost you to have the shop do that work. If their hourly rate is $50 then you would be spending an additional $2500 -$5000 based upon those hours. Of course they could probably do it faster, so $1500-$4000 wouldn't be out of the question... on top of what you already paid. Plus, when planning to go to that level there is usually more paint applied to allow for the significant removal of the paint build.

Yep, I agree. I, too, would not blindly give advice without knowing how the vehicle was painted, how much paint and clear was laid down. There's a shop I've dealt with and they do all the sanding to get the paint like glass, but the paint job cost more though. I don't want to deal with it and would leave it to them to do.

[Billy B]

Try the car pro. Denim and velvet pads. Much more forgiving than sanding. Unless you have alot of experience wet sanding that's the route I would take. You'll be amazed at the finishing capabilities of these disks

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using AG Online

[Vortech5.0]

I would eliminate step 6 for sure, with all that other stuff you wont need a glaze. Its just to "hide" swirls and you are eliminating them.

Second suggestion is to do a test spot with the Megs 9000/9 combo and see if it works, if not do same test spot with 7000/4.

And go from there.

You are (IMO) doing double or triple the work you will most likely need to do.

Thanks I will definitely give it a try, anything to make it easier.

[Vortech5.0]

Are you measuring the paint? Do you have experience with sanding?

Just be careful that you don't compromise your new paint.

Without knowing what you spent for the paint job and without seeing photos of the orange peel it is hard to say whether the work was below par or your budget didn't match your expectations. Some orange peel is normal and getting a car to a level of no orange peel requires a lot of time and money for the shop. Based upon your post you could spend between 50 & 100 hours or more to do this work yourself if you are doing the sanding by hand. Consider what it would cost you to have the shop do that work. If their hourly rate is $50 then you would be spending an additional $2500 -$5000 based upon those hours. Of course they could probably do it faster, so $1500-$4000 wouldn't be out of the question... on top of what you already paid. Plus, when planning to go to that level there is usually more paint applied to allow for the significant removal of the paint build.

I actually did all the prep work and painted it myself. I took a community education auto body class and did it all there. I do have a little experience sanding and with a rotary. It has 3 coats of clear on it. I know I won't get show car quality out of it but I am willing to put in as much elbow grease as needed to make it look good.

[parttimer]

Sure seems like lots of compounding steps. Why not after sanding go to Menz 400 or Uber on a DA? Both of those are more than capable of removing like 1500 grit sanding marks so if you finish with 3000 either of those should be fine. Same holds true with M105. I'm thinking 3 steps after you sand:
Uber then the twins
Menz 400, 2500, 4500
M105, 205 and Ultimate Polish.

Heck, you could probable do 2500 and 4500 with the Menz.

[Vortech5.0]

Instead of the burgundy Meguiar's pad. I would go with a wool pad. I am not sure on Meguiar's color for wool pads, but while working at body shops I never really like foam for compound cut over wool, so I always used 3M wool pad then foamed polishing pad.

Also you can skip 2000 and just go from 1500 to 3000, that's what I always did, but I did start at 1,000. and Although I imagine using 2000 would remove more orange peel. so it might work out.

I have never used those Meguiar's brands. "Megs mirror glaze 4 heavy cutting compound." (copy and pasted what you wrote)

However, M105 and M205 IMO are great...

I've wet sanded 1,000, 1,500, 3000 Then a Dewalt, Wool pad and M105 and it worked great and really easy to remove the sanding marks. I did have the speed up to 1500+ btw.

Side Note: These are suggestions for someone that knows what they are doing in these types of situations. I am not saying you don't Vortech5.0. I've just learned that you always have to be careful with what you say and how you say it.

Either Way Good Luck!
and keep us posted....

Art

Thank you for your suggestions they really help. I will definitely look into a wool pad, I know one came with my makita buffer I got whether its a good one or not I'll look into it. And maybe I'll just get some m105 and m205, why not.

[Vortech5.0]

So I ordered some M105 and 205 yesterday, why not. If I hit the 105 with the rotary, do you think I can get away with the 205 on the DA? Or would I still need to use the rotary for that step? Of course I'd rather use the DA if I can so I have less of a chance of screwing something up. Thanks

[hernandez.art13]

After 105 on the Rotary and your happy with the results.

I would start with doing test spots. 205 is very capable of finishing out really nicely on a DA.

But maybe you can polish using 205 and polishing pad on the rotary. Then switch to the DA to get even nicer results. I'm a big fan of jeweling too.

I would:
Rotary, wool pad - 105
Rotary, polishing pad - 205
then
DA polishing pad - 205
DA Waxing pad - 205

Also, start at higher speeds on the wool pad and more aggressive pressure. Then each step start slowing down you speed and pressure.

and that's if you have a healthy amount of clear coat.

Side Note:
(these are just suggestions for a healthy amount of resprayed CC)

[hernandez.art13]

sorry for the side notes in parentheses, but people sometimes give me a hard time for giving out advice to someone that might not know what they are doing.

We all had to start somewhere :)