1971 GTO - Wetsand, Cut and Buff

[Mike Phillips]

1971 GTO - Wetsand, Cut and Buff

About a week ago we had a 1971 GTO that had just been freshly painted dropped off at our studio for use as a demo car for our Saturday Detailing 102 Class which goes over wetsanding by hand and by machine and then how to use a rotary buffer to cut and polish the paint.


Here's that thread,


Pictures & Comments from July 10th, 2011 Sunday Detailing 102 - Advanced Class

Instead of using demo hoods we have an actual car. It was painted Wednesday night and has a lot of orange peel which should really give our students a great experience learning how to hand sand and machine dampsand.

The students from that class did an awesome job of sanding and buffing the paint and more importantly learned the techniques required to undertake a full wetsanding project especially with a car that had extreme orange peel

The goal of the class is not to make each person an expert, that's not realistic in a one=day class. The goal is to bring up each person's comfort level with the terms, products and techniques used for wetsanding paint and using rotary buffers.

Trying to go from incredibly horrendous orange peel to a show car finish in 6-7 hours with a group of people that are all new to the wetsanding process is a worthy goal but realistically, after the class there was still a lot of sanding to the lower panels left to do and a thorough compounding to make sure all the sanding marks have been removed.

Over the weekend I finished all the sanding, cutting and polishing and I'm happy to say the horrendous orange peel has been removed, the paint polished to a high gloss and she's ready to be returned to the owner. Here's a few pictures before the car leaves today...

















next...

[Mike Phillips]

If you have a full blown wetsanding project coming up or if you once in a while need to sand out some minor defects, I can't recommend enough the Griot's Garage 3" Mini Polisher for doing spot sanding.

The tool has plenty enough power to maintain good pad rotation using the Meguiar's 3" Unigrit sanding and finishing discs. We used the 3" Mini Polisher extensively for thin panels and tight areas.

Of course we used full size DA Polishers as DA Sanders plus the 3M Orbital Air Sander for all the major flat panels.


Dampsanding with 3" Griot's Garage Mini Polisher


Dampsanding
This is a match made in car detailing heaven. This mini dual action polisher works flawlessly as a 3" dampsander. It makes sanding close to edges safe and easy. It makes sanding small thin panels faster and easier.

With this combination of polisher and 3" sanding disc with an interface pad for conforming to the shape of the panel you can quickly and easily sand out a minor or small defect with surgical precision in an isolated area with only a small footprint.


Dampsanding
This is a match made in car detailing heaven. This mini dual action polisher works flawlessly as a 3" dampsander. It makes sanding close to edges safe and easy. It makes sanding small thin panels faster and easier.

With this combination of polisher and 3" sanding disc with an interface pad for conforming to the shape of the panel you can quickly and easily sand out a minor or small defect with surgical precision in an isolated area with only a small footprint.










Removing Sanding Marks
The Griot's Garage 3" Mini Polisher is also able to rotate the Meguiar's microfiber discs. This is a 3" microfiber cutting disc removing #3000 Unigrit dampsanding marks.

It works but it's so much faster and effective to learn how to use a rotary buffer if you're going to sand down and buff out an entire car. If you're just doing spot repair then it's doable.







Here's a few pictures from our most recent Wetsanding Class, the pictures kind of tell the story...

[guess23959]

it needs some chrome! looks good in the garage and i know im gonna be gawking when its done.

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Nice! What speed was being you used on the 3" for damp sanding?

[ohmy34]

Great turn around on the gto! Theirs a lot of satafaction in make one go from hopeless to show quality. When people look at it they think it came out that way, but they have know idea of what it took to get it to look like that.
i am fixing to paint a 57 pickup an will be going through the same process, but i will do all the wet sanding buy hand. Because i dont trust my self with a machine after i get that far. I like the feel when you get the orange peel sanded out, an the slickiness you get when its gone.
Somebody will be very happy with the car when they pick it up. Would love to see a picture of the expression on their face when they see it.

jonathan

[Mike Phillips]

it needs some chrome! looks good in the garage and i know im gonna be gawking when its done.

The owner told me the next thing on the schedule is for the interior to be redone and all the exterior chrome and trim installed.

Nice! What speed was being you used on the 3" for damp sanding?

Speed setting 6 all the time.

The Griot's 3" Mini Polisher is really a tool every detailer should have in his tool chest, it's just so fast and easy to remove an isolated defect and then buff out your sanding marks. As long as you finish out with the #3000 grit disc buffing out the sanding marks is so simple even a Caveman could do it.


You want and need the 3" interface pad...

Meguiars Unigrit 3 Inch Foam Interface Pad

Meguiars Unigrit 3 Inch Finishing Discs

Great turn around on the gto! Theirs a lot of satafaction in make one go from hopeless to show quality.

This GTO actually deserved a better paint job but that's not my business. I've never see such a bad paint job with so much orange peel in my entire life.

Somebody will be very happy with the car when they pick it up. Would love to see a picture of the expression on their face when they see it.

jonathan

I'll let you know how it goes... the GTO was supposed to be picked up today but there was a schedule conflict so tomorrow is the parting date.

[BobbyG]

You've got to love the classics!! Gorgeous Mike!!

[sullysdetailing]

Great job, I want to get the 3'' Griots Garage DA so I can use it to sand headlights

[Mike Phillips]

We've moved the GTO out into the sun for the owner to see when he picks it up. While it's out there I took a few shots, will post more and try to take a quick video too...











More later...

[DLaw]

Amazing transformation! Zero to Hero!!