Newbe Help

[DanGeo]

Hi all I am new to the forum and am looking for a little advice from the experts here.

I tackled a small rust area on the rear fender of my Ford van and it turned out better than I thought it would. After fixing the area and priming, I sprayed about 3 coats of paint and about 2 or 3 of clear coat.
If I wasn't detail oriented I would stop there and be happy. My wife says it's fine.

Here is what I would like to fix. The newly painted area is not quite as smooth or shinny as the original paint, and I can see a little line where I had taped the area off (edge of the new clear coat).

What steps could I take and what should I use to give this a nice buffing and polish?
Friends have mentioned "fine cutting polish" but I had a bad experience with rubbing compound once.

Any advice would be appreciated, I am here to learn.

Thanks
Dan

[Mike Phillips]

I sprayed about 3 coats of paint and about 2 or 3 of clear coat.

What steps could I take and what should I use to give this a nice buffing and polish?
Friends have mentioned "fine cutting polish" but I had a bad experience with rubbing compound once.

Any advice would be appreciated, I am here to learn.

Thanks
Dan

Hi Dan,

Since this is your first post to our forum,

Welcome to Autogeek Online!



First a question,

What type of buffer or polisher do you have or are you working by hand?


One more question, how long has the paint been drying?

When using spray can paint you want to make sure it's fully dried and hardened before you start doing any buffing, you want to avoid getting fresh paint hot.

[DanGeo]

The paint has been on going on 2 weeks now.

I don't own an random orbital polisher yet, but I like the idea of that over the hand method. So I am willing to get one.

Thanks Dan

[Mike Phillips]

The paint has been on going on 2 weeks now.

I don't own an random orbital polisher yet, but I like the idea of that over the hand method. So I am willing to get one.

Thanks Dan

Okay, well good and dry is what you want and then a fine cut polish by hand using a foam applicator pad or by machine using a polishing pad and a light touch.


There's lots of fine cut polishes that should work to bring up the gloss of the paint, look at,

• Pinnacle
• Optimum
• Blackfire
• Meguiar's
• Menzerna

Even a good cleaner/wax by hand should help...


You just can't get to aggressive or you're start removing all your hard work.


A DA Polisher is a great investment if you want to take care of your own cars, you can get into a polisher, pads and polishes for about what you would pad for a mediocre detail job plus have the tools into the future.


Check out some of the Thursday Night Clinic Videos as I'm usually showing complete Newbies how to machine polish really cool cars.


Pictures from Autogeek's Car of the Week

[DanGeo]

Do any of the DA Polishers accept both the 3" and 6" backing plates?