thethee
Senior Member
Recently I painted my 1975 Imperial myself. It was the first time I did something like that so while I'm super happy with the results, the finish could be better. There's bugs, dust, overspray, and orange peel. It was recommended to me that with wetsand, cut, and buff the finish could probably be greatly improved. These things are also completely new to me so I started reading up on them online and that's when I got a little lost...
So I thougth it best to seek some advice from the hive mind that is FCBO.
For now, what I understand is that I should sand the orange peel out starting with 1500 grit then 2000 and follow that with maybe 3000. I take it that should be done by hand or can I use a DA? And it's probably best to take out all the peel on the 1500 pass and just refine the surface with the 2000 (and maybe 3000) right? Then after that is clean and dry comes cutting and buffing and as I understand it, that should be done with a machine to get the best results. Aside from what machine to get (there's so much of them) it's a maze of different cutting compounds and polishes. I assume that it doesn't really matter what you get and it's mostly down to preference. But what I would really like to know are the practical things like, how much compound do you typically need for a four door? And how many pads can I expect to go through?
Any and all tips, tricks, pointers, and personal experiences will be appreciated, I'm here to learn. Thanks in advance!
So I thougth it best to seek some advice from the hive mind that is FCBO.
For now, what I understand is that I should sand the orange peel out starting with 1500 grit then 2000 and follow that with maybe 3000. I take it that should be done by hand or can I use a DA? And it's probably best to take out all the peel on the 1500 pass and just refine the surface with the 2000 (and maybe 3000) right? Then after that is clean and dry comes cutting and buffing and as I understand it, that should be done with a machine to get the best results. Aside from what machine to get (there's so much of them) it's a maze of different cutting compounds and polishes. I assume that it doesn't really matter what you get and it's mostly down to preference. But what I would really like to know are the practical things like, how much compound do you typically need for a four door? And how many pads can I expect to go through?
Any and all tips, tricks, pointers, and personal experiences will be appreciated, I'm here to learn. Thanks in advance!