I am in the process of cutting and buffing a new paint job I did myself. I am using a 2000, then 3000 grit pad before buffing with maguiars 105 compound, then maguiars 205 polishing compound. I am using a wool pad on the 105 with a rotary buffer. Switching to a DA polisher with blue pad, firm pad with 205. Questions.. what rpm for the wool pad are you using, what rpm for the DA with foam pad are you using and what compounds are you using to get the paint very correct? Or what suggestions do you have to help me do a better job? Thanks

 

Perhaps my polishing approach will help with a consistent surface in cutting & buffing too. Or not. I’m no expert on body work.

I’ve had good success avoiding swirl marks in waxing/polishing by using a 4 pass pattern with 50% overlap. It works like this.

1st pass side to side. Let’s say driver’s side fender-to- passenger side fender on the hood.
2nd pass fore to aft. On the hood going from front to back. Or back to front. The main thing is that the pattern is 90° off the first pass
3rd pass side to side. Like the first, but maybe opposite - if you went driver’s side to passenger side in Pass1, this time maybe go passenger side to driver’s side.
4th pass aft to fore. Start at the rear center of the hood and go straight forward to the nose of the car. Then work outward on the same aft-fore pattern using straight lines with 50% overlap until you get to the edge of the fenders.

The main idea is that 4 passes in 2 90° separated directions gets you to a consistent surface.

I have no idea if this will help in cutting & buffing, but it works for waxing & polishing to achieve a consistent surface. Hope this helps and is worth further research or testing for you.

I will totally defer to any bodywork professionals who call this a terrible approach. I’m a rank amateur at this stuff.

Chris

 

I stopped using the 105 a while back, can't remember why. Most likely is that, like many other big name compounds, it shined up quickly but dropped off after a couple washings.
Anyway, If you are starting with 2000 and ending with 3000, you may not even need a wool pad. A foam made for compound will be gentler. Wool can sometimes be too aggressive. and leave swirl marks behind that too deep for polish to remove. Try it. I run my buffer at 1600-1800 RPM for first cut.
Then polish at 2000-2400. I still use my buffer with this. Not a fan of DA's unless a newby is trying to polish something. The key here is pressure. Medium, to start, and then lighten up. Be sure the foam is soft enough for liquid polish. I switch to a softer foam after that, to do a final glaze, or swirl remover.
Clean all pads often to prevent build up and ineffective buffing.

 

We wet sanded starting with 600 to 2000 grit then went with medium grit compound with wool pad only using the pressure of the weight of the buffer at medium speed then cleaned the car thoroughly before using a waffle foam pad and perfect it 2 polish. During compound and wool pad really have to pay attention to sharp edges it’s easy to burn the paint if it’s single stage or burn through clear coat. Yes, I have done this before and fixing a burn through is a pain.

 

I've learned to be a pretty decent painter after several car restorations. My professional, painter friend taught me to cut and buff and that's really where the work excels or falls short in my opinion. I put several good coats of good clear coat on so that I can polish it to a very deep shine. There are several ways to do it and several products to use but I'll just share how I do mine.

I start with 600-800 grit sandpaper and use it wet with soapy water. Be careful and take your time. You don't need to press hard....let the water and paper do the work. This will allow you to get all the imperfections and orange peel out of the paint. Once the paint looks like leather and is dull....this step is finished. Then I use the Trizact discs on a long throw palm DA sander. The Trizact discs are nothing short of amazing and make the job easy. I go through all the grits from 1000, 3000, and then 5000. When you are finished with the 5000, the sheen in the paint is starting to return. You can then take a buffer with a wool pad and some 3M rubbing and then polishing compounds to finish it. The results are nothing short of amazing. I like the Trizact system vs. using all the grits of sandpaper. It also leave you much less work with the wool pads which can quickly burn a new paint job if you are proficient with the tool.

These steps will make the paint look like you can step into it and it's super deep. I just had a body and paint professional come over to me at the last Cars and Coffee and told me my paint is some of the best he's ever seen in 30+ years of painting and polishing cars. Anyone can do it...it just takes practice and patience. Good luck.

Here is a link to my 442 that I restored. You can see the paint in the video. Hope that helps!

 

beautiful car.. yea i am using harbor freight trizavt copies. Seems to work good.

 

how fresh is your paint?after paint i usually let it sit for 3-4 weeks before sanding.