sand and polishing paint
 

WE do it a little on the old school way still. We use dry 1200 on a finishing DA and then use the foam 3000 pads wet. Then polish with a Mequires red foam pad then a final buff with a smoother black 3m pad and polish. Take awhile to do ti right but the final outcome is very flat paint with no orange peel. Like glass!!:hail:

what compound do you use? also, got any pis of the finished product?

the only way to get a troy like paint job or other hi end job, is to clear it 2-3 coats, sand it with hard block 600,800, re clear 2 coats, sand 1000,1500,2000 or higher, buff, then polish. clear will get wavy, and sanding with a da will make the clear fat, but will leave fat ladys ass everywhere, been there done that
also the meguirs one creme, 3 pad polish system is killer, as well as carborundum's deal, work s so nice.

3m perfect it ... NO DA ... water sand 1200 - single-stage DuPont Chroma Premier
http://www.competition-specialties.c.../gfiffin30.jpg

The fat lady ass marks are because you are not using the DA correctly. Look under my customers links in my signiture and see flat paint no fat lady ass marks.

I will have to wait to get you the polish numbers at work.

i am not talking about the little swirls the da leaves from the clear clogging the paper, i do not let a da within 100 ft of a cleared hot rod, maybe a in and out collision job.
i can promise a hand cut buff and polish will blow away a da finish any day of the week,

heres my current project.
1200 grit wet sanded with foam pad, cut with 3m perfect it, polished with 3m Finess it.
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...X/HPIM1405.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...X/HPIM1394.jpg

D/A is for lazy slackers,the finish will never be flat,especially when working on a vehicle with many curves where d/a sander will not lay flat,and will never reach in some corners, that's why I use hard rubber block and sanded flat and wrapped in masking tape mixing stick ,when it's all blocked down with 1000,I move up to 1200,1500,2000 and then use Kovax film on soft foam,then I use 3M Perfect-it II rubbing compoind on Meguiars Burgundy cutting pad, I got it dialed in so much that I can buff solid black paint and leave no swirls,the pad has to be broken in though, I've tried recommending my trick to few painters and none of them could get the results I'm getting,lol, it takes alot of patience and knowing your tools,as I never buff at high speed,I start cutting at around 1500 rpms,when I know that all sanding scratches are gone, I turn down the speed all the way down and do 15-20 passes ,pad must be loaded with compound and moist, I'm sure everyone has their own tricks and tecnique ,but it makes me cringe when I see some detailers turn up the speed to 7000 and try to buff with wool garbage,compound slinging all over the place,swirls that have to be sanded out,burnt edges,e.t.c.

Actually I will partially agree and partially disagree with you. Hand sanded cars will look as good as a DA sanded car, with that said you must know I dont DA the entire car. It cant be done. NOBODY is that good. EVer! Now what I do is all the flat areas get DA'd and the curved areas get 1200-1500 depending on paint peel in that region. After that I take the 3000 pad by hand and hand DA it so the paint will polish perfectly without burning thru the clear.

I agree :cheers: