The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop color sanding and compound buffing

Hey guys - I'm in the middle of color sanding the 'burb and will soon move to the compounding stage. I'm using 1500 paper with an dense sponge block and a real light touch just enough to take out the dust and other high stuff not going to sweat the orange peel for a super mirror finish. What I found is, it takes a hell of alot of elbow grease to make the 3M Perfect- It cut the scratches. I'm very reluctant to move to a buffer as with all those curves, welting and mouldings, I'm sure to zip it down to primer or worse. Any suggestions for an more aggressive compound or buffing style?

Hello partnter 3m makes another coarse cut ,part#05936 works way faster than the regular.dont be scared of the buffer,just keep it farly flat and moving good luck!

Sanderson, if your not well versed in wetsand and buffing, go to 2000 wetsand after 1500 it will help a lot, you may have let it cure more then you should have before buffing it!

Another dumb question. What is color sanding and why? Weeds

Sanderson, you DO need to be careful on the interior (concave) curves. I gouged through a bit but my paint was by no means pristine so I didn't worry about it.

I would highly reccomend using foam pads on your buffer as opposed to the sheepskin style, they are much more forgiving on corners, curves and such and seem to do a much cleaner job. I like the Meguiars dual action cleaner/polish, not super aggressive but pulls out the shine quickly.
As bodiman suggested make sure your paint is cured well.

As Bent stated the 05936 is the stuff to use initially but don't forget to follow up with one of the Perfect-It glazes when you're done compounding. The glaze you use will depend on the color of your paint, no kidding. If you're tired of color sanding here's another time saver. 3M makes a system called Hookit that allows you to use ultra fine sanding discs on your da sander. They even make a Trizact Hookit that is 3000 grit, that's right 3000! Amazingly enough the 3000 does actually cut although you can't feel the grit. ANyway, the point is that with this system you will be able to color sand to a finer grit faster than you're able to hand sand to 1500. The finer grit you use the faster the buffing will be.

Joe

foam pad and the proper compound is what you want to use